Abstract

Delinquency has been on the rise in recent years. Measuring delinquency has however been significantly difficult due to bias in the recording of crime incidences. Over the years, criminologists have devised various measures to examine the extent of delinquency in the nation. The measures depend on the recorded statistics on criminal offenses committed. This research paper explains how delinquency is measured. It identifies three measures of delinquency. Additionally, the study provides examples of methods used to measure delinquency.The primary way discussed is the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The technique involves examination of an annual report of crimes reported to the FBI by various police departments. Furthermore, the paper discusses crime victimization surveys such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) as another method of measuring delinquency. In the NCVS method criminologists question victims about the crime incidences they were involved. Also, the study discusses self-report surveys like the National Youth Survey (NYS) which consists of interviewing of the juveniles.

Keywords:delinquency, Uniform Crime Report (UCR),National Youth Survey (NYS)

Measuring Delinquency

Juvenile delinquency is the offenses committed by minors in the society. Moreover, juvenile delinquency generally refers to offenders who are under the age of eighteen and are not legible to adult treatment during a punishment or sentence. Measuring the rate of delinquency is a significant challenge for psychologists and law enforcement organizations. However, the majority of law enforcement organizations and the justice departments keep records of the cases involving children under the age of 18 years. The records are an essential source of data which is used to establish measures of delinquency. In this regard, there are three established methods of measuring juvenile delinquency. The primary method of measuring delinquency is the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Other methods applied when measuring juvenile delinquency are crime victimization surveyssuch as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)and self-report surveys like the National Youth Survey (NYS). These methods rely on data already collected through the records of arrests and criminal behavior recorded by police departments. This paper explains how delinquency is measured and discusses the three methods used when measuring delinquency.

The uniform crime reporting program consists of a countrywide effort where the police departments in the cities and counties voluntary report data on crimes that are brought to their attention to the FBI. The FBI then compiles and publishes an annual report called the Uniform Crime Reports on these crimes. Specifically, the FBI’s UCR report includes the crimes that are known to the police. These are crimes discovered by the police or crimes which the police were aware. Furthermore, the report consists of the number of arrests. It reports the number of arrests made within the previous calendar year.However, the number of arrests differs from the number of people arrested since some may be arrested multiple times in a year. Also, the number of arrests does not indicate the number of crimes committed since a single offense can result in numerous arrests.Also, the UCR records the number of persons arrested. The records on the number of people arrested within the past year include the crimes for which they were arrested, their gender, age, and race.

Moreover, most of the law enforcement agencies in the United States report crime incidences to the FBI. Therefore, the public looks up to the UCR to observe fluctuations in the level of delinquency in the nation. Moreover, sociologists and criminologists use the statistics in the UCR to conduct research and plan. Thus, by observing the trends of criminal activities associated with the juveniles, one can efficiently measure the level of juvenile delinquency in the nation. However, UCR is considered to be more of a summary-based system. Therefore, the National Incidence Based Reporting System (NIBRS) is applied. NIBRS is an adaptation of UCR with more focus on victims of crimes, the known offenders and the relationships. More often, NIBRS is referred to as a window on delinquency.It provides full incidence details allowing critical analysis to identify trends of misconduct.In this case, the data collected through NIBRS permits analysts to separate individual and household victimizations. Therefore, it is easy to pinpoint specific categories of crime and delinquency. However, UCR faces some criticism. Some criminologists believe that UCR is not a valid measure of crime. Since UCR relies on offenses known to the police only, it misses some of the reprehensible actions committed as well as the number of juveniles involved in crimes not reported to the police.

Furthermore, victimization surveys form another significant measure of delinquency.National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) is the primary victimization survey method employed in measuring the rate of delinquency. Introduced in 1972, NCVS is the most comprehensive and systematic survey of crime victims in the US. The study captures data on both household and personal crimes. The personal crimes surveyed include personal theft and crimes of violence. On the other hand, crimes of violence include robbery, sexual assault or rape, simple and aggravated assaults. However, NCVS does not measure murder since the victims are dead and therefore cannot be interviewed. On the other hand, the survey targets household crimes such as burglary, motor vehicle theft, and household larceny. The NCVS focuses on the above-listed offenses since the victims are likely to report to the police. Thus, it is easy to interview the victims and collect the desired data.However, not all victims of such personal and household crimes are interviewed. The surveyors obtain samples of households from which they collect the data on the crimes. The selected households for the survey are rotated after 3.5 years to allow randomization.In case a household exits the sample group, the surveyors replace them with other households. The data collected is then used to make conclusions regarding the level of delinquency.

The NCVS data is fundamental in understanding the causes and patterns of crime among households. Specifically, it is the most systematic tool that captures crime incidences unknown to the police. The NCVS data confirms that there are a lot of delinquent acts that are unknown to the police. Additionally, the method uncovers the reasons why victims of some crime do not report the incidences to the police. NCVS data demonstrates the variations in the reporting of delinquency changes within particular types of criminal offenses and across different victim-offender relationships. Therefore, due to a large amount of data on personal and household crimes collected, one can use the NCVS data to measure the changes in delinquency. By observing the number of crimes committed and the relationships between the victims and offenders in the sampled households, criminologists can estimate the rates of misconduct in the whole nation. However, the NCVS method has some weaknesses. The technique relies on the responses of interviewees who may forget or have difficulty recalling the incidences. Additionally, errors of deception and sampling errors are common flaws of the method.

Self-Report Studies also provide data on the nature and extent of delinquencies. The method collects raw data from juvenile offenders by asking them questions directly about their involvement in a crime.The National Youth Survey (NYS) is the most comprehensive self-report study within the American criminal department.It is a countrywide survey on youths aged between 11 and 17 years. The study consists of respondents from all the socioeconomic groups as well as different races and ethnic groups. The survey investigates the trends of crime at various seasons of the year. Also, the study captures the DNA data of the respondents to observe the biosocial aspects of delinquency. Petty theft, forgery and use of fake ID are among the offenses investigated using this method. Other crimes such as weapon violation and drunk abuse are also captured in the questioning of juveniles. The respondents are asked to indicate the period and number of times they engaged in a particular type of criminal offense.

The NYS method gives criminologists more information on delinquency than other statistics such as the UCR reports. The self-report studies give criminologists the notion that there is more delinquency than captured by the criminal justice system.Roughly, criminologists estimate that the amount of misconduct hidden from law official is 4 to 10 times greater than the delinquency reported by police in the UCR.Therefore, the NYS method is a more efficient tool for measuring the amount of misconduct in society. Technically, this method estimates the total level of delinquency with speculations on the cases that could have resulted in incarceration. However, some criminologists and psychologists criticize the NYS technique. Psychologists argue that it is unreasonable to expect that juveniles will openly talk about their criminal activities to strangers. Furthermore, the respondents may forget the crime incidences or misunderstand the questions asked. Therefore, it is easy for respondents to give unreliable information. The surveyors have however devised methods to validate the juveniles’ responses through confirming with the police records for offenses reported.

In conclusion, delinquency is measured through the analysis of data recorded regarding offenses committed by juveniles. The conventional measures of delinquency include self-test reports, victimization surveys, and uniform crime reports. UCR involves observing the incidences the police report to the FBI. On the other hand, the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) analyses data on personal and household crimes. Moreover, The National Youth Survey (NYS) is a systematic survey of youths who have committed crimes previously. The three methods indicate the extent of delinquency in the nation through observing the trends and frequency of crime incidences.

References

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