Juvenile Offenders and Victims: A Focus on Violence

• NCJ Number: 153570
• Author(s): Howard N Snyder; Melissa Sickmund
• Date Published: August 1995
• Length: 33 pages
• Grant Number(s): 90-JN-CX-K003
• Agencies: OJJDP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

This report presents the most requested information on juveniles and the juvenile justice system in the United States.

Abstract

The juvenile justice system must react to the law-violating behaviors of youth in a manner that not only protects the community and holds youths accountable, but also enhances youth's ability to live productively and responsibly in the community. The system must also intervene in the lives of abused and neglected children who lack safe and nurturing environments. To respond to these complex issues, juvenile justice practitioners, policymakers, and the public must have access to useful and accurate information about the system and the youth served by the system. This report attempts to provide that information on a wide range of topics: (1) Juvenile Population Characteristics (poverty, education, living arrangements, unwed teen mothers, population growth); (2) Juvenile Victims (the nature of and trends in juvenile victimizations); (3) Juvenile Offenders (the nature of and trends in juvenile offending); (4) Juvenile Justice System Structure and Process; (5) Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime; (6) Juvenile Courts and Juvenile Crime; and (7) Juveniles in Correctional Facilities. Graphics, tables, sources