About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Barbara Tatem Kelley, et al., Epidemiology of Serious Violence 1 (1997)

handle is hein.death/episv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: :r U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs %d\ Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Epidemiology of Serious Violence Barbara Tatem Kelley, David Huizinga, Terence P. Thornberry, and Rolf Loeber This Bulletin introduces the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Youth Development Series, created to present findings from the Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency for public officials, juvenile justice practitioners, and other interested parties. The Causes and Correlates program-three coordinated, longitudinal research projects supported by OJJDP funding since 1986-represents a milestone in criminological research because it constitutes the largest shared- measurement approach ever achieved in delinquency research. Teams at the Univer- sity at Albany, State University of New York; the University of Colorado; and the Univer- sity of Pittsburgh collaborated extensively in designing the studies. At study sites in Rochester, New York; Denver, Colorado; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the three research teams have interviewed 4,000 participants at regular intervals for nearly a decade, recording their lives in detail. The Causes and Correlates program is providing an empirical foundation for a new generation of preventive, judicial, and therapeutic interventions. The research findings to date indicate that preventing the onset of delinquency requires accurate identification of the risk factors that in- crease the likelihood of delinquent behavior and the protective factors that enhance positive adolescent development. It is vital that we now take the next step from research to action. OJJDP believes that the important findings presented in the Youth Development Series and the insights derived from them will stimulate informed public debate about juvenile crime and shape future responses to this critical soci- etal problem. Juvenile Offending Rates and Victimization Trends By the early 1990's, rates of criminal violence, including youth violence, reached unparalleled levels in American society. Compared to adolescents in other countries, American teenagers exhibit alarmingly high rates of violence. For example, an American 17-year-old is 10 times more likely to commit murder than his or her Canadian counterpart (Silverman and Kennedy, 1993; Blumstein, 1994). Criminologists now question the con- ventional wisdom that young adults represent the most violence-prone age group. In recent years, teenagers have so accelerated their rate of involvement that From the Administrator Over the past decade, juvenile violence has spread like an epidemic among a small, but nonetheless significant, segment of America's young people. Just as a single dose of medicine will be ineffective against a virulent illness, so will one-time remedial action prove inadequate to prevent or successfully intervene in juvenile delinquency. Long-term, continuing solutions are needed- solutions based on a thorough understanding of the developmental changes in a child's journey to adulthood, the varied negative influences they face along the way, and the pathways some follow to delinquent and criminal behavior. To share new information about child development and delinquency, OJJDP is initiating a series on youth develop- ment that will present some of the most notable findings from our Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency. Epide- miology of Serious Violence, the first Bulletin in the series, answers basic questions about the varying levels of involvement in violent acts according to age, sex, and ethnicity and recom- mends a public health model of prevention, treatment, and control. The findings and conclusions pre- sented here will be invaluable to all those who are working to turn America's youth away from violence and toward a safer future. Shay Bilchik Administrator 0

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most