Posted: February 14th, 2023

Juvenile Delinquency Measures

Juvenile Delinquency Measures
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Institution

Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile delinquency is an act of a young person committing a crime. Juvenile delinquents are mostly persons of eighteen years who break the law by involving themselves in criminal acts. Juvenile delinquents often get involved in criminal acts because of their reasoning, which is not the same as that of adults. Some of the various reasons they get involved in these acts are family problems, lack of good relations with family, financial problems, and proper training by adults (Bartollas, Schmalleger, & Turner,1985). Juvenile delinquency is measured in various ways; law enforcement arrest data, victimization surveys, and self-report surveys
Due to the increase of juvenile delinquency cases, states have developed ways in which they can deal with these cases. First is that the juvenile justice system has been developed laws to not apply against adult offenders and children. When a crime happens under this aspect, it can be reported to the police where the police can give a warning to the juvenile delinquent, or they can also put the child under police custody until his or her parents come to pick him or her (Bartollas, Schmalleger, & Turner, 1985). On advanced levels, the police can then take the child to court whether they are referred to a juvenile care facility. In the juvenile care faculty, the matter is referred to a probation officer, who then is to determine whether the charges should be dismissed or not.
Usually, what is considered is the child’s age, the nature of the offense, any other previous record, any educational history, and whether the parents are in apposition to control the child’s behavior. Juvenile delinquency has increased. That is why states have developed ways to measure the cases to develop recommendations (Bartollas, Schmalleger, & Turner,1985). Although they have their limitations, they help ensure that the nation is free from juvenile criminal cases. These measures are discussed below;
The Advantages of the Uniform Crime Report Method
This method collects all the data related to arrests done by police, including children’s arrests. The data is based on gender, sex, race, age groups, and nationality. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) method is a good method of measuring juvenile delinquency since it is a large and formal way of collecting data in the nation (Gove, Hughes, & Geerken, 1985). Through its data, it helps law enforcers and lawmakers to have a good statistic of the reason and the number of juvenile delinquents in the nation and therefore come up with good recommendations. The UCR method creates a specific method of analysis specifically for every victim. It focuses on various circumstances, such as the victim being affected, whether in the household, commercial place, or business (Tcherni et al., 2016). This method, therefore, is very reliable as it is broad. This strategy gathers all the information identified with captures done by police, including youngsters’ captures. The information depends on sexual orientation, sex, race, age gatherings, and ethnicity. The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) technique is a decent strategy for estimating adolescent misconduct since it is a huge and formal method of gathering information in the country (Gove, Hughes, & Geerken, 1985). Through its information, it helps law implementers and officials to have a decent measurement of the explanation and the quantity of adolescent reprobates in the country and along these lines concoct great suggestions. The UCR technique makes a particular strategy for investigation explicitly for each casualty. It centers around different conditions, for example, the casualty being influenced, regardless of whether in the family, business spot, or business (Tcherni et al., 2016). This strategy, hence, is truly solid as it is wide.
The weaknesses of the Uniform Crime Report
The UCR is limited. It lacks a uniform data analysis as law enforcement officers sometimes tend to have only the serious offenses in record, leaving the other ones behind. This then limits the data they collect as it is not accurate, therefore, not reliable in coming up with good strategies (Gove, Hughes, & Geerken, 1985).
Crime Victimization surveys/National Crime Victimization Survey/Developmental Victimization Survey
This is a way of measuring juvenile delinquency by self-reporting victims of crimes, how they are affected, and responsible for the crimes. It also focuses on the impact of the crime on victims and details how the victim thinks the problem would be solved (Arim, Findlay, & Kohen, 2016). This method looks at why a certain crime was committed and why it was not accounted for. This method also looks at how the nature of crimes changes with time, so it is safe to say that this method is good as it applies in most situations (Arim, Findlay, & Kohen, 2016). This method can therefore be recommended as it is comprehensive.
The Limitations of the National Crime Victimization survey
This method is limited in that it focuses on crimes that have attracted a lot of people. It focuses on trending crimes or have attracted interest other than looking at all crimes committed by children (Arim, Findlay, & Kohen, 2016). This is not good. It gives a rough idea of what juvenile delinquency is related to and can therefore not be properly relied on in coming up with proper suggestions to approach the community’s cases.
National Youth Surveys
This method collects information from children to understand their way of thinking. It focuses specifically on children of the age of eleven and seventeen. Through this method, the justice system is able to understand why juvenile offenders behave the way they do and how they can help in the situation. According to Tsai et al. (2018), because there are various causes of juvenile delinquency such as family problems or lack essay help of finance, the justice system can see how best it can help children in such conditions to avoid criminal participation activities.
The limitation of National Youth Surveys
Because of the fear of having a bad criminal record or being tagged as a bad person, most criminal offenders choose not to share a lot with the justice system officers. Therefore, it is very hard for information to be collected from child offenders because of their lack of openness (Tsai et al., 2016).
Overall Limitations of the Juvenile Delinquency Measurement
Because of the fear of their children being exposed to legal sanctions, most relatives and family members fail to cooperate to collect data. Although the systems tend to be confidential and are not based on arresting offenders but creating a way of helping them, most people don’t have confidence in the systems (Dressel, & Farid, 2018). Another limitation is the lack of resources to conduct research. Sometimes, people who collect data may be required to make numerous visits to centers or child offenders’ homes, which may be far from the research centers. This may require money, which may be a limitation to some researchers. Furthermore, the measurement systems may be limited in that there may be a lack of qualified personnel to measure the juvenile delinquency cases in the nation (Dressel, & Farid, 2018). Because of this, the results for juvenile delinquency may take a lot of time.
Conclusion
Prevention of juvenile delinquency through the various methods mentioned above is essential to managing crimes in society. Prevention services are sometimes offered to children at various levels. For example, they can be given counseling, Education by their parents, and family planning services. The obligation of preventing juvenile delinquency should be taken by the whole community and not by parents and the police only. Organizations have also come together to research the best way to control juvenile delinquency. In understanding the future of juvenile measures, he believed that the question here on how to develop the system is how best children can be helped and whether they should be treated the same as adults in crimes.

References
Arim, R., Findlay, L., & Kohen, D. (2016). What Statistics Canada Survey Data Sources are Available to Study Neurodevelopmental Conditions and Disabilities in Children and Youth?. SPP Research Papers, 9(29).
Bartollas, C., Schmalleger, F., & Turner, M. G. (1985). Juvenile delinquency. Wiley.
Dressel, J., & Farid, H. (2018). The accuracy, fairness, and limits of predicting recidivism. Science advances, 4(1), eaao5580.
Gove, W. R., Hughes, M., & Geerken, M. (1985). Are uniform crime reports a valid indicator of the index crimes? An affirmative answer with minor qualifications. Criminology, 23(3), 451-502.
Tcherni, M., Davies, A., Lopes, G., & Lizotte, A. (2016). The dark figure of online property crime: Is cyberspace hiding a crime wave?. Justice Quarterly, 33(5), 890-911.
Tsai, J., Walton, K., Coleman, B. N., Sharapova, S. R., Johnson, S. E., Kennedy, S. M., & Caraballo, R. S. (2018). Reasons for electronic cigarette use among middle and high school students—National Youth Tobacco Survey, United States, 2016. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 67(6), 196.