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JUVENILE CRIMINALS AND VICTIMS

Trends

The 1990s was a period of violence for the youth in the United States. The number of serious crimes committed by and against juveniles rose dramatically in the first half of the decade, reaching historically high rates. Although violent crime began to decline by mid decade, drug offenses continued to increase. National statistics also indicated that not only were youth committing more crimes, but they were increasingly the victims as well. There were also several highly publicized and deadly school shootings involving young assailants. The public, government, and courts struggled to find explanations for and solutions to teen violence.

Columbine

On 20 April 1999 gunfire erupted in a suburban high school in Littleton, Colorado, near Denver. Seniors Eric Harris, eighteen, and Dylan Klebold, seventeen, killed fifteen people total, and sent more than twenty others to hospitals with gunshot and shrapnel wounds, before turning their weapons on themselves. This attack was the deadliest school shooting in American history. Television images were broadcast nationwide of students fleeing from the building with their hands above their heads. Not shown were wounded victims still inside the school and beyond police help. Hundreds of officers from throughout the Denver area surrounded the school. Reflecting the ease with which children use technology, some students called their parents, the police, and television stations on cellular phones from inside the building. Nearby schools were locked and students were prohibited from entering or leaving for hours. Law enforcement officers found dozens of explosives in the school and parking lot, including a twenty-pound propane bomb. For several days Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents and police SWAT teams searched for and removed devices that Harris and Klebold had hidden throughout the building.

Other School Shootings

The Columbine rampage was only one in a string of dozens of school shootings. On 2 February 1996 a fourteen-year-old student armed with a high-powered hunting rifle walked into his junior high school algebra class in Moses Lake, Washington, and killed two students and his teacher. On 19 February 1997 in Bethel, Alaska, a sixteen-year-old boy hid a shotgun in his pant leg until he reached school where he killed a classmate and the principal. After beating and stabbing to death his mother, a high school student in Pearl, Mississippi, shot and killed two students on 1 October 1997. Three students were killed and five others wounded on 1 December 1997 in West Paducah, Kentucky. The following year several individuals were killed in shooting incidents: a teacher was slain in Edinboro, Pennsylvania; four students and a teacher died in Jonesboro, Arkansas; and two students, as well as the assailant's parents, were killed in Springfield, Oregon. Scores of youngsters were arrested for carrying weapons to, and for threatening violence at, their schools. While high-profile cases involved suburban, white, middle-class students, the majority' of children killed at school were from lower income areas and were black.

Precautions

In the wake of suburban school shootings, administrators began increasing security measures, installing metal detectors, requiring see-though book bags, initiating routine checks of student lockers, employing security guards, instituting "zero-tolerance" policies for violence, and implementing early intervention programs for students with potential behavioral problems. Congress considered legislation that would make funds available to schools for security, impose stricter gun-control measures, restrict juvenile gun ownership, and hold parents criminally responsible when their children used their guns to commit crimes. Legislators also began searching for ways to limit children's access to Internet sites with violent content.

Why Kids Kill

The rash of school violence left parents, school administrators, and the nation wondering what causes middle-class, suburban children from two-parent homes to commit such crimes. Some blamed violent television programs, movies, video games, music, and the Internet. Others attributed responsibility to the ease with which youth have access to guns and a lack of parental guidance.

Rising Crime Rates

Violence by and against youth was not confined to schools. According to the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice, juveniles between the ages of twelve and seventeen who were arrested for serious crimes such as murder, rape, assault, drug offenses, and robbery increased substantially, peaking in 1994. Juveniles accounted for 17 percent of all murder arrests and one of every ten convictions. In terms of race and gender, the juvenile homicide rate was highest among black males, followed by white males, and then black females. Young black males committed 175 murders per 100,000 in 1990; this figure peaked at 244 in 1993. Arrests of juveniles for robbery, aggravated assault, weapons violations, drug offenses, and motor vehicle theft also increased steadily early in the decade, almost doubling since the mid 1980s. This rapid increase, however, was followed by a steady decline. By the end of the decade, the juvenile violent-crime rate was at its lowest level, but still well above 1980s rates.

Teen Drug Use

While most youth crime began to decline, a notable exception was drug use. The number of teens illegally using alcohol also increased. In a 1998 survey, four out of five high-school seniors reported that they had tried alcohol at least once; half admitted to using it within the last month. Even among eighth graders the use of alcohol was high: one-half had tried alcohol and almost one-quarter said they had used it within one month prior to the survey. Of greater concern were juveniles who admitted to heavy drinking (five or more drinks consecutively). Thirty-one percent of seniors, 24 percent of tenth graders, and 14 percent of eighth graders reported this behavior. Tobacco use was less prevalent than alcohol abuse. Federal law prohibits the sale of tobacco prodcuts to individuals under the age of eighteen. In 1998, however, 65 percent of twelfth graders and 46 percent of eighth graders had tried cigarettes. Twenty-two percent of high school seniors, 16 percent of tenth graders, and 9 percent of eighth graders admitted to smoking cigarettes on a regular basis. More than half of high school seniors confessed to using illicit drugs (marijuana, stimulants, inhalants, LSD, cocaine, crack cocaine, steroids, and heroin). Marijuana was by far the most commonly used illicit drug. In 1998, 49 percent of twelfth graders said they had used marijuana. Just under 30 percent of seniors had used other illicit drugs. About one in ten twelfth graders reported having used cocaine and one in twenty admitted using crack cocaine. Studies also indicated that 15 percent of high school seniors had used inhalants, 13 percent had tried LSD, and 2 percent had abused heroin. Drug, alcohol, and tobacco use was more common among males than females, and more prevalent among whites and Hispanics than blacks. Statistics also showed that youth who used drugs were more likely to engage in other illegal activities, including robbery, assaults, and weapons violations.

Juvenile Victimization

As the juvenile crime rate rose, so too did the number of juvenile victims, most dramatically between 1990 and 1993. By 1996, however, the rate declined to its lowest point in the decade. Juveniles between the ages of fifteen and seventeen were more likely to be victims of rape, aggravated assault, and simple assault than persons in any other age group. They were also more likely to be victims of robbery than persons more than twenty-five years of age. One-third of all sexual assaults reported to law enforcement involved victims younger than twelve. Forty-three percent of these victims were assaulted by juveniles. Of sexual assault victims between the ages of seven and eleven, 34 percent of the offenders were juveniles. Victims under the age of six were assaulted by juveniles 43 percent of the time. In most cases, the offender was either a family member or acquaintance. The murder rate for juveniles peaked in 1993 at 2,900, about four murders for every 100,000 persons under the age of eighteen. By 1997 this figure had dropped to 2,100, or about three murders per 100,000. Unlike the pattern for adult murders, however, youth homicides by the end of the decade were still substantially higher than levels in the mid 1980s, when about sixteen hundred juveniles were murdered annually. In 1997, 11 percent of all persons murdered were under the age of eighteen. Thirty-three percent were under the age of six and 50 percent were between the ages of 15 and 17; 70 percent were male, 47 percent were black, 56 percent were killed with a firearm, and 40 percent were slain by a family member.

Firearms

The rise in the juvenile murder rate was attributed to increased use of firearms. Homicides in which no fire-arms were involved remained relatively constant. Gun-related death rates rose substantially beginning in the late 1980s. Studies showed that when juveniles killed other children, the victims were usually acquaintances of the offender and fire-arms were commonly used.

Tougher Penalties

Unprecedented change was needed as states tried to reduce teen crime. By the end of the decade forty-seven states and the District of Columbia had enacted legislation that made juvenile justice more punitive. These laws generally included allowing, if not encouraging, juveniles charged with serious crimes to be transferred to adult criminal courts and then, if convicted, sentenced to adult correctional facilities. In 1987 just under seven thousand cases involving youth were transferred to adult criminal courts. This number increased to ten thousand by 1996. Most cases involved assaults, murders, and drug offenses. Ninety-five percent of juveniles transferred to adult courts were males, the majority of whom were older than sixteen. By the end of the decade thirty-five states automatically excluded serious drug offenses and crimes against persons from juvenile courts. Moreover, states increasingly eased confidentiality protection for youthful offenders and opened records to the public.

Behind Bars

The number of persons under age eighteen that were incarcerated in state and federal prisons decreased slightly from 6 percent of the population to 4 percent. Juveniles held in local jails, however, increased dramatically. In 1990, 2,301 young offenders were held in local jails. By 1997 this figure increased to 9,105. By mid decade youthful offenders held as adults significantly out-paced those detained as juveniles. A slight decrease in the juvenile population held in local correction facilities was evident at the end of the decade.

Boot Camp

In response to the increase in juvenile arrests and growing costs of incarceration, several states and many localities established juvenile boot camps. The first such programs, modeled after boot camps for adult offenders, emphasized military-style discipline and physical conditioning. In 1992 the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention of the U.S. Justice Department funded three juvenile boot camps designed to address the special needs and circumstances of adolescent offenders. The programs were conducted in Cleveland, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Mobile, Alabama. Focusing on a target population of adjudicated, nonviolent offenders between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, boot-camp programs were designed as highly structured, three-month residential programs followed by six to nine months of community-based follow-up programs for continued rehabilitation and counseling. Most youths selected for the programs were nonviolent, repeat offenders. With a strong commitment to continued academic education, personal discipline, counseling, and a strong work ethic, the camps, usually located on the grounds of an existing correctional facility, imposed highly regimented programs with platoon-like organization. "Recruits" were provided with Spartan living facilities and required to wear uniforms and use military language, customs, and courtesies. There were onsite drill instructors with military backgrounds, teachers, and case managers. For 80 to 95 percent of recruits who completed the residential phase, there was a public graduation. By 1998 twenty-seven states had initiated boot camps for nonviolent youthful offenders.