Some Policy Implications of Sample Arrest Patterns (From From Boy to Man, From Delinquency to Crime, P 76-86, 1987, Marvin E Wolfgang, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-109901)

• NCJ Number: 109904
• Author(s): J J Collins
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 11 pages
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This descriptive analysis of the arrest patterns of a 1945 Philadelphia cohort sample (567) suggests a more lenient adjudication policy toward juvenile arrests and the appropriateness of special prosecution policies for chronic recidivists.

Abstract

First, the data indicate that the number of officially active offenders was more important than the individual offense rates of these offenders in accounting for the official crime rate. Also, the percentage of sample members who remained officially active in crime dropped dramatically after the juvenile years. Second, those who remained officially active in crime tended to be arrested for progressively more serious offenses, with a high probability of recidivism and a shorter time period between arrests. Third, the arrests of the whites were likely to occur during the juvenile years. Based on age-specific mean arrest rates and age-specific offense seriousness scores, however, nonwhites' offenses tended to be more serious. Data on offenders up to age 30 indicate the disproportionate involvement of nonwhites in official crime with increased age. The seriousness and distribution of arrests during the juvenile years suggest a more lenient adjudication policy toward juvenile arrests. In addition to suggesting special prosecution policies for chronic recidivists, data support consideration of the records of serious, violent juvenile offenses in sentencing offenders age 18 and older in adult criminal court. 4 tables. (Author summary modified)