Defining the Serious and Violent Juvenile Offender - A Perspective (From Metropolitan Areas and Serious Juvenile Crime, 1982, Tape M-3 - See NCJ-91384)

• NCJ Number: 91387
• Author(s): Y G Barsamian; J F Larson; A N Hamilton; W E Gladstone
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 0 pages
• Sale Source: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. Running time: 40 mins.

Annotation

A series of presentations by juvenile judges for Florida, Illinois, and Utah examines characteristics of serious juvenile offenders and factors involved in identifying them for sentencing.

Abstract

The Florida judge notes that only a small percentage of juveniles are arrested for the violent crimes of murder, arson, and rape. The serious juvenile offender posing the greatest problem commits burglary or robbery. The chronic serious juvenile offenders are indicated to fall into one of the following four categories; (1) emotionally disturbed and mentally ill, (2) intellectually deficient (organically impaired), (3) sociopaths (have a chronic insensitivity to the harm they do to others), and (4) undersocialized personalities (come from a barren environment that yields moral and social underdevelopment). The latter group is believed to comprise the highest percentage of serious juvenile offenders. The presentation of the Illinois judge focuses on an Illinois study that developed profiles for six categories of juvenile offenders: burglars, thieves, armed robbers, aggravated batterers, sex offenders, and murderers. The information provided covers race, family background, mental health history, and age at first offense. Property offenders were found to have disorganized family backgrounds, with the official first offense occurring on an average between the ages of 12 and 14, sex offenders and murderers were found to have generally stable backgrounds, a history of mental illness, and an average age at first offense of between 15 and 16. This suggests that the more violent offenders have behavioral problems stemming more from psychological makeup than social environment. The final presentation describes the sentencing-guidelines scheme used by juvenile courts to determine which juveniles are dangerous enough to be institutionalized. Points are assigned to an offender based upon the severity of the offense and delinquency record, and a probation officer examines mitigating circumstances and makes a sentencing recommendation to the judge.