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Not what we've been taught about Youth Crime

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JPSmit

JPSmit

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I have recently been asked to serve on the Board of an Organization which acts both as a location of incarceration for convicted youth and helps tham transition back to productive life.

In the course of a meeting, these Stats were provided.

There are 1.7 million youth aged 14-17 in Canada.
About 17,000 youth have some Youth Justice contact each year.
About 8,500 have a probation experience each year.
About 1,000 have a custody experience each year.
About 100 of these youth are persistent in the criminogenic behaviour.

Overall there has been a 33% reduction in youth justice events in the past 5 years.

Not at all what we have been taught - and given that many of the same issues come to bear south of the border (aging population being one of the most significant) I wonder how similar the stats are there.
 
J-P - as each state in the USA has different laws and procedures for youth issues, I imagine it's nearly impossible to compare other than in broad generalities.

You mention the stats you were given differ from what you thought before.

What did you think before you saw the stats?

Thanks.
Tom M.
 
Would the equivalent of "youth justice contact" be our juvenile court system? Normally, a juveniles first contact is with the police (or store security etc), who often let them off with a warning.
Beyond that, it appears that our arrest rate is lower, less than 0.3% in 2015 vs your 1%. https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp
Of those, some were treated as adults and hence the percent tried in a juvenile court would be even lower.

I couldn't find.figures for the rest, but I expect that our conviction rate would be significantly more than half, and a lot more than 0.5% held in some form of juvenile detention (does "house arrest" count as incarceration?).

Recidivism might not be too much higher, but part of that is because by the time a juvenile arrest is played out, the perp is no longer a juvenile.
Its also said that a stint in "juvie" is one of the best ways to learn how to avoid being caught in the future.
 
One of the dangers of comparing statistics: I think the Canada numbers reflect ages 14 - 17. The USA numbers reflect 10 - 17.

And the USA report is for arrests, while the Canada numbers reflect something called "youth justice contact" (which I don't think equals arrests).

I don't understand the "youth are persistent in criminogenic behavior" part. "Criminogenic" means issues (poverty, education, upbringing, etc.) which lead to criminal behavior, so criminogenic behavior seems a strange choice of words in that report.
 
NutmegCT said:
I don't understand the "youth are persistent in criminogenic behavior" part. "Criminogenic" means issues (poverty, education, upbringing, etc.) which lead to criminal behavior, so criminogenic behavior seems a strange choice of words in that report.
Click to expand...

Not my word. Coming to your earlier comment I think that the perception of many is that youth crime is much much higher than it actually is - leading me to assume that certain parts of society have an interest in making me (us?) fearful of one another. (Making Hay while the sun shines).

I hope this is ambiguous enough boss - because I don't want to go down the "politicize it" rabbit hole (I like cheese! :cheese:) What I am really trying to say is.

1. I was surprised by how low it truly is and,

2. It further exposes for me how much we live in a fear based society/ economy/ world. (and I refuse to participate in that world)

Does that make sense?
 
JP- thanks for clarifying. Take a look at Lewis and Salem, 1986 "Fear of Crime".

" ... citizens react individually to fear [of crime] and seek to protect themselves (e.g., buying guns and locks, not going out), thus breaking community cohesion."

Or Concklin's 1975 "The Impact of Crime".

" ... crime also seems to reduce social interaction as fear and suspicion drive people apart. This produces a disorganized community that is unable to exercise informal social control over deviant behavior."

Back in the day, we learned of crime on the evening news, or even earlier, in the daily (or weekly) newspaper. Now we're bombarded 24/7 by less-than-uplifting stories. Crime and horror get our attention more than kids getting awards, so the providers of the stories go for what gets our attention.

It takes a brave soul to actually analyze what comes over the ether these days. Sometimes you want to grab people and yell "Don't just believe what it says! Ask yourself where it comes from."

OK - back to my cave.
TM
 
The news media is a business, anything they can do to make money and please their stockholders will be done. The different media organizations are in constant competition with each other, so who do you believe? As the old story goes, believe nothing you read and only half of what you hear. The WSJ seems to be pretty much on track, well, most of the time. :rolleyes2: PJ
 
A slightly different twist : every time you read about a crime in the paper, you have to divide by the millions of people who didn't make the paper. "News" consists only of what is unusual, not common. For example, the sun comes up every day and no one writes a word about it. But have one little eclipse where the sun disappeared for just a few minutes, and it's splashed all over Page One.

And to a large extent, it's simply the nature of the beast. I have no interest in reading articles about the sun coming up; but an eclipse is certainly newsworthy, IMO.
 
TR3driver said:
A slightly different twist : every time you read about a crime in the paper, you have to divide by the millions of people who didn't make the paper. "News" consists only of what is unusual, not common. For example, the sun comes up every day and no one writes a word about it. But have one little eclipse where the sun disappeared for just a few minutes, and it's splashed all over Page One.

And to a large extent, it's simply the nature of the beast. I have no interest in reading articles about the sun coming up; but an eclipse is certainly newsworthy, IMO.
Click to expand...

:iagree:

Back when I was a cub working for a local newspaper as a photographer, the camera was always with me. If there were a car crash or B&E crime, the photos would run on the front page or front section. Civic events or "spot news" were rarely in the front section, rather relegated to back pages amid the many ads. Sensational beats mundane every time.
 
"Ace in the Hole"... a 1951 movie starring Kirk Douglas.
He's a reporter that keeps a man trapped in a cave just so he could keep the headlines coming to sell papers. No more news if he gets out.
 
Elliot - Never knew about that movie. Thanks. Remember "Meet John Doe"? Similar story - the hopeless guy (Gary Cooper) is used as a tool by the newspaper.

Would be nice if we could teach more kids to ask questions, cull out the PR and spin, and get involved in improving things. Many young folks I know get their current events news from their Facebook feed, or worse. And they just accept whatever they see. Ask them how they know it really happened, and they pull up a blog page.

yeesh
 
Wow - that movie has quite a back story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_in_the_Hole_(1951_film)

Anyway, I'm interested in JP's initial topic: do folks think "youth crime" is high? and are surprised that's it lower than we thought?

Here in Connecticut, I see no difference in reports and data on "youth crime" versus crime in general. More often, we see reports of new programs set up to hold down crime of any sort, by any age - and to prevent recidivism of those convicted. Maybe people in crowded cities believe their "youth crime rate" is unusually high?

TM
 
Depends a lot on what you call "high". There are a LOT of people around here, which includes a lot of kids (looked it up, roughly 3 million juveniles in LA and Orange county). If only 1% of the kids I see in a year commit a crime, that's still a lot of crimes.

But the vast majority of them are good kids; and even most of the "criminals" aren't really bad, IMO. Testing boundaries is a natural part of growing up; and sometimes the boundary involves the law.

Disclosure: I've been on the wrong side of the law a few times myself. Mostly speeding :smile:
 
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