Characteristics of Crimes Against Juveniles

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

John J. Wilson, Acting Administrator June 2000

Characteristics From the Administrator The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting of Crimes Against (UCR) system and the Bureau of Jus- tice Statistics’ National Crime Victim- Juveniles ization Survey do not collect information about crimes committed against persons under 12 years of age and thus do not provide a comprehensive David Finkelhor and Richard Ormrod picture of juvenile crime victimization. Designed to replace UCR as the na- The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) is committed to tional database for crimes reported to improving the justice system’s response to crimes against children. OJJDP recognizes law enforcement, the FBI’s National that children are at increased risk for crime victimization. Not only are children the vic- Incident-Based Reporting System tims of many of the same crimes that victimize adults, they are subject to other crimes, (NIBRS) includes detailed data about juvenile victims. like child abuse and neglect, that are specific to childhood. The impact of these crimes on young victims can be devastating, and the violent or sexual victimization of children This Bulletin reviews data from the 1997 NIBRS data file that pertain to can often lead to an intergenerational cycle of violence and abuse. The purpose of juvenile victims, revealing that while OJJDP’s Crimes Against Children Series is to improve and expand the Nation’s efforts juveniles made up 26 percent in the to better serve child victims by presenting the latest information about child victimization, population of the 12 States participating including analyses of crime victimization statistics, studies of child victims and their spe- in NIBRS in 1997, they accounted for only 12 percent of the reported crime cial needs, and descriptions of programs and approaches that address these needs. victims. At the same time, however, 71 percent of all sex crime victims and 38 percent of all kidnaping victims reported Until recently, it has been difficult to ob- crimes that are committed against juve- to NIBRS were juveniles. tain a national statistical picture of juveniles (youth ages 17 and younger) has nile crime victimization. The Uniform been unavailable. Although the data collected from the Crime Reporting (UCR) system, which has States participating in NIBRS in 1997 served as the Nation’s primary source of The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s were not necessarily representative of (FBI’s) developing National Incident- information about crime since 1929, has the Nation as a whole, they represent never collected information or reported Based Reporting System (NIBRS), how- a considerable number of reported ever, does provide detailed statistical crimes by age of victim, with the excep- crimes and thus constitute an invalu- tion of homicides. The National Crime information about juvenile victims of re- able resource for crime analysis. As ported crimes. As more jurisdictions be- Victimization Survey (NCVS), the victim the Bulletin’s authors conclude, NIBRS self-report survey conducted by the U.S. gin to participate in NIBRS, the outlines should prove a crucial tool in years to of a national picture of juvenile crime Department of Commerce, Bureau of the come for researchers and practitioners Census on behalf of the U.S. Department victims are beginning to emerge. Even seeking to improve public policies though NIBRS is far from a comprehen- of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics for regarding juvenile crime victims. the past 20 years, has collected data only sive national data system, the fact that only partial data were available previ- John J. Wilson on crimes occurring to persons 12 years Acting Administrator of age or older. Consequently, even such a ously makes it particularly useful to see what information about juvenile victims basic fact as the percentage of all violent can be gleaned from this system. An analysis of 1997 NIBRS data from jurisdictions in 12 States reveals some key Figure 1: Juvenile versus Adult Victimization, by Type of Crime and findings: Victim’s Age Group ◆ Juveniles make up 12 percent of All Crimes all crime victims known to police, including 71 percent of all sex crime vic- Sex Offenses* tims and 38 percent of all kidnaping Kidnaping victims (figure 1). Aggravated Assault ◆ Simple assault is the most commonly Simple Assault reported crime against juveniles, con- Robbery stituting 41 percent of all juvenile victimizations reported to police (figure Homicide 2). Sexual offenses make up 12 percent, Larceny aggravated assaults 11 percent, and Vandalism kidnapings 1 percent of all the crimes against juveniles reported to police. Motor Vehicle Theft 0 2030 40 50 60 70 8090 100 ◆ Girls predominate as victims of sex 10 offenses and kidnaping, but boys pre- Percentage of All Victims for Each Type of Crime dominate as victims of all other crimes. ◆ Children under age 12 make up ap- Juvenile Adult proximately one-quarter of all juvenile victims known to police and at least * Sex offenses against juveniles include forcible (64 percent) and nonforcible (7 percent) one-half of the juvenile victims offenses. of kidnaping and forcible sex offenses. Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System ◆ (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children Adult offenders are responsible for 55 Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. percent of juvenile victimizations, most disproportionately for kidnaping, sex offenses, and the victimizations of children younger than 6 and older than 15. Figure 2: Juvenile Victimization, by Type of Crime ◆ Family perpetrators make up 20 percent of the offenders against children, Simple Assault but they make up a majority of offend- Larceny ers against children under age 4 and Sex Offenses* are disproportionately represented among kidnapers and sex offenders. Aggravated Assault Vandalism NIBRS Data on Robbery Juvenile Victims Kidnaping NIBRS is designed to become the national Motor Vehicle Theft statistical database on crimes coming to Homicide the attention of law enforcement agencies. All Others It collects more detailed information about individual crimes, victims, perpetrators, 0 1020304050 and crime characteristics than is available Percentage of All Crimes Against Juveniles from the Uniform Crime Reporting pro- gram, the system it is intended to replace. * Sex offenses against juveniles include forcible (11 percent) and nonforcible (1 percent) Because NIBRS data include the age of offenses. juvenile victims (to the nearest year in Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System most cases), victim age is one of the im- (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children portant new variables that NIBRS makes Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. available for the profiling of crime. NIBRS also provides detailed information on other victim characteristics, crime type, For example, assault can involve aggra- vidual victims, including theft and vandal- and victimization circumstances. Data vated assault, simple assault, or intimida- ism, and nonforcible sex offenses such as are collected on numerous categories of tion, while sexual assault encompasses statutory rape and nonforcible incest. Al- crime, including homicide, assault, kid- forcible rape, forcible sodomy, sexual as- though homicide is the most serious vio- naping, robbery, and sexual assault, and sault with an object, and forcible fondling. lent crime and NIBRS collects data about on specific offenses within each category. NIBRS also collects information on non- homicide, it is not analyzed here. Other violent crimes that can be linked to indi- more complete and detailed national data

2 sets on this crime are available and have known to police. After that, in decreasing crimes against juveniles receive a lion’s been analyzed elsewhere (Finkelhor, 1997; order of magnitude, are larceny, sex of- share of public attention, they constitute Finkelhor and Ormrod, in press). fenses, aggravated assault, vandalism, a minority of the offenses against juve- robbery, kidnaping, motor vehicle theft, niles that are reported. In addition to information about the vic- and homicide. There is a set of additional tim and type of offense, NIBRS reports a Gender disparities among juvenile property crimes, such as burglary, arson, wealth of details about the circumstances and fraud, with a small number of juvenile crime victims parallel gender differ- of an incident. Among other particulars, ences for crime victims in general (fig- victims recorded in NIBRS. These crimes incident time and location are recorded, are categorized as “all others” in figure 2, ure 3). Girls outnumber boys as victims facts about perpetrators are listed, use of sex offenses (82 percent and 18 per- but, along with homicide, are not dis- of weapons and weapon types are noted, cussed individually in this Bulletin. cent, respectively) and kidnaping (63 and stolen property is cataloged. Thus, percent and 37 percent, respectively), NIBRS provides information for a fuller Although sexual assault is the crime with while boys outnumber girls as victims description of juvenile victimizations the highest percentage of juvenile vic- of robbery (81 percent and 19 percent, coming to the attention of the police, tims, it is the third most common juve- respectively) and larceny (69 percent both in terms of victim characteristics nile crime reported, behind simple as- and 31 percent, respectively). Overall, and incident attributes, than was previ- sault and larceny. This is true, even with boys are somewhat more likely to be ously available in the UCR.1 female victims, for whom sex offenses victimized than girls (55 percent and constitute 35 percent of all the reported 45 percent, respectively), which is ap- victimizations. Therefore, while sex proximately the gender ratio for the Juvenile and Adult Victims Juveniles make up 12 percent of all the The National Incident-Based Reporting System crime victims reported in the police jurisdictions providing NIBRS data, notably less The U.S. Department of Justice is re- local agencies is voluntary and incre- than the percentage of juveniles in both placing its long-established Uniform mental. By 1995, jurisdictions in 9 the total U.S. population (26 percent) and Crime Report (UCR) system with a more States had agencies contributing data; the States currently represented in NIBRS comprehensive National Incident-Based by 1997, the number was 12, and by the (also 26 percent). Individual crimes vary a Reporting System (NIBRS). While the end of 1999, jurisdictions in 17 States great deal in their proportion of juvenile UCR monitors only a limited number of submitted reports, providing coverage victims (figure 1). For two crimes in par- index crimes and, with the exception of for 11 percent of the Nation’s population ticular, sex offenses and kidnaping, juve- homicides, gathers few details on each and 9 percent of its crime. Only three niles make up a quite disproportionate crime event, the NIBRS system collects States (Idaho, Iowa, and South Caro- portion of the victim population. Juveniles a wide range of information on victims, lina) have participation from all local constitute smaller proportions of the vic- offenders, and circumstances for a jurisdictions, and only one city with a tims of the following crime categories: ag- greatly increased variety of offenses. population greater than 500,000 (Austin, gravated assault (19 percent), simple as- Offenses tracked in NIBRS include vio- TX) is reporting. The crime experiences sault (19 percent), robbery (14 percent), lent crimes (e.g., homicide, assault, of large urban areas are particularly homicide (12 percent), larceny (8 percent), rape, robbery), property crimes (e.g., underrepresented. The system, there- vandalism (4 percent), and motor vehicle theft, arson, vandalism, fraud, embezzle- fore, is not yet nationally representative theft (2 percent). The low percentage for ment), and crimes against society (e.g., nor do findings represent national trends motor vehicle theft is obviously related to drug offenses, gambling, prostitution). or national statistics. Nevertheless, the the small number of juveniles who own Moreover, NIBRS collects information on system is assembling large amounts of motor vehicles. Overall, juveniles make up multiple victims, multiple offenders, and crime information and providing a rich- 22 percent of violent crime victims and 6 multiple crimes that may be part of the ness of detail about juvenile victimiza- percent of property crime victims (when same episode. tions previously unavailable. The pat- individuals rather than institutions are terns and associations these data reveal Under the new system, as with the old, identified as victims). are real and represent the experiences local law enforcement personnel compile of a large number of youth. For 1997, information on crimes coming to their In addition to the percentage of juvenile the 12 participating States reported a attention, and this information is aggre- victims for various crimes, NIBRS data total of 1,043,719 crimes against indi- gated in turn at the State and national can also provide a perspective on the viduals, with 119,852 occurring against levels. For a crime to be counted in the mix of different kinds of crimes being juveniles. Nevertheless, patterns may system, it simply needs to be reported reported by juveniles (figure 2). Simple change as more jurisdictions join the and investigated. It is not necessary that assault is by far the most common crime system. committed against juveniles, constituting an incident be cleared or an arrest 41 percent of all offenses against juveniles made, although unfounded reports are More information about NIBRS data deleted from the record. collection can be found at these Web sites: (1) www.jrsa.org/ibrrc/, (2) NIBRS holds great promise, but it is 1 Victims or offenders involved in multiple incidents in www.fbi.gov/ucr/nibrs/manuals/v1all.pdf, still far from a national system. Its a given year will appear in the NIBRS database more (3) www.fbi.gov/ucr/nibrs.htm, and (4) implementation by the FBI began in than once, counted as separate victims and offenders. www.nibrs.search.org/. Thus, NIBRS data may overrepresent characteristics of 1988, and participation by States and victims and offenders who appear more frequently.

3 most common juvenile victimization— simple assault. Figure 3: Juvenile Victimization, by Type of Crime and Victim’s Gender Comparisons of figure 1 and figure 3 show sex offenses as the crime with the highest All Crimes proportion of juvenile victims and also Sex Offenses the highest proportion of female victims. Kidnaping However, an examination of the gender and age patterns of specific sex crimes Simple Assault shows some variability (figure 4). For Vandalism forcible rape, juveniles constitute about half of the female victims, whereas for Aggravated Assault forcible fondling and incest, they repre- Motor Vehicle Theft sent close to 80 percent or more. (Statu- Larceny tory rape is by definition a crime against juveniles.) For male sexual assault vic- Robbery tims, there is less variability by type of 010 2040608010030 50 70 90 sex offense. Juveniles account for almost 90 percent of male victims in every type Percentage of Juvenile Victims for Each Type of Crime of sex crime. Thus, in terms of what comes to the attention of police in NIBRS Male Female jurisdictions, male sexual victimization almost entirely involves juveniles. Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System Juvenile crime victims are slightly more (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. likely to be from minority backgrounds than adult victims (22 percent and 19 percent, respectively). Compared with sented relative to white juveniles as vic- They are underrepresented as victims of levels reported for “all crimes,” minority tims of violent crimes, especially aggra- the property crimes of larceny, vandal- juveniles are particularly overrepre- vated assault and robbery (figure 5). ism, and motor vehicle theft.

The Crimes against Children Research Center The Crimes against Children Research Center (CCRC) violence, child victimization, and related topics since 1975. helps young victims of crime by providing high quality Initial funding for CCRC was provided by the U.S. Depart- research, statistics, and education to the public, policy- ment of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of makers, law enforcement personnel, and various other Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. CCRC also child welfare practitioners. The crimes of concern to CCRC draws on funding from grants, individual gifts, revenues include physical and sexual abuse, abduction, homicide, from publications and programs, and State and Federal rape, assault, property offenses, and the victimization of sources. CCRC staff include internationally recognized children on the Internet. CCRC activities include: experts who have published numerous books and articles concerning the incidence and impact of violence against ◆ Preparing policy reports on key current issues. children. ◆ Analyzing national and local statistics on crimes The Center’s current projects include the first national study against children. of youth victimization experiences on the Internet; a national ◆ Developing assessment tools for practitioners and evaluation of children’s advocacy centers, multidisciplinary researchers. agencies that are designed to reduce trauma to children whose crime victimization is being investigated and pros- ◆ Promoting crime reporting and help-seeking by and ecuted; and the development of a screening tool to help increased services for crime victims. researchers and practitioners better identify child crime ◆ Evaluating state-of-the-art prevention and intervention victims. programs. A list of CCRC publications is available online at ◆ Sponsoring conferences, workshops, institutes, and www.unh.edu/ccrc/pubs.html. For further information courses for practitioners and researchers. contact: ◆ Monitoring and interpreting trends. Crimes against Children Research Center Family Research Laboratory The Crimes against Children Research Center was created University of New Hampshire in 1998 at the University of New Hampshire. It grew out of Durham, NH 03824 and expands upon the work of the Family Research 603–862–1888 Laboratory, which has been devoted to the study of family Internet: www.unh.edu/ccrc/

4 Crime Victimization Figure 4: Juvenile Sexual Victimization, by Type of Crime, Victim’s and the Stages of Gender, and Victim’s Age Group Childhood Childhood is a period characterized by All Sex Offenses dramatic developmental changes, so gen- eralizations about all juvenile victims must be tempered by a recognition of the Forcible Rape effects of age differences. Crimes need to be analyzed as to how they are distrib- uted across the various stages of child- Forcible Sodomy hood, an exercise elsewhere called “developmental victimology” (Finkelhor, 1995). Sexual Assault This Bulletin uses the year-by-year age With Object categories available in NIBRS to capture these different patterns. Forcible Fondling Substantially more crime is reported for teenagers (youth ages 12 to 17) than for preteens (youth ages 11 and younger) (fig- Incest ure 6). Teenagers account for 78 percent of all juvenile crime victimizations reported Statutory Rape by NIBRS jurisdictions. However, it is not certain to what extent teenagers are actu- ally more victimized than younger chil- 0 102030405060708090100 dren. Many self-report studies, including the NCVS, show uniformly high rates of Percentage of All Male or Female Victims for Each Type of Crime victimization for younger (ages 12–14) and older (ages 15–17) teenagers, and some Male (Juvenile/Adult) Female (Juvenile/Adult) studies show rates nearly as high for children ages 10 and 11 (Finkelhor, 1998). Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System Thus, the association between victimiza- (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. tion and age shown in figure 6 may be an effect of the less frequent reporting of crimes involving younger victims to the police. NCVS data clearly show that older teenagers are more likely than younger teenagers (and presumably preteens) to Figure 5: Juvenile Victimization, by Type of Crime and Victim’s Race or report crimes to the police (Finkelhor and Ethnicity Ormrod, 1999). Combining this with the finding that overall crimes against juve- All Crimes niles are less likely to be reported to police than crimes against adults suggests that Sex Offenses police data in general and NIBRS data in Simple Assault particular are not good indicators of the Aggravated Assault true burden of crime victimization by age group, but only the relative proportions of Robbery these victimizations that police are likely Kidnaping to encounter. Larceny From this reported-crime vantage point, some crimes, like kidnaping, have a rela- Vandalism tively large number of preteen victims Motor Vehicle Theft (57 percent). Others, like robbery, have relatively few (14 percent). Figure 7 sug- 0 102030405060708090100 gests that there are three broad patterns Percentage of Juvenile Victims for Each Type of Crime of police-reported juvenile crime victimization that emerge when NIBRS data are ex- White Black Hispanic (any race) amined by the victim’s age group. There are crimes that are reported almost exclu- Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System sively by teenagers and rarely by preteens (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children (less than 10 percent), what might be Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. called the “teen-exclusive” pattern, motor

5 NIBRS Compared to UCR and NCVS

Since the National Incident-Based Re- The correspondencies found in both of nationally representative, they never- porting System (NIBRS) does not pro- these comparisons suggest that, while theless exhibit important similarities to vide national coverage, it is reasonable NIBRS data cannot be assumed to be national crime victimization patterns. to ask whether the patterns found in its records are consistent with those of true national data sets. In particular, it is Table 1: Comparison of Crime Patterns in NIBRS and UCR, 1997 worth considering how closely NIBRS patterns match equivalent patterns de- Percent Distribution rived from the Uniform Crime Reporting Crime Index Offense UCR NIBRS (UCR) system and National Crime Vic- timization Survey (NCVS), both of which Homicide 0.1 0.1 are nationally representative. The pres- Forcible Rape 0.7 0.8 ence of parallel data would suggest the degree to which the NIBRS juris- Robbery 3.8 1.8 dictions are consistent with overall Aggravated Assault 7.8 7.2 national patterns. Burglary 18.7 18.2 UCR tallies only the total number of Larceny 58.6 64.7 crimes known to police, tracking a se- Motor Vehicle Theft 10.3 7.2 lected set of “index” offenses, including homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggra- Notes: UCR tabulations contain “estimations” in some circumstances. UCR counts apply a vated assault, burglary, larceny, and mo- “hierarchy rule” where only the most serious offense is counted in multiple offense, multiple victim tor vehicle theft. With the exception of incidents; therefore, NIBRS incidents were evaluated for most serious offense. UCR covers 95 homicide, it assembles no information percent of the U.S. population. In UCR, forcible rape only includes female victims; therefore, male on the details of crime incidents. While rape victims were excluded from NIBRS counts. UCR offense codes and NIBRS offense codes UCR and NIBRS cannot be compared are identical. on specific victim characteristics, their Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System relative counts can be matched, reveal- (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by the Crimes against Children Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. ing that the relative numbers of index Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), Uniform Crime Reports for the United States, 1997, crimes reported in 1997 by UCR and Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. NIBRS are generally proportionate (table 1). The relative underreporting of robbery and motor vehicle theft by NIBRS compared to UCR may reflect Table 2: Comparison of Victim Ages in NCVS and NIBRS, 1997 the absence of large urban areas among the NIBRS reporting jurisdictions. The Percent Distribution greater relative frequency of larceny in Offense Type Victim Age Group NCVS NIBRS NIBRS statistically compensates for the underreporting of these offenses. All Violent Crime Juvenile 16 17 Crime victimizations reported in NCVS also share similarities with patterns Adult 84 83 Robbery present in the NIBRS data. NCVS collects detailed information on incidents Juvenile 13 12 Adult 87 88 and victims, allowing more focused comparisons with NIBRS than are pos- Assault Juvenile 16 16 sible with UCR. For example, a comparison of the relative number of adult Adult 84 84 Forcible Sex and juvenile victims for violent crimes known to police yields notable parallels Juvenile 34 53 Adult 66 47 (table 2). “All violent crime,” “robbery,” and “assault” have quite similar propor- Notes: NCVS only interviews persons 12 years of age and older; therefore, juveniles younger than tions of adult and juvenile victims in 12 were excluded from NIBRS counts. NIBRS records only incidents known to police; therefore, both data sets. Only forcible sex of- only such incidents from NCVS are used. fenses show differences between the Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System two, with the proportions of adult and (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by the Crimes against Children juvenile sex victimizations more equal Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. in NIBRS than NCVS. Bureau of Justice Statistics (1999), National Crime Victimization Survey, 1992–1997, Computer file, seventh edition, Survey conducted by U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.

6 vehicle theft being the classic case. There are other crimes, such as kidnaping, that Figure 6: Juvenile Victimization (All Crimes), by Victim’s Age and are reported across all stages of childhood Victim’s Gender with both teens and preteens, including many preschoolers, experiencing substan- 30 tial levels of victimization, what might be called a “transchildhood” pattern. Finally, 25 there are crimes that are reported disproportionately among teens but also to some 20 modest degree (more than 10 percent) among preteens, what might be called a 15 “teen-predominant” pattern, which would describe the pattern for simple and aggra- 10 vated assault. Individual sex crimes can also be charac- 5 terized with these patterns (figure 8). Percentage of Juvenile Victims of Juvenile Percentage Statutory rape is a teen-exclusive pat- 0 tern crime. Forcible sodomy, sexual as- <1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011 12 13 14 15 16 17 saults with objects, forcible fondling, Victim Age and incest all appear to be transchildhood pattern crimes, with substantial Male Female All proportions of victims ages 6 to 11 and even younger. Forcible rape conforms to the teen-predominant pattern, with Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children approximately 24 percent of victims Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. younger than age 12. Of course, these patterns are not necessarily illustrative of the true distribution of crime because they reflect patterns of reporting and may also be influenced by the way Figure 7: Juvenile Victimization, by Type of Crime and Victim’s Age Group crimes are defined or classified. Kidnaping Perpetrators Against Forcible Sex Juveniles Aggravated Assault As figure 9 shows, in incidents where Simple Assault knowledge of perpetrators allows their Nonforcible Sex identification as family member, acquain- Robbery tance, or stranger, most offenders against juveniles (80 percent) are known to the Larceny victim (i.e., the offender is a family mem- Vandalism ber or an acquaintance). Only 11 percent of the child victimizers in violent crimes Motor Vehicle Theft are strangers, suggesting that while 0 102030405060708090100 “stranger danger” may be an important concept in child safety training, it is far Percentage of Juvenile Victims for Each Type of Crime from sufficient. There are two violent crimes with relatively higher percentages Under 6 Years 6Ð11 Years 12Ð17 Years of stranger perpetrators—kidnaping (24 percent) and robbery (52 percent). Kid- Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System naping, however, also has a relatively high (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children percentage of family offenders (38 per- Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. cent) as do sex offenses (28 percent). Despite the stereotypes about stranger molesters and rapists, sex offenses are imagined. Adults are responsible for 55 crimes to be reported to the police, a the crimes least likely to involve strang- percent of the juvenile victimizations reality reflected in the NCVS self-reported ers as perpetrators. known to police and constitute 47 per- data (Finkelhor and Ormrod, 1999). cent of all identified offenders against Juveniles are more likely than adults to In the NIBRS jurisdictions, the percentage juveniles. However, NIBRS data may exag- be victimized by other juveniles, but their gerate the percentage of adult offenders, of adult perpetrators is highest for kid- victimization is much less exclusively at naping and sex offenses against juveniles, because adult-perpetrated crimes are the hands of juveniles than might be more likely than juvenile-perpetrated consistent with the stereotype, but there

7 is no specific crime, not even simple as- Figure 8: Juvenile Sexual Victimization, by Type of Crime and Victim’s sault, for which the percentage of adult Age Group perpetrators (among all identified perpetrators) falls below 40 percent (figure 10). Thus, a substantial portion of the crimes Forcible Sodomy reported to police involving child victims Sexual Assault are cases that have the potential to be With Object processed in the criminal (as opposed to juvenile) court. Conversely, kidnaping Forcible Fondling and sex crimes against juveniles have a certain number of juvenile perpetrators Incest (12 percent and 36 percent, respectively), something not necessarily reflected in Forcible Rape the stereotypes of these crimes. The characteristics of perpetrators Statutory Rape change quite dramatically, depending on the age of the victim (figure 11). For ex- 0 102030405060708090100 ample, family perpetrators commit most Percentage of Juvenile Victims for Each Type of Crime of the reported crimes against juveniles younger than age 5, but this percentage Under 6 Years 6Ð11 Years 12Ð17 Years declines steadily until adolescence, when family members constitute less than 20 Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System percent of all perpetrators. In a nearly (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children mirror opposite trend, the percentage of Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. acquaintance perpetrators rises through- out childhood, reaching a steady level of approximately 70 percent for victims ages 12 and older. The percentage of perpetrators who are strangers also rises slightly, Figure 9: Juvenile Victimization, by Type of Crime and Offender’s but not dramatically, as juvenile victims Relationship to the Victim grow older and spend more time in public areas. Violent Crimes* In NIBRS incident reports, the ratio of adult perpetrators to juvenile perpetrators also Kidnaping changes with the age of the victim (figure 12). Adult perpetrators predominate for Sex Offenses children younger than age 7, but during school years juvenile perpetrators pre- Simple Assault vail, until the late teenage years. Then, as juvenile victims come closer to maturity Aggravated Assault and more of their peers reach adulthood (age 18), the level of adult perpetration Robbery rises once again. It may also be that as juvenile offenders reach adult status, they 0 102030405060708090100 are more likely to be reported to the police, a pattern suggested by an analysis of Percentage of All Offenders Against Juveniles for Each Type of Crime NCVS data on reporting (Finkelhor and Ormrod, 1999). Family Acquaintance Stranger Unidentified Figure 13 combines the offender’s age (ju- * Includes nonforcible sex offenses. Property crimes other than robbery are excluded here venile or adult) and relationship to the because most property crime offenders remain unidentified, and therefore, these offender victim (family, acquaintance, or stranger) patterns are likely to be unreliable. to show some more specific victimization patterns for juveniles at different stages Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children of childhood. Whereas the percentage of Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. adult family perpetrators (dark green solid line) shows a steady decline as children grow older (as suggested in figure 11), the

8 percentage of juvenile family perpetrators (black dashed line) follows a different pat- Figure 10: Juvenile Victimization, by Type of Crime and Offender’s tern. Incidents involving juvenile family Age Group offenders (mostly brothers and sisters) increase a bit after infancy (while incidents All Crimes of parent perpetration are declining) and then remain elevated for victims ages 3 to 8, after which they, too, subside. Adult and Kidnaping juvenile acquaintance perpetrators also show different patterns. Juveniles account Sex Offenses for most of the increase in incidents committed by acquaintance perpetrators Aggravated Assault against children 8 and younger (medium gray dashed line). During that same time, Robbery adult acquaintance perpetration—which is quite high for preschoolers—declines Simple Assault to a slight degree (medium green solid line). However, starting in adolescence, 0 102030405060708090100 offenses committed by juvenile acquaintances decline dramatically, while crimes Percentage of All Identified Offenders Against perpetrated by adult acquaintances dra- Juveniles for Each Type of Crime matically increase. Offenses committed by strangers also have different patterns for Adult Juvenile juvenile and adult perpetrators. Adult strangers (light green solid line) pose the Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System biggest risk to infants and youth in their (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. late teens. Juvenile strangers (light gray dashed line) pose the greatest peril to victims in the late elementary school years.

In contrast with their levels in official Figure 11: Juvenile Victimization (All Crimes), by Victim’s Age and child abuse statistics (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Offender’s Relationship to the Victim Bureau, 1999), female offenders are rela- 80 tively scarce in data from NIBRS jurisdictions on crimes against juveniles. They 70 constitute 24 percent of the offenders in 60 violent crimes against juveniles, only slightly higher than their proportion of 50 offenders in crimes against adults. Females constitute 36 percent of offenders in violent 40 crimes against children younger than age 1 30 and a minority of the offenders committing sex offenses against juvenile male victims. 20 This suggests that female-perpetrated child 10

abuse is less likely than male-perpetrated at Each Age Against Juveniles child abuse to be reported to the police 0 by child welfare authorities, a conclusion of All Identified Offenders Percentage <1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011 12 13 14 15 16 17 suggested by early data from the child Victim Age welfare system itself (Finkelhor, 1983). Family Acquaintance Stranger Preteen Victims Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System One of the biggest opportunities data from (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children NIBRS jurisdictions provide is the possibil- Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. ity of looking at crimes against children under age 12, a segment of the population that is not covered by the extensive self- report crime victimization information that has been available from the NCVS.

9 Although children younger than age 12 Figure 12: Juvenile Victimization (All Crimes), by Victim’s Age and represent only a small percentage of all Offender Age Group reported victims (3 percent of all crimes and 6 percent of crimes against persons), 100 their crime profile is unusual (table 3). Sexual assault accounts for almost one- 90 third of this preteen victimization, more 80 than twice the proportion for older juveniles, and family offenders make up one- 70 third of the offenders against this group, 60 twice the proportion for older juveniles. The familial and sexual nature of the crimes 50 underscores some of the challenges this 40 victim group poses for law enforcement. Victim and family cooperation with law 30 enforcement is often problematic, as is 20 the need to mitigate victim distress and

Against Juveniles at Each Age Against Juveniles trauma. 10 Percentage of All Identified Offenders Percentage 0 <1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91011 12 13 14 15 16 17 Conclusion If patterns of crime against juveniles in Victim Age the rest of the country parallel the patterns from the jurisdictions now report- Juvenile Offender Adult Offender ing to NIBRS, it would appear that crimes Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System against juveniles constitute about one- (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children eighth of all the crimes currently re- Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. ported to law enforcement officials. How- ever, these crimes carry special burdens. More than 70 percent of reported sex offenses involve juvenile victims. More- over, crimes against children involve Figure 13: Juvenile Victimization (All Crimes), by Victim’s Age, Offender’s special investigatory and prosecutorial Age Group, and Offender’s Relationship to the Victim challenges. Some of these relate to the young age of victims—approximately one- 70 quarter of juvenile victims are under age 12. Some of these relate to the intimate 60 character of the perpetrators, 20 percent of whom are family and 61 percent of 50 whom are acquaintances.

40 The developing NIBRS database offers some welcome opportunities for analyz- 30 ing and tracking this special category of crime victims. For example, it allows 20 analysis of changes in crime victimization patterns across the stages of child- 10 hood. It also offers opportunities to look

Percentage of Crimes Against Percentage at special offender categories, such as Children With Known Offenders With Known Children 0 parents and caretakers (Finkelhor and <1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Ormrod, in press). Victim Age The system may be able to highlight some obvious needs for law enforcement atten- Adult/Family Adult/Acquaintance Adult/Stranger tion or training. For example, in recent Juvenile/Family Juvenile/Acquaintance Juvenile/Stranger years, sex offenses have been the major focus of those concerned with juvenile Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System victims, but data from NIBRS jurisdictions (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children reveal that aggravated assaults against Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. juveniles are reported at about the same

10 Finkelhor, D. 1995. The victimization of Table 3: Preteen and Teenage Crime Victimization Patterns children in a developmental perspective. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry Victim Age Group 65(2):177–193. Outcome Preteen (<12 years) Teenage (12–17 years) Finkelhor, D. 1997. The homicide of chil- Type of Crime n=21,676 offenses n=58,958 offenses dren and youth: A developmental per- Aggravated assault 15% 17% spective. In Out of the Darkness: Contem- porary Research Perspectives on Family Simple assault 50 65 Violence, edited by G.K. Kantor and J. Forcible sex offenses 30 12 Jasinski. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publi- Nonforcible sex offenses 1 2 cations, pp. 17–34. Kidnaping 3 1 Finkelhor, D. 1998. The responses of pre- Robbery 1 3 adolescents and adolescents in a national All offenses 100 100 victimization survey. Journal of Interper- sonal Violence 13(3):362–382. Relationship to Offender n=21,068 offenders n=61,362 offenders Finkelhor, D., and Ormrod, R. 1999. Report- Family 35% 17% ing Crimes Against Juveniles. Bulletin. Wash- Acquaintance 56 70 ington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Stranger 9 13 Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juve- All offenses 100 100 nile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Finkelhor, D. and Ormrod, R. In press. Child Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (1997), National Incident-Based Reporting System Abuse and Neglect Reported to Police: The (NIBRS), (12 States only), Computer file, Tabulations undertaken by Crimes against Children NIBRS Perspective. Bulletin. Washington, Research Center, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. frequency. Little is known about the needs References of such victims and the handling of their U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser- victimizations by the criminal and juve- Finkelhor, D. 1983. Removing the child— vices’ Children’s Bureau. 1999. Child Mal- nile justice systems. In years to come, Prosecuting the offender in cases of treatment 1997: Reports From the States to NIBRS should prove to be a valuable tool sexual abuse: Evidence from the national the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data for researchers and practitioners inter- reporting system for child abuse and System. Washington, DC: U.S. Government ested in improving public policies toward neglect. Child Abuse & Neglect 7:195–205. Printing Office. juvenile victims.

11 U.S. Department of Justice PRESORTED STANDARD Office of Justice Programs POSTAGE & FEES PAID DOJ/OJJDP Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention PERMIT NO. G–91

Washington, DC 20531 Official Business Penalty for Private Use $300

Bulletin NCJ 179034

This Bulletin was prepared under grant number 98–JN–FX–0012 from the Office of Acknowledgments Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. This Bulletin was prepared by David Finkelhor, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, and Director, Crimes against Children Research Center, University of New Points of view or opinions expressed in this Hampshire, [email protected] (e-mail); and Richard Ormrod, Ph.D., document are those of the authors and do not Research Scientist, Crimes against Children Research Center, University necessarily represent the official position or of New Hampshire, [email protected] (e-mail). policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of Justice. Share With Your Colleagues The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delin- quency Prevention is a component of the Of- Unless otherwise noted, OJJDP publications are not copyright protected. We fice of Justice Programs, which also includes encourage you to reproduce this document, share it with your colleagues, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau reprint it in your newsletter or journal. However, if you reprint, please cite OJJDP of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of and the authors of this Bulletin. We are also interested in your feedback, such as Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime. how you received a copy, how you intend to use the information, and how OJJDP materials meet your individual or agency needs. Please direct your comments and questions to: Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse Publication Reprint/Feedback P.O. Box 6000 Rockville, MD 20849–6000 800–638–8736 301–519–5600 (fax) E-Mail: [email protected]