Victimization: Juvenile Justice Victimization of Juveniles Is

¶ … Victimization: Juvenile Justice Victimization of juveniles is more widespread and prevalent than is commonly perceived. This view is shared by many experts in the field who study the statistical data relating to victimization. More than 800, 000 children - or 12 per 1, 0000 - were victims of crime, abuse or maltreatment in 2000. Sixty-three percent of maltreated children were neglected, nineteen percent were physically abused, ten percent were sexually abused, and eight percent were emotionally or psychologically maltreated.

(NCVC) In a recently released report on teen victims of crime, the National Centre for Victims of Crime urged that the problems of juvenile victimization must be addressed to find solutions. "The victimization of teenagers in America has gone largely unrecognized. Instead, in the context of crime and violence, our nation's young people are more typically characterized as troublemakers, predators, and violent criminals. When victimization has been recognized, public attention has focused almost solely on large-scale incidents, such as school shootings.

Furthermore, the victims of these tragic events represent only a fraction of the teens who become crime victims. After years of focusing solely on juvenile offenders, it is time to shift our attention to the plight of juvenile victims." (NCVC: Teen Victims Report) The same report also emphasizes that "teenagers are victimized at alarming rates at home, in school, and on the street. Teenagers are twice as likely as others to be victims of violent crime.

In a national survey of high school students, one in five reported they were a victim of a violent crime in the past year. Other data show they are also more likely to be victims of property crimes than adults, although they do not often report it to the police." 1.

Victimization by age The National Centre for Victims of Crime states that "The rate of victimization of children was inversely related to the age of the child." ( NCVD) From the same source it is stated that "Children from birth to age 3 were victimized at the highest rate." It certainly seems that - from all the statistics - children and juveniles experience more episodes of serious victimization than any other age group.

An extensive perspective is given of the distribution according to age from a special report released by the U.S. Department of Justice; Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) entitled Age Patterns of Victims of Serious Crimes. They found that "victimization rates increase through teenage years, crest at around age 20, and steadily decrease throughout adult years. This pattern, with some exceptions, exists across all race, sex, and ethnic groups.

(OVC) Evidence that juveniles and younger people are increasingly the target of violet crime is underlined by the following: "Each year between 1992 and 1994, U.S. residents age 12 and older experienced about 4.3 million serious violent victimizations on average. Of all serious violent crimes -- murder, rape, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault -- the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that while persons aged 12 to 24 comprise less than a quarter of the U.S. population (22%), they comprise almost half (49% or 2 million) of all serious victimizations each year.

(ibid) Importantly, the affect of the variables and factors such as race and class does not affect the statistical evidence that younger people are more vulnerable to victimization. "Persons younger than 25 were the most vulnerable to serious violent crime, regardless of how age patterns are analyzed. They made up almost 50% of all persons suffering a serious violent crime and almost 56% of rape/sexual assault victims." (ibid) The report also indicates that serious violent crimes against persons aged 18 to 21 were 17 times higher than those against persons age 65 and older. (Ibid., p.

1) On average, each year from 1992 to 1994, about 1 in 50 people fell victim to a serious violent crime; among persons aged 12-24, this figure was twice the rate -- 1 in 23. 2.