Chapter 4: The extent of offenses

Abstract

Chapter 4 explores the extent of delinquent offenses. Are most youth involved in delinquent acts sometime during their adolescent years? If so, how frequently are they involved? What types of delinquent offenses are most common? Is delinquency increasing, decreasing, or staying the same? Are violent delinquent acts increasing? When and where do most delinquent offenses occur? To address these questions, we rely on data from self-report surveys, as well as juvenile arrest and juvenile court data. The previous chapter discussed these sources of data. The focus of this chapter is not on individual offenders or offending, but on juveniles as a group, so that we can obtain a general understanding of delinquent behavior. We describe four key areas of study with regard to the extent of delinquent offenses: prevalence and incidence of offending, relative frequency of different types of offenses, trends in delinquent offenses, and spatial (place) and temporal (time) distribution of offenses. Taken together, these considerations provide a solid understanding of the extent of juvenile delinquency.

Key Terms

• prevalence
• incidence
• relative frequency
• ecology of delinquency
• spatial distribution
• temporal distribution

Outline

1. Prevalence and incidence of delinquent offenses
   1. Self-report data
   2. Official data
      1. Uniform Crime Reporting program
      2. Juvenile Court Statistics
   3. Prevalence and incidence in brief
2. Relative frequency of different types of offenses
   1. Self-report data
   2. Official data
      1. Uniform Crime Reporting program
      2. Juvenile Court Statistics
   3. Relative frequency in brief
3. Trends in delinquent offenses
   1. Self-report data
   2. Official data
      1. Uniform Crime Reporting program
      2. Juvenile Court Statistics
   3. Juvenile crime trends in brief
4. The ecology of juvenile offenses: spatial and temporal distribution
   1. Self-report data
   2. Official data: Uniform Crime Reporting program
   3. Ecology of delinquency in brief
5. Summary and conclusions