NCJ Number
212131
Date Published
2005
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report presents two studies of Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) data; one pertains to the arrests of juveniles for drug offenses from 1994 through 2003, and the second study addresses the characteristics and circumstances of criminal acts against infants from 2001 through 2003.
Abstract
UCR data pertain to crimes known to local, county, and State law enforcement agencies. In the first study, drug arrests of juveniles (persons under 18 years old), encompassed sale/manufacturing and possession. The data included the age, sex, and race of the juveniles arrested for drug-abuse violations. Of the total number of arrests for drug abuse violations from 1994 through 2003 (15,416,973), 12.4 percent were of juveniles. Law enforcement agencies made just over 1.9 million arrests of juveniles for drug abuse during this period. The majority of drug arrests of juveniles involved possession of drugs. The second study used data reported to the UCR Program through the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). NIBRS is one of the few data sources on the victimization of young children, especially infants. From 2001 through 2003, law enforcement agencies reported 1,404 simple assaults committed against infants and 1,081 simple assaults committed against other victims present at the infant's victimization. The next most common offense against infants was aggravated assault (1,023 committed against infants; 839 committed against other victims). Between 2001 and 2003, there were 4,973 infant victims of crimes against persons. In addition to offense data, the study reports data on the age and characteristics of victims, number of victims in the incidents, number of victims by injury sustained, crime location, offender characteristics, percentage of incidents cleared, and clearances by exceptional means. 15 figures and 8 tables