NCJ Number
225008
Date Published
June 1985
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This report continues the analysis of violent juvenile offenders and expands the analysis of a cohort of violent juvenile offenders following them into early adulthood.
Abstract
Findings indicate that (1) almost 60 percent of these individuals were arrested at least once as a young adult for a felony offense, (2) the first adult arrest was very likely to be prior to age 20, (3) youths who went on to be arrested as adults tended to have more arrests as juveniles, to have begun their delinquent acts earlier and continued them late into their juvenile years, and to have been involved in the more serious type of violent offenses as juveniles, and (4) there was a clear continuity between juvenile and adult criminal careers. Even though the results paint a bleak picture of a serious social problem, the data also yield new insights into factors that differentiate between types of offenders and offense patterns which may help achieve more effective targeting of crime control, rehabilitation, and incapacitation programs. Today, the most serious threat known to society is the violent juvenile who is a chronic offender, arrested five or more times, and involved primarily in nonviolent crimes. The vast majority are not repeat violent offenders. Designed to enhance the understanding of the criminal behavior of juveniles and young adults, this study builds upon the information reported in The Violent Few which addressed the social and criminal characteristics of juveniles arrested for violent crimes and the relationship that these characteristics bear to identifiable violent career patterns. Table and figures