The FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting series tracks violent crime trends using the four offenses of murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. According to the FBI, youth arrests for these offenses grew one percent between 2016 and 2017.
Category: Data Bits & Research Briefs
Gun Violence is not an “Inner City” Problem
by Jeffrey A. Butts JohnJayREC DataBits 2018-01 Policy debates about gun violence focus on cities. Every year, when federal law enforcement authorities release the latest compilation of U.S. violent crime statistics, news media across the country publish stories ranking cities on the severity of violence, with some labeled as “America’s deadliest cities.” Big city mayors and police chiefs anxiously await this annual data cycle, hoping their cities avoid the new list of “murder capitals.” Voices from the political Left and Right make cities the central focus of discussions about violence, especially gun violence. During the 2016 Presidential campaign, Donald Trump…
Repairing Trust
Young men who express more confidence in law enforcement are less likely to support the use of personal violence to settle disputes and resolve personal conflicts.
Juveniles Lead Adults in Declining Rate of Drug Crime
Based on statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and disseminated by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) within the U.S. Department of Justice, the national decline in arrests for drug offenses since the 1990s was more prolonged among juveniles than it was among adults age 18 and older.
Young Men in Neighborhoods with Cure Violence Programs Adopt Attitudes Less Supportive of Violence
New York City neighborhoods operating Cure Violence programs show stronger declines in violence-endorsing attitudes than do areas without Cure Violence programs.
Racial Disparities Persist in Juvenile Court Placements
According to data compiled by the National Center for Juvenile Justice and disseminated by the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the court processing of juvenile delinquency cases has reflected persistent racial disparities since the 1980s.
Total Youth Arrests for Violent Crime Still Falling Nationwide
The U.S. juvenile arrest rate for homicide rate grew 4 percent between 2014 and 2015 but remained 70 percent lower than the 1990s peak.
Perceptions of Violence in Morrisania (The Bronx)
by Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, and Laila Alsabahi Research & Evaluation Center August 2015 The Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice is assessing New York City’s violence reduction efforts. One element in the project involves in-person surveys with young men (ages 18-30) in various New York City neighborhoods. The survey relies on Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) and the results depict the respondents’ attitudes towards violence, their direct experience with violence, and their awareness of local violence prevention efforts. This brief presents results from project surveys in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx, where the…
Perceptions of Violence in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn)
by Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, and Laila Alsabahi August 2015 The Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice is assessing New York City’s violence reduction efforts. One element in the project involves in-person surveys with young men (ages 18-30) in various New York City neighborhoods. The survey relies on Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) and the results depict the respondents’ attitudes towards violence, their direct experience with violence, and their awareness of local violence prevention efforts. This brief presents results from project surveys in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where the Center for Court Innovation opened…
Perceptions of Violence in East New York (Brooklyn)
by Sheyla A. Delgado, Jeffrey A. Butts, and Marissa Mandala Research & Evaluation Center June 2015 The Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice is assessing New York City’s violence reduction efforts. One element in the project involves in-person surveys with young men (ages 18-30) in various neighborhoods implementing the Cure Violence strategy. The survey relies on Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) methods (2014, N=198; 2015, N=178). This research brief presents results from one of the first neighborhoods to be involved in the study. The results depict the respondents’ personal attitudes toward violence and their experiences with violence,…
Perceptions of Violence in the South Bronx
This study’s main goal was to measure changes in violent norms and attitudes in specific areas of New York City. The survey measured each respondent’s willingness to use violence in 17 hypothetical confrontation scenarios that ranged from minor to severe provocations. An index (or a composite score) was created from all 17 scenarios.
Racial Disparities in Juvenile Drug Arrests
by Jeffrey A. Butts June 1, 2015 The enforcement of U.S. drug laws during the 1980s and 1990s had disparate impacts on black youth despite the fact that illegal drug use in the U.S. does not differ significantly by race (SAMHSA 2014). Even adolescent involvement in drug sales does not vary significantly by race. Studies find that black youth are only slightly more likely than white youth (6% vs. 5%) to be involved in any form of drug selling (Floyd et al. 2010). According to the most recent national data available from the U.S. Department of Justice, however, drug arrest…