NCJ Number
84110
Date Published
1981
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Reported juvenile crime in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, suggests that age, place of origin, and local residence do make a difference in the types of crimes recorded by the police and the decision whether to release or continue the case in children's court.
Abstract
Official juvenile crime does not appear to be excessive for Port Moresby, a city of 120,000. Most arrests of juveniles are for property crimes, many of them minor, and very few are for violent offenses. The 15-year-old boys compose the largest proportion of arrested juveniles and once arrested are most likely to be handed over to the children's court. They are also more likely to be charged with multiple offenses and with a wider number of offenses than younger groups. Most arrested offenders are from the provinces closest to Port Moresby, and many of them are members of tribal groups with reputations for criminal behavior or urban poverty. Once arrested, the youth from Port Moresby and the surrounding province are most likely to be continued through the child welfare and justice system rather than be released. The majority of arrested youth are concentrated in 10 local residential areas, with the preponderance living in housing subdivisions rather than traditional villages, migrant settlements, or institutional residential areas; however, youth from migrant settlements are less likely to be released. If the foregoing data are primarily the product of organizational policy and decisions, further research should seek to determine the procedures by which police report and record juvenile crime as well as arrest policy for juvenile offenders. Tabular data, 21 references, and 3 notes are provided. (Author summary modified)