Juvenile Delinquency and Juvenile Crime Article
Eric Ray
CJA/204
8/6/2014
Christle Sheppard

What would you consider delinquency? Well what I would consider what delinquency is the behavior of a person that is a violation of the law. It is a continued disobedient behavior that does not seem to be able to be corrected by community leaders, church, or parents. The offender is then handed over to the juvenile courts for correction. Now what would we consider a status offense? A status offense is based on behavior of status offenders. A status offender is in a special category that encompasses a specific genre of offenders. In this case it is based on children or a child who violate laws specific to them such as truancy from school, running away from home and basic disrespect of their parents, and authority. Some basic similarities exist in both courts. Both courts are there to punish the offender and protect the community. Adult courts are based on an offender being a criminal and violating the law. There are laws there to protect the adult offender such as searching the adult offender unlawfully, reading them their maunder rights and are assumed innocent until proven guilty. What is an example of a variable of juvenile crime rates? Some variables are, or could be child abuse, drugs and alcohol. It also could include a child being abused by an adult to even being bullied at school by fellow classmates and even some instructors or teachers. Another variable could be child neglect or some type of major drama that has affected that child in his or her life; it could even be that the child is being raised in a single parent home. When a child is living in a single parent home and the parent is always away or the parent is in the “streets” the child could turn to a gang and lead to a dangerous life. They could start selling drugs, stealing from others just to get by. Also they could make the decision in life whether they want to be a drop out of school because of the decisions they make when they start becoming delinquent. The correlating factors that contribute to the rise in crime are the children are out here in these streets with no parental or adult guidance. Children now-a-days think they know everything, they are letting gangs and other negative people and children fill their heads with all kinds of mess trying. The children are basically portraying something that they are not. If the children had more positive guidance they wouldn’t be out here trying to be in gangs, stealing or committing any other crimes that could eventually lead to their death. Because, children these days are guided down the wrong path early in their life, they eventually grow up into unproductive adults, and they end up being in and out the systems for a long time. It will be a continuous cycle, and it will never cease. What are the current United States juvenile crime statistics? According to the U.S Department of Justice (www.OJJDP.gov). The juvenile violent crime index arrest rate increased in the mid-2000’s and then declined through 2011 to its lowest level since at least 1980. The rate in 2011 was 31% below its 1980 level and 59% below peak year of 1994. In 2011, there were 202 arrests for violent crime index offenses for every 100,000 youth between 10 and 17 years of age. If each of these arrest involved a different juvenile (which is unlikely), then more than 1 in every 491 persons age 10-17 was arrested for a violent crime index offense in 2011, or less than one-fifth of 1% of all juvenile ages 10 to 17 living in the United States. Could there be an effect when a juvenile is tried as an adult in the criminal courts? I think it all depends; the reason why I say this is if a juvenile commits a crime like first, second degree murder or homicide, and it was intentional, I think they should be tried as an adult. There are some pros and cons when you have to transfer a juvenile into the adult criminal courts. Sometimes, it can be advancement for