Juvenile Offenders: Race and Ethnicity
University of Phoenix
Juvenile Offenders: Race and Ethnicity
"Researchers have long observed differences in rates of serious juvenile and adult offending among ethnic and racial groups in the United States. These differences have prompted competing theoretical interpretations and public policy debates. However, conclusions about the racial differences in serious and violent juvenile offending have been reached primarily using individual-level data that, when used alone, yield incomplete results. Multilevel analyses that consider community and contextual factors have the potential to produce a fuller understanding of the meaning of these differences (, 2002)."
This paper will first describe the racial distribution of serious and violent offending among juveniles in the United States. It will provide a picture of the short-term national trends for offending patterns by race and ethnicity and summarize research findings on racial and ethnic differences in chronic juvenile offending. Various explanations are given for the racial and ethnic differences. This paper will include recommendations for improving understandings of these differences and implications for guiding prevention and intervention efforts. Data …show more content…
UCR data are not helpful in this regard. However, a few longitudinal studies have shed some light on this issue using official data. Relying on police data from a 1945 Philadelphia cohort, Wolfgang, Figlio, and Sellin (1972) found that race and socioeconomic status were related to the frequency and seriousness of offenses. These findings were confirmed using the 1958 Philadelphia cohort. However, more data are needed to fully understand the relationship between race and chronic