Is Delinquency Increasing? Age Structure and the Crime Rate

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
An age-specific analysis of juvenile court referrals in Florida illustrates the crucial role of changing age structure in the interpretation of crime and delinquency statistics. Although the number of acts which resulted in referrals to Florida's juvenile courts rose sharply from 1958 to 1967, an examination of data submitted by the courts and the public school districts of the state for the period suggests that most of this increase could be predicted by changes in the number of children eligible for delinquency referral. The study also suggests (1) that the variation in delinquency rates observed both within and among counties is probably the result of differences in reporting practices, and (2) that increases in FBI crime rates for the state and its six SMSAs for the same period are probably inflated by the inability of the crime index to take into account Florida's changing age structure.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: