NCJ Number
221615
Journal
Journal of Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Dated: 2007 Pages: 185-209
Date Published
2007
Length
25 pages
Annotation
Trends over time are described in self-reported participation in crime or other problem behaviors and in victimization among youths in Sweden from 1995 to 2005.
Abstract
The findings show that a large proportion of youth reported having participated at least once in some kind of delinquent behavior over the course of the previous year. The most common offenses involved thefts from schools and shops. Approximately one-third of the surveyed youths had been exposed to theft. Exposure to serious violence and threats was less common. The kind of delinquent behaviors that have relatively high prevalence among boys tend to be the same kind of behaviors that have the highest prevalence levels among girls. However, males are responsible for a larger proportion of the more serious offenses. In addition, the proportion of law-abiding youth has increased over time, as well as a decreasing trend in the proportion of youth committing large numbers of offenses which is found to be more pronounced in certain sociodemographic groups. Over the years, youth crime in general and trends in youth crime in particular have been the subjects of much discussion. Data are presented from 6 nationally representative surveys among youth in their final year of compulsory education (during the years 1995-2005), with sample sizes of between 5,300 and 8,200 respondents. The objective is to provide an alternative indicator that will serve as a complement and clarify the picture of trends in youth crime emerging from official crime statistics in Sweden. Tables, figures, references and appendixes 1A-1C, 2