Recidivism And Victimization Of Juvenile Crime

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Juvenile crime is assessed and analyzed annually. Reports are published in order to offer Congress, state and local policymakers, educators, and juvenile justice professionals, the empirically based data and answers to frequently asked questions regarding the nature of crime and victimization. The report includes the system’s response to a variety of crime committed by minors. The juvenile justice system must react to juveniles in ways that protect the community, hold the offenders accountable, and enhance their ability to live productively and responsibly in the community (Sickmund, Melissa, & Puzzanchera, 2014). According to the Juvenile Offenders and Victims 2014 National Report, law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made 1.6 million arrests of youth under age 18 in 2010. Of the 1.6 million arrests, larceny–theft, simple assault, drug abuse violations, and disorderly conduct accounted for half of the 2010 …show more content…

Additionally, intervention are an important component to dispositional sanctions imposed by the courts (Lipsey, Wilson, & Cothern, 2000). Amongst the many goals of interventions, one in particular, is to reduce the rate of recidivism and encourage desistance. The National Institute of Justice (2014) defines recidivism as, “a person's relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime.” Recidivism is measured during a three year period following an individual’s release, where the individual engages in criminal acts which lead to rearrest, reconviction, or return to incarceration with or without a new sentence (“Recidivism,” 2014). An important connection exists between recidivism and criminal desistance. Desistance refers to the process in which a person ceases to reoffend. Therefore, it would be accurate to assume the lower the recidivism rates become the higher criminal desistance will

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