NCJ Number
96224
Date Published
Unknown
Length
107 pages
Annotation
Court and probation records of juveniles arrested for violent crimes in the Wisconsin counties of Milwaukee (n=200 of a listing of 637 juveniles), Rock (n=44), and Outagamie (n=21) were analyzed to describe the violent juvenile offender, the legal responses to violent crime, and the impact of various dispositions on violent crime patterns.
Abstract
The Selling-Wolfgang scale was used to assess the severity of the crime. Milwaukee County, the State's largest urban area, had the most serious delinquency problems. Males were arrested more frequently than females; older juveniles accounted for most of the arrests; minority youth were overrepresented in the sample; and the relationship between socioeconomic status and arrest frequency was not straightforward. Delinquent behavior was prevalent, violent arrests were not commonplace, and prediction of violence in a delinquent career would be difficult. Most of the juveniles arrested for violent crime in 1980 were apprehended on robbery or battery charges. The juveniles were not likely to possess or use a weapon. The majority of victims did not sustain physical injury from the violent crime. In general, the juvenile court's response to the 1980 violent offenses was proportional to the offense severity. The majority of the 1,818 arrests in the sample resulted in no formal court action. Court dispositions appeared to have limited impact on crime. Programs for serious offenders should address the problems identified by the data, which include school failure, drug and alcohol abuse, and recidivism. Tabular data and a 136-item bibliography are provided.