Exam 2: Defining and Measuring Offenses by and Against Juveniles

Numbers of children suffering from abuse and neglect remain ______ in the United States.

Estimates of the extent of delinquency and abuse based on a legal definition are far lower than those based on a behavioral definition.

Black and Reiss (1970) found that in urban areas, only about ______ of police encounters with juveniles involved alleged felonies.

One of the major problems confronting those interested in learning more about offenses by and against juveniles involves defining the phenomena.

Because ______ definitions depend on official adjudication, they lead us to concentrate on only a small portion of those actually involved as offenders and victims.

The ______, as a source of crime data, are based upon reports to law enforcement agencies.

______, as a source of crime data, are gathered by trained observers who ride with police officers.

Discuss legal and behavioral definitions of delinquency. Include specific examples of how a specific offense might be analyzed under each definition as delinquent or not.

Despite growth in the juvenile population over the past decade, crime and violence by juveniles have not declined.

If we concentrate on juveniles who are not officially labeled, we get a far different picture from that if we include all of those who offend or are victimized.

Nearly 60% of child victims suffered from ______, the most common form of child maltreatment.

UCR data would be of value if one wanted to know something about the actual extent and distribution of delinquency, or about police handling of juveniles involved in less serious offenses.

Poor recall and deliberate deception are both criticisms of the under- or over-reporting of abuse or delinquency in self-report studies.

______ definitions focus on juveniles who offend or are victimized even if they are not officially adjudicated.

One of the most persistent roadblocks to juvenile justice reform across the country is ______.

Using the behavioral definition, a juvenile who committed a relatively serious offense but was not apprehended would not be classified as delinquent.

______ is/are a major error with the NCVS.

Because the ______ definition of delinquency includes many juveniles who do not become part of official statistics, we need to rely on unofficial, and sometimes questionable, methods for assessing the extent and nature of unofficial or "hidden" delinquency and abuse.

Discuss the issues associated with measuring delinquency amongst juveniles.

Victimization surveys do not include interviews with children under the age of ______.