Statistics are usually collected on based on three categories: Offenses, the breach of law; Offenders, those who commit the offenses; and the victims, the ones who are offended against. The United States has programs in which they collect this data; the first is the Uniform Crime Reports, which is compiled by the FBI and the Crime Victimization Survey, handled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Crime statistics for the same crime can vary based on not just between countries and jurisdictions, but also between individual law enforcement officers that have come across the same exact case. There are some crimes that are reported to law enforcement but are not reported because the law enforcement officer that takes the report has the power of discretion. They have the ability to affect how much crime is recorded, based on how they record their activities.
Another group included 40 sex offenders, who induced crimes such as rape, paedophilia and sexual assaults. Their mean age varied from 41 for the paedophiles down to 28 for the other assaults. The last group of 20 had committed property offences involving theft and burglary, their mean age was 29. The procedure involved the use of the ‘Blame Attribution Inventory’, this measured the offender’s type of offence and attribution of blame in three aspects: internal/external, mental element and guilt. The results exposed the sex offenders as feeling the most guilt with a mean score of 12.7, and the violent criminals followed with a score of 8.1.
Young people started to get involved in street gangs by working as street soldiers in drug distribution networks, arming themselves, and began to kill each other at a high rate. Fortunately, this event began to slow down in the mid-1990s. Violent crimes have been implicated with alcohol abuse in a substantial proportion of violent crimes. Although not given the concentrated public attention that abuse of illegal drugs has received, it continues to threaten public
Discuss substance abuse and criminal behaviour among juvenile offenders in Barbados. Substance abuse: A reason for criminal behaviour or a coping mechanism for misguided youth. “A kid? I smoke, I snort, I’ve killed and robbed, I’m a man!” (City of God, 2002) The use and abuse of illegal substances is believed to have a considerable influence on the criminal behaviour of juvenile offenders as it encourages erratic, impulsive behaviour and deviance; this is no different in Barbados where a great majority of the inhabitants of the male juvenile prison are charged with drug possession and drug related offences. There are nearly twice as many boys in the juvenile prisons than there are girls (J.Nurse, Superintendent, Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds, personal interview, December 2007); the frequency of drug related offences for female juvenile offenders in Barbados is low therefore the focus will be particularly on male juvenile offenders.
Studies have shown that juveniles are more acceptable to committing crimes in groups than by themselves. Therefore they are more likely to get arrested when in large groups then adults are to getting arrested. This was during a period when narcotics came into the mix. More and more juveniles were experimenting with drugs and alcohol and usually would end up getting into some sort of trouble. Four of every five children and teen arrested in state juvenile justice systems are under the influence of alcohol or drugs while committing their crimes, test positive for drugs, are arrested for committing an alcohol or drug offense, admit having substance abuse and addiction problems, or share some combination of these characteristics.
In 2001, U.S. law enforcement agencies made an estimated 2.3 million arrests of persons under the age of 18 (Snyder, 2003). In spite of the eruption in violence involving juveniles in schools throughout the U.S., juvenile crime has decreased. This paper shall address the overall decrease in juvenile crime, the increase in drug offenses and simple assaults and the implications for juvenile females and minorities. In addition, assess the tracking of juvenile arrests as a method of measuring the amount of and trends in juvenile justice. Decrease in Juvenile Crime In 2001, according to the FBI, juveniles accounted for 17% of all arrests and 15% of all violent crime arrests (Snyder, 2003).
Wheeler, Joey Proposition/Support Period: 2 December 5, 2012 Juvenile Justice Essay The vexing question of whether an adult trial and sentence are deemed just for juvenile criminals plague the judicial system as more adolescents commit violent crimes in today’s society. As punishment, most juvenile offenders who are found guilty of certain misdemeanors are sent to juvenile detention facilities for a relatively short period or, in some cases, at least until they are 18 years of age, at which time they are transferred to an adult prison. However, there are an unfortunate few who are tried and directly punished as adults; they are either sentenced to death row or incarcerated in a state prison infested with hardcore adult criminals and felons for as long as a lifetime. All youths, despite the crimes they committed, should not be tried and sentenced as adults. Many juvenile offenders are not intellectually or
When I did get caught up in the legal system, the first question my attorney asked was, “Are you an addict?” He further explained that if I was on drugs when I committed my crime, the District Attorney would be willing to make a deal for less jail time. The reasoning was that by being an addict I was not responsible for my actions, due to the fact that I was under the influence of a narcotic. The basic relationship between drug use and crime is simple. It is a crime to possess, manufacture, or distribute any drugs with a high potential for abuse such as marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine. It is also illegal to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
A significant number of cases heard in juvenile court are status offenses (A Separate System for Juveniles).” Around seventy percent of juveniles that get arrested are referred to juvenile court. The type of discretion that an officer uses is determined by the severity of the crime in question. “The police role with juveniles is expanded because they handle many noncriminal matters referred to as status offenses, including running away, curfew violations, and truancy as well as non-delinquent juvenile matters such as neglect, abuse, and missing persons reports (Police and Juvenile Offenders).” Some urban police departments have special units to the regard specifically to juveniles. Juveniles tend to have less respect for authority; the immaturity of juveniles makes them more prone to the peer pressure of others. Many juveniles see officers on patrol as a challenge of avoiding capture, instead
Date rape is a notorious and uncertain crime. Sexual assault includes any sexual activity carried out against the will of the victim through the use of violence, cruelty, threats even if it did not end in penetration. ( National Crime Victimization Survey 2012) There are many different types of rape. But the kind that is most common among teens is Date Rape. There are many situations and causes that lead to date rape.