Exam 2: Defining and Measuring Offenses by and Against Juveniles

With respect to the minimum age at which children should be afforded court protection changed with the emergence of ______ and ______, both of which may have serious prenatal effects.

Official statistics on abused and neglected children are only available from a limited number of sources.

In their study using self-reports of delinquent behavior, Short and Nye found ______.

Discuss the validity of the NCVS when combined with the UCR/NIBRS as a way to get to the dark figure of crime.

Which of the following are reasons why crimes are not reported to the police?

Use of behavioral definitions necessitates reliance on unofficial methods to assess the extent and nature of hidden delinquency and abuse.

A source of statistical information on children missing due to criminal behaviors, parental kidnapping, and juvenile gang crimes would be found in the ______.

______ is/are major error(s) with the UCR.

The ______, as a source of crime data, are collected from victims instead of law enforcement agencies.

There is a dark figure of delinquent activity where a substantial amount of illegal behavior committed by youth is not detected.

Many states have encountered opposition to blanket laws to decriminalize ______ among underage youth because this would undermine the ability of police to intervene and exert their authority over the youth.

An act that is delinquent at one time and in one place might not be delinquent at another time or in another place.

______ definitions of delinquency hold that only those who have been officially labeled by the courts are offenders.

Without specific definitions, accurate measurement is impossible, making development of programs to prevent and control delinquency and offenses against juveniles extremely difficult.

______, as a source of crime data, are gathered from offenders themselves.

______ studies, however, are subject to criticism on the basis that respondents may underreport or overreport delinquency or abuse as a result of either poor recall or deliberate deception.

A problem with behavioral definitions is the ambiguity reflected with respect to age.

A basic difficulty with legal definitions is that they differ from time to time and from place to place.

Discuss the problems associated with the UCR/NIBRS crime statistic data.

Discuss the impact that different definitions of delinquency have on the juvenile justice system.