Crime Rate

In the United States, the crime rate is increasing each day. Although many may believe that only adults are executing this criminal activity, and that is entirely not true. Juvenile crime has been a problem in the United States for many years and is still a main factor to the growing crime rates in cities across the United States. Many factors of these adolescences lives contribute to their actions. Such as, drug use, their communities, their peers and also their families. Juvenile crime does not always fall under the category of harming another person such as assault, murder or rape. Juvenile crime is broken down in many different ways. Such as, Status Offender which is defined in, Criminal Justice in Action by Larry K. Gaines and Roger Leroy Miller as, a juvenile who has engaged in behavior deemed unacceptable for those under a certain statutorily determined age. These actions can be under age drinking, smoking marijuana and/or smoking cigarettes, skipping school, and running away from home. Juvenile run aways, are becoming very common in the United States. Many of these run aways suffer from higher rates of depression, physical and sexual abuse, and alcohol and drug abuse. A recent case of a juvenile run away was a sixteen-year old girl from New Jersey who reported on a social networking site that there was an intruder in her house, but in reality she ran away from home, this caused a panic all over the United States, and her story was brought to the news and search crews were sent out to look for her. According to nbcnews.com the New Jersey girls’ case was deemed foul play and she was found safe a few days later. The story of this sixteen-year old girl shows that not all delinquents are a harm to others and also that many of these crimes, are a cry for help. Some other forms of acting out include shoplifting; vandalism, and graffiti, these are just a few of non-violent crimes. Many of these crimes are executed by groups of young adults; this is how gang

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