NCJ Number
218339
Date Published
September 2006
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined crime trends in California's major population centers for the years 1976 through 2005, in order to test the assumption that higher rates of youth poverty result in increased youth crime.
Abstract
Although the past three decades show high rates of youth poverty, ranging from 12 percent in San Jose to 34 percent in Fresno, rates for violent offenses, property crimes, and drug offenses are lower among urban youth today than 30 years ago and 10 years ago. Rates of all major offenses except robbery have also declined in the last 3 years. Further, claims of youth violence spreading to the suburbs are not supported, since crime rates among suburban youth have declined even faster than among urban youth. Official data indicate that youth in nearly every city and surrounding counties are less delinquent than any generation in many decades. Additional research should be conducted in order to determine the reasons for these declines and the measures that should be pursued in continuing the trend. Data on juvenile crimes and arrests were obtained from the California Department of Justice's Criminal Justice Statistics Center, which records crime for each county and city. Juvenile populations by age, year, race, poverty level, county, and city were provided by the Demographic Research Unit of the California Department of Finance and by the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Data are presented separately for Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno, and Long Beach. 9 tables