There is not only one specific race or ethnicity that commits juvenile offenses in communities. There are many stereotypes about African-Americans, Latinos, and races of color, which states they are the ones who commit the most juvenile crimes. According to former Education Secretary and Drug Czar William Bennet African-Americans do commit most crime, as he stated in this highly controversial statement, “You could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." (Huffington Post). Some might believe this statement to be fact, but others believe it is wrongful and stereotypical. There is much dynamics that go into making a particular arrest. Many say that the colored race are treated much differently by officers who display inequality and hate towards the arrested juveniles, but others say everyone is being treated equal when arrested. Nonetheless, according to researchers Carl Pope and Richard Feyerherm for the Justice Department, "two-thirds of the studies of state and local juvenile justice systems they analyzed found that there was a 'race effect' at some stage of the juvenile justice process that affected outcomes for minorities for the worse." (The Huffington Post).
In reality, all the crimes committed by juveniles consists of all different types of races and ethnicities, and not specified to only one particular group, such as only the people of color. The races and ethnicities who commit juvenile offenses consist of Whites, which includes Hispanics, African-Americans, American-Indians, and Asian-Americans. These race groups are the majority of juveniles who commit crimes today. These crimes committed by these groups include DUI cases, gambling cases, violent crimes cases, and weapons violation cases.
The most recently recorded statistics by the Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series states White youths, which includes Hispanics, were arrested for 72% of the crime, and made up 79% of the youth population. The majority of the arrests were due to DUI cases, which consisted of 92% of it. Following right behind it were weapons violations with 68% of the arrests, then 57% of the arrests were for violent crimes, and 16% gambling cases.
The Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series also recorded that African-Americans were arrested for 25% of the crime and made up 16% of the total youth population. Unlike White arrests, the majority of juveniles African-American arrests were due to gambling with a total of 81%. It is followed by violent crimes with a 41% arrest rate, then 30% of arrests due to weapons violations. Surprisingly, there were only 5% arrests made due to DUI cases.
Also, from the Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series, it stated that American-Indians composed of 1% of the juvenile population, and were arrested for 1% of the crime. The most arrests for American-Indian crimes were due to liquor-law violations which consisted of 3% of the arrests. Weapons violations and violent crimes both came in at 1%, and American-Indians were not arrested for any gambling, embezzlement, or suspicion cases.
Lastly, the Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series stated that Asian-American Youths made up 4% of the youth population with a total of 2% of the overall arrests. The majority of the arrests for Asian-Americans were runaway cases which made up 4% of the arrests. Then it was followed by weapon violations and violent crime cases which both made up 2% of the arrests, and only 1% of the arrests were due to drug abuse offenses.
There statistics display the majority of juveniles offenses come from Whites, but Hispanics are also included. The statics are somewhat vague due to the fact we are not sure how much of the arrests were made up by Caucasians, and how of the arrests were made up of Hispanics, though we still know the particular ethnicity made up most of the arrest. Then the next ethnicity who was arrested most was African-Americans, followed by Asian-Americans, then the American-Indians. The only way we will ever know if inequality and injustice is being displayed by officers against people of color is conducting more research, but until then, right now it is proven to be that Whites and Hispanics is the ethnicity who commits most crimes.
Edelman, Marian. “Promising Models for Reforming Juvenile Justice Systems.”
The Huffington Post. (2009). 28 Feb 2010. www.huffingtonpost.com/marian-
wrighte.
Jones, Van. “Are Blacks A Criminal Race? Surprising Statistics.” The Huffington Post.
(2005). 28 Feb 2010. www.huffingtonpost.com/van-jones/are-blacks-
a-criminal.
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