Young Criminal Years of the Violent Few (From Young Blood: Juvenile Justice and the Death Penalty, P 105-114, 1995, Shirley Dicks, ed. - See NCJ-166057)

• NCJ Number: 166064
• Author(s): D M Hamparian; J M Davis; J M Jacobson; R E McGraw
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 10 pages
• Corporate Author: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Sale Source: Prometheus Books
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A cohort analysis focused on the juvenile and young adult criminal careers of 1,222 people born in 1956-60, studied through mid-1983, and arrested for at least one violent offense as a juvenile in Columbus, Ohio.

Abstract

The research gathered information from juvenile and adult arrest and corrections records in Ohio. Results revealed diverse patterns of criminal activity, ranging from murder and other violent offenses to a broad variety of property and other nonviolent offenses. A relatively small number of violent juvenile offenders were responsible for most of the arrests. Males and blacks were overrepresented in the cohort and accounted for an even greater proportion of juvenile crime. As a group, violent juvenile offenders did not specialize in the types of crimes they committed. However, only 15.4 percent of the juveniles were arrested more than once for a violent crime; only 8.1 percent were arrested for index violence. Findings suggested that the violent juvenile offender who is chronic should be the first priority of Federal, State, and local officials; that it may be appropriate to consider developing a variety of joint juvenile adult programs; that the justice system should ensure some degree of predictable graduated consequences for illegal actions; and that no single approach is appropriate for all juvenile offenders.