Early Identification of the Serious Habitual Juvenile Offender Using a Birth Cohort in Philadelphia, 1958-1984

Beginning in the mid-1980s, the Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) funded the creation of Habitual
Offender Units (HOUs) in 13 cities. HOUs were created to prosecute
habitual juvenile offenders by deploying the most experienced
attorneys to handle these cases from start to finish. By targeting the
earliest points in the career sequence of the juvenile offenders, the
greatest number of serious offenses can potentially be averted.
Selection criteria to qualify for priority prosecution by an HOU
usually encompassed one or more generic components relating to aspects
of a juvenile's present and prior offense record. In Philadelphia, to
be designated a serious habitual offender and to qualify for priority
prosecution by the HOU, a youth had to have two or more prior
adjudications or open cases for specific felonies, as well as a
current arrest for a specified felony. The first three police contacts
in a Philadelphia juvenile offender's record were of special interest
because they included the earliest point (i.e., the third contact) at
which a youth could be prosecuted in the Philadelphia HOU, under their
selection criteria. The main objectives of this study were to
determine how well the selection criteria identified serious habitual
offenders and which variables, reflecting HOU selection criteria,
criminal histories, and personal characteristics, were most strongly
and consistently related to the frequency and seriousness of future
juvenile and young adult offending. To accomplish this, an assessment
was conducted using a group of juveniles born in 1958 whose criminal
career outcomes were already known. Applying the HOU selection
criteria to this group made it possible to determine the extent to
which the criteria identified future habitual offending. Data for the
analyses were obtained from a birth cohort of Black and white males
born in 1958 who resided in Philadelphia from their 10th through their
18th birthdays. Criminal careers represent police contacts for the
juvenile years and arrests for the young adult years, for which police
contacts and arrests are synonymous. The 40 dependent variables were
computed using 5 different criminal career aspects for 4 crime type
groups for 2 age intervals. The data also contain various dummy
variables related to prior offenses, including type of offense, number
of prior offenses, disposition of the offenses, age at first prior
offense, seriousness of first prior offense, weapon used, and whether
it was a gang-related offense. Dummy variables pertaining to the
current offenses include type of offense, number of crime categories,
number of charges, number of offenders, gender, race, and age of
offenders, type of intimidation used, weapons used, number of crime
victims, gender, race, and age of victims, type of injury to victim,
type of victimization, characteristics of offense site, type of
complainant, and police response. Percentile of the offender's
socioeconomic status is also provided. Continuous variables include
age at first prior offense, age at most recent prior offense, age at
current offense, and average age of victims.