Introduction
Any arrest made on a person who is below the age of adulthood is termed as a juvenile arrest. The age of adulthood varies according to different areas and thus juvenile arrests also vary according to the different jurisdictions where the crime was committed. The age at which one ceases to be referred to as a kid and is considered as an adult makes a huge difference in the world of crime, for example, while in some places the legal adult age is at 18, in others is 21 while in other places it is as late as 25 years of age (Elrod & Ryder, 2009).
The Overall Decrease in Juvenile Arrests
As the report shows, the numbers of juvenile arrests made each year in the United States of America have been declining since the late 1980s. However, law experts have been arguing that despite the decline in the number of juvenile arrests made, these figures can reduce further if the juvenile courts were transformed from civil courts to criminal courts. This is due to the fact that with most of the juveniles charged in civil courts, their crime records are never recorded since most of the juvenile courts sentences are expunged or even forgotten after reaching the adult age and from here, the juveniles are expected to begin fresh lives and this has been a leading factor to the cases of juvenile crimes in the USA (Champion, 2007).
In order to control these ever rising figures of juvenile crimes, the habitual offenders arrested as a result of committing heinous crimes should be charged as adults as this would deter others from committing similar crimes (Wootton & Heck, 2002).
In the recent past, reported cases of juvenile crime have reduced dramatically as noted in a report by the Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Although the report notes that more than 2 million arrests of the people under the age of 18 were made in the year 2001, these figures were less compared to the past years. FBI reports further that of these crimes, 15 % of the juveniles arrested were due to violent crime. However, the report notes that this was a fall to 48% from the rising percentages between 1994 and 2001. It was also noted that the crime rate index also fell to the lowest levels during this year (Snyder, 2003).
The numbers of the juveniles murdered during the year 2001 also declined and of all the reported murder cases in the US, more than 90% were adults. Fewer juveniles were murdered in the United States of America than in any other year. The execution of murders during this year also varied with about two thirds being executed by the use of a firearm. However, the involvement of the firearm varied with the age. For example whereas 14% of the murdered juveniles under 13 were killed using a firearm, a high 77% above 13 or older were killed with a firearm.
The Increase in Drug Offenses and Simple Assaults
In contrast to the declines of major crimes as reported above, the rate of juvenile arrests made between 1980 and 1993 had remained in a constant rate however between 1993 and 1997 the rate increased dramatically but the rate fell to a lower percentage though the levels were still high compared to other years. In the same period, it was noted that the rates of juvenile arrests as a result of simple assaults increased, though the levels dropped, they were still historical high levels and thus there is need to check on them closely to know what really initiated these minor offences (Snyder, 2003).
Implications for Female Juvenile Female and Minorities
With more than 28% of the arrests made in the year 2001 resulting from female juveniles, this is quite strange because most of the times, such high levels are rare to record. The share by the minority races to the crimes also increased whereby the share of the juveniles in crimes reduced in the year 2001; however a larger share of the crimes committed involved the minority races. The report shows that more than three quarters of the juvenile arrests were whites but the blacks were over presented in the juvenile arrests involving violent crimes with a high percentage of 45%.The problems with the increased rate of crimes among the females and the juveniles can be attributed to the changes in crime opportunities and the growing intolerance of violent behavior exhibited by all genders (Backstrom, 1996).
An Assessment of Tracking Juvenile Arrests as a Method of Measuring the Amount Of and Trends in Juvenile Crime
The tracking of juvenile as a method of measuring the amount and trends in juvenile crime is a commendable method since it contains all the crimes included in the violent Crime index and Property Crime Index. However, the problem with relying on tracking juvenile arrests as a method to measure and predict likelihood of crimes can be attested to the fact that not everyone who is arrested actually committed the offence he or she was accused of committing. In addition, except the murder cases where FBI records might be accurate, cases of unreported crimes do not mean the crimes never occurred and thus the figures and the percentages presented might also be inaccurate.
Another shortcoming of tracking of the juvenile arrests is that with each arrest being calculated differently, if a juvenile is arrested for committing several burglaries, the arrest would show up as one arrest with no indications of the number of burglaries and also the fact that one crime may result in multiple arrests since a single crime is likely to occur with juveniles compared to adults.
Conclusion
Whereas the juvenile crime rates have been declining, controlling the vice completely is not possible and enforcement efforts must continue to deal with both violent and non violent crime offenders before it is too late. Whereas the tracking of juveniles as a method of measuring the amounts and trends in juvenile crime is commendable, its short comings need to be checked upon to avoid the existing miscalculations.
Reference List
Backstrom, C. J. (1996).Solving The Juvenile Crime Crisis: A Prosecutor’s Perspective. Web.
Champion, D. (2007). The Juvenile Justice System: Delinquency, Processing, And The Law, Fifth Edition: Prentice Hall, Inc. A Pearson Education Company
Elrod, P., & Ryder, R. S. (2009). Juvenile Justice: A Social, Historical, And Legal Perspective: 3rd Edition. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Snyder, H. N. (2003). Juvenile Arrests 2003. Web.
Wootton, J., & Heck, R. O (2002). How State and Local Officials Can Combat Violent Juvenile Crime. Web.