Focusing on serious and violent juvenile offenders, this volume features insights from leading scholars addressing the complexities of this challenging demographic. It highlights their significant contribution to crime rates and the implications for juvenile justice policy. By integrating knowledge on risk and protective prevention programs, the book aims to create a comprehensive understanding that informs effective strategies for addressing juvenile delinquency.
The book examines the significant rise in arrests among children aged 12 and under between 1980 and 1996, highlighting the societal costs associated with juvenile crime and the involvement of various agencies. It addresses critical questions regarding the juvenile justice system's response to child delinquents, the potential for predicting future violent behavior, and identifying early warning signs of delinquency. Offering empirical insights, it serves as a comprehensive resource for researchers, scholars, and practitioners in the field.
Risk Factors, Prediction, and Prevention from Childhood
202 pages
8 hours of reading
Exploring the alarming trend of homicides committed by youth in U.S. inner cities, this book utilizes longitudinal and prospective data to analyze the underlying factors contributing to violence. It delves into the socio-economic conditions, cultural influences, and systemic issues that shape these environments, providing a comprehensive understanding of where and why these tragic events occur most frequently. The research aims to inform policy and community interventions to address and reduce youth violence effectively.
This Brief fills a gap in criminological literature, as there are few empirically-based studies on delinquency of adolescent girls. It provides results of a longitudinal study, The Pittsburgh Girls Study (PGS), which includes 2,451 girls, followed annually from age 10-19, the ages when criminal behavior tends to emerge. This study provides the most extensive and comprehensive investigation into the criminal offending and self-reported trajectories of offending of PGS participants, along with an in-depth examination of other criminal career dimensions. In five chapters, this short volume reviews the limited extent of girls' delinquency literature, presents data on girls' offending patterns (onset, persistence, specialization, and desistence), provides insights on gender differences by comparison with the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which focused on male offenders, and explores the theoretical and practical implications of the results. By understanding the origins and onset of criminal behavior in girls, researchers can begin to understand effective interventions and crime prevention. This Brief will be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice, as well as related fields such as sociology, public policy, and psychology.
