NCJ Number
169872
Date Published
Unknown
Length
18 pages
Annotation
North Carolina's juvenile arrest rate grew by 27.3 percent between 1988 and 1992 and by 54.4 percent between 1988 and 1994; the arrest rate for violent crime increased by 73.3 percent between 1988 and 1992 and by 97.5 percent between 1988 and 1994, while the arrest rate for property offenses rose by 2.3 percent between 1988 and 1992 and by 8.2 percent between 1988 and 1994.
Abstract
Recognizing causes and correlates of increased juvenile crime in North Carolina included familial factors, demographics and community structure, academic performance and the school environment, and economic indicators, data were collected from several sources, including published annual reports, administrative agency data sets, the Internet, and centralized data repositories, to analyze three variables--juvenile arrests, delinquency petition filings, and training school admission rates. Findings documented a consistent and statistically significant link between the rate of single-parent households and the percentage of the population residing in urban areas with the three variables. The research suggests a need for concentrating fiscal and program resources for prevention and intervention activities on communities with a high rate of single-parent households and a large urban population. Future research is recommended to examine why and how the rate of single-parent households and a large urban population interact to exert a substantial impact on North Carolina's juvenile justice system. 34 references and 2 tables