NCJ Number
160867
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 35 Issue: 1 Dated: (February 1996) Pages: 40-60
Date Published
1996
Length
21 pages
Annotation
Using data from the Second and Third United Nations Crime Surveys, this analysis presents juvenile/adult ratios of males and females at various stages of criminal justice processing.
Abstract
The various stages of criminal justice processing considered are apprehension, prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment for the year 1975, as well as suspicion, prosecution, conviction, admission to prison, and prison population for 1980 and 1986. Data from the two United Nations Crime Surveys cover approximately 90 countries, and the tabular data presented are for each of the countries. To counteract national age and gender population differences, in addition to raw ones, this study examines weighted ratios. The study examines whether there is any national distinctiveness in filtering out juveniles at various stages of criminal justice processing. It also assesses whether there is a worldwide tendency to screen out juveniles in the course of case processing. Another issue examined is whether the gender of juveniles is a factor in who is screened out at various stages of case processing. One conclusion from the analysis is that countries differ significantly in the proportions of juveniles present in criminal justice processing; a second conclusion is that the number of juvenile offenders/suspects varies widely by country and gender. No general international tendency for juveniles to be screened out of the more advanced stages of criminal justice processing was found. At the conviction stage, however, most countries had a higher proportion of male juveniles than female juveniles. 6 tables and 2 references