Bulletin Series

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention 

J. Robert Flores, Administrator March 2003

Sparked by high-profile cases involving

children who commit violent crimes, public concerns regarding child delinquents

have escalated. Compared with juveniles

whose delinquent behavior begins later in

adolescence, child delinquents (offenders

younger than age 13) face a greater risk

of becoming serious, violent, and chronic

juvenile offenders. OJJDP formed the

Study Group on Very Young Offenders to

examine the prevalence and frequency 

of offending by children younger than 13.

This Study Group identified particular risk

and protective factors that are crucial to

developing effective early intervention

and protection programs for very young

offenders. 

This Bulletin is part of OJJDP’s Child

Delinquency Series, which presents the

findings of the Study Group on Very Young

Offenders. This series offers the latest

information about child delinquency, including analyses of child delinquency statistics, insights into the origins of very

young offending, and descriptions of early

intervention programs and approaches

that work to prevent the development of

delinquent behavior by focusing on risk

and protective factors.

The number of child delinquents entering the juvenile justice system is

increasing, as evidenced by rising arrest

rates and court caseloads. Compared

with adolescents who become involved

in delinquency in their teens, child delinquents between the ages of 7 and 12

have a two- to threefold greater risk of

becoming serious, violent, and chronic

offenders.1 Child delinquents tend to

have longer offending careers than juveniles who become delinquent at a later

age; as a result, these children will constitute a disproportionate threat to public safety and property (Loeber and

Farrington, 2001). They consume a disproportionately large amount of the resources of schools, the juvenile justice

system, and child welfare and mental

health agencies.

To better determine the prevalence of

child delinquency, information about

the types of delinquent acts committed,

and how the juvenile justice system

deals with child delinquency, the Office

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency 

Prevention’s (OJJDP’s) Study Group on

Very Young Offenders (the Study Group)

focused on two sources of data. The

Study Group looked at a wide range of

As noted in this Bulletin, an increasing number of very young offenders,

those between the ages of 7 and 12,

are becoming involved with the juvenile justice system. According to

the latest statistics, children younger

than 13 are involved in almost 1 in

10 juvenile arrests. These youth

account for more than one-third of

juvenile arrests for arson and nearly

one-fifth of juvenile arrests for sex

offenses and vandalism. 

Compared with juveniles who become involved in delinquency in

adolescence, very young delinquents

are at greater risk of becoming serious, violent, and chronic offenders.

They are also more likely than older

delinquents to continue their delinquency for extended periods of time.

Consequently, over their lifetimes,

these offenders may pose a disproportionate threat to persons and

property. In addition, these offenders

have the potential to place significant demands on the funds and resources of educational, justice, and

social services agencies.

The good news is that prevention

and intervention efforts focused on

very young offenders could yield

significant benefits. For these benefits to be realized, however, the

unique challenges posed by these

offenders must be addressed before

their delinquency escalates.

Prevalence and Development

of Child Delinquency

Howard N. Snyder, Rachele C. Espiritu, David Huizinga, Rolf Loeber, and

David Petechuk

Access OJJDP publications online at ojjdp.ncjrs.org

1 Chronic offenders are defined here as those who

have been referred to juvenile court at least four

times.
2

official reports, from juvenile arrest data

(including murders by very young children) to how the courts specifically

handle child delinquency cases. It also

studied self-report data gathered from

children and young adolescents to enhance the information obtained from

official records and shed more light on

what is believed to be a substantial

number of offenses committed by child

delinquents that never come to the attention of the police or the courts.

The Study Group focused on three categories of children:

● Serious child delinquents who have

committed one or more of the following acts: homicide, aggravated

assault, robbery, rape, or serious

arson.

● Other child delinquents (excluding

serious delinquents).

● Children showing persistent disruptive behavior (including truancy and

incorrigibility), who are at risk of

offending. 

Little information exists about critical

issues surrounding early-onset delinquency. For example, not all very young

delinquents become chronic offenders.

A key question is who will become a

chronic offender and under what conditions. The information presented in this

Bulletin provides a basis for bringing

some of the issues into focus. The longterm goal is to use this information to

foster effective interventions that target

very young children before they accumulate multiple offenses and develop a

pattern of chronic offending.

Official Records on

Children in the Juvenile

Justice System

Very young juveniles (those younger

than 13) are fairly common in the U.S.

juvenile justice system (Snyder, 2001).2

Although some of these children are

referred directly to the court by family

members, schools, or social services

agencies, the first contact for most children is an arrest by law enforcement.

Data collected by the Federal Bureau

of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Uniform Crime

Reporting Program show that law enforcement agencies made approximately

253,000 arrests of children younger than

13 in 1997 (Snyder and Sickmund, 1999);

about 10 percent of these arrests were

for status offenses (e.g., running away

from home, curfew violations, and

liquor law violations). Overall, children

younger than 13 made up 9 percent of

all juvenile arrests (i.e., arrests of persons younger than 18) in 1997 (see figure 1 and the table).

From 1988 to 1997, arrests of very

young juveniles for property crimes

dropped 17 percent, while arrests for

Definitions

Child delinquents are not legally

defined in the same way across the

United States (Snyder and Sickmund,

1999; Wiig, 2001). Many States do

not have a legally defined age of

criminal responsibility (i.e., minimum

age of arrest) for children; however,

according to common law, the minimum age is 7 (Griffin, Torbert, and

Szymanski, 1998). The minimum age

varies from age 6 in North Carolina to

age 10 in Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas,

Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Canada

has a minimum age of 12, with a

minimum age of 14 for juvenile referral to adult court. The minimum age

in England is 10. The Study Group on

Very Young Offenders defined child

delinquents as juveniles between the

ages of 7 and 12, inclusive, who had

committed a delinquent act—that is,

an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult. The Study Group

defined disruptive nondelinquent

behavior as a recurrent pattern of

negativistic, defiant, disobedient, and

hostile behavior toward others lasting

at least 6 months during childhood

and adolescence (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Liquor law violations

Murder

Drug abuse violations

Prostitution and comm. vice

Motor vehicle theft

Curfew violations

Robbery

Runaways

Weapons violations

Disorderly conduct

Aggravated assault

Forcible rape

Burglary

Simple assault

Larceny-theft

Vandalism

Sex offenses

Arson

Property Crime Index

Violent Crime Index

All arrests

Percent

1%

1%

2%

3%

4%

5%

6%

8%

8%

9%

10%

12%

12%

13%

14%

18%

19%

35%

13%

8%

9%

Figure 1: Proportions of Juvenile Arrests Involving Persons Younger

Than 13 in 1997

Source: Snyder, 2001.

2 Unless otherwise indicated, all data in this section

are from this source.
3

violent crimes increased 45 percent.

Very young juveniles arrested in 1997

were much more likely to be charged

with a violent crime, weapons offense,

or drug violation than those arrested in

1988. Between 1988 and 1997, arrests

for simple assaults increased 79 percent, weapons law violations increased

76 percent, drug abuse violations increased 165 percent, and curfew violations increased 121 percent.

Juvenile Court Referrals

According to the National Juvenile Court

Data Archive, an estimated 181,300

delinquency cases in 1997 involved

offenders who were younger than 13 at

the time of court intake. In the 10 years

between 1988 and 1997, a substantial

change occurred in both the number

and the type of child delinquents referred to juvenile court for processing. The number of cases disposed by

juvenile courts that involved child

delinquents increased 33 percent (see

figure 2), far more than the corresponding 6-percent increase in their arrests,

indicating that law enforcement agencies and other sources were referring a

larger percentage of child delinquents

who had been arrested to juvenile

courts. In 1997, 57 percent of cases

Table: Arrests of Juveniles Younger Than 13 in 1997

Arrest Estimates

Younger Younger Ages Percentage Percentage 

Than 13 Than 10 10–12 Ages 10–12 Female

Total 253,100 42,700 210,300 83 24

Violent Crime Index 10,700 1,700 9,000 84 14

Murder and nonnegligent 

manslaughter <50 <10 <50 82 5

Forcible rape 700 100 500 83 3

Robbery 2,600 300 2,300 88 11

Aggravated assault 7,400 1,300 6,200 83 17

Property Crime Index 91,200 14,600 76,600 84 26

Burglary 16,400 3,300 13,100 80 12

Larceny-theft 68,900 9,900 59,000 86 31

Motor vehicle theft 2,500 200 2,300 92 18

Arson 3,400 1,200 2,200 64 9

Other Offenses

Other assaults 30,600 5,000 25,600 84 23

Forgery and 

counterfeiting 200 <50 200 76 32

Fraud 500 200 400 69 33

Embezzlement <50 <10 <50 75 31

Stolen property buying, 

receiving, possessing 2,200 200 1,900 89 13

Vandalism 25,100 6,300 18,700 75 10

Weapons carrying, 

possessing, etc. 4,400 800 3,600 83 12

Prostitution and 

commercialized vice <50 <50 <50 59 24

Sex offenses (except forcible

rape and prostitution) 3,300 800 2,500 76 9

Drug abuse violations 4,500 500 4,000 89 22

Gambling 100 <10 100 96 4

Offenses against the 

family and children 1,000 300 700 70 37

Driving under the 

influence 100 100 <50 23 18

Liquor law violations 2,000 300 1,700 86 39

Drunkenness 400 100 200 63 25

Disorderly conduct 20,700 2,500 18,200 88 24

Vagrancy 200 <50 100 80 15

All other offenses 

(except traffic) 31,100 6,300 24,800 80 23

Suspicion 100 <50 100 80 15

Curfew and loitering law 

violations 9,300 800 8,500 91 29

Runaways 15,700 2,100 13,500 86 48

Note: Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.

Source: Snyder, 2001.

Homicide

Murders by child delinquents (those

age 12 and younger) are relatively

rare. According to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports, a juvenile

offender (i.e., a person younger than

18) was involved in about 27,000 of

the approximately 386,000 murders in

the United States between 1980 and

1997 (Snyder, 2001). On average, during this same period, approximately

30 murders per year were committed

by offenders younger than 13. More

than half (54 percent) of the murder

victims of child delinquents were

killed with a firearm, and more than

one-third (38 percent) of the murder

victims were also younger than 13.

The following data provide a snapshot

of very young juvenile murderers:

● Fifty-two percent were 12 years old.

● Twenty-two percent were 11 years

old, and the remaining 26 percent

were 10 or younger.

● Eighty-four percent were male.

● Forty-eight percent were white and

50 percent were black. The other

murders were committed by

American Indian or Asian youth.
4

involving child delinquents were property offenses, 29 percent were violent

offenses or other offenses against a person, 12 percent were offenses against

the public order, and 2 percent were

drug law violations. 

Juveniles whose first referral to court

for a delinquency offense had occurred

before age 13 were far more likely to

become chronic offenders—that is, to

have had at least four referrals to juvenile court—than juveniles whose first

referral had occurred when they were

older. In addition, compared with juveniles who began their court careers

after age 12, these child delinquents

were also more likely to become serious

and violent offenders (see figure 3). 

The proportion of female child delinquents rose from 17 percent in 1988 to

22 percent in 1997. In addition, the juvenile court referral rate for very young

black juveniles in 1997 was approximately three times the referral rate for white

juveniles. The increase in juvenile court

cases of child delinquents was greater

for nonwhite juveniles (41 percent) than

white juveniles (28 percent), indicating

an increasing racial disparity in juvenile

court referrals over this 10-year period.

Although the offense profile of child delinquents differed little for males and

females, the offense profiles of white and

nonwhite youth did differ. For example,

nonwhite youth were slightly more likely to be charged with a person offense

(32 percent versus 27 percent) and

slightly less likely to be charged with 

a property offense (54 percent versus

59 percent). 

Determining whether the changes discussed above reflect changes in children’s behavior, in society, or in the

prosecution practices within the juvenile

justice system is difficult. Nevertheless,

the number of child delinquents entering

the juvenile justice system is increasing,

as evidenced by rising arrest rates and

court caseloads.

Juveniles Younger Than 13 

at Referral in 1988

136,400 Cases

Petitioned 

40,000 29%

Adjudicated 

21,300 53%

Placed 4,700 22%

Probation 13,600 64%

Other 1,900 9%

Dismissed 1,000 5%

Nonadjudicated 

18,700 47%

Placed 200 1%

Probation 5,400 29%

Other 1,900 10%

Dismissed 11,300 60% Nonpetitioned 

96,400 71%

Placed <50 <1%

Probation 31,600 33%

Other 18,400 19%

Dismissed 46,300 48%

Juveniles Younger Than 13 

at Referral in 1997

181,300 Cases

Petitioned 

72,600 40%

Adjudicated 

37,000 51%

Placed 7,100 19%

Probation 23,600 64%

Other 5,100 14%

Dismissed 1,200 3%

Nonadjudicated 

35,600 49%

Placed 300 1%

Probation 8,900 25%

Other 6,200 18%

Dismissed 20,300 57% Nonpetitioned 

108,700 60%

Placed 300 <1%

Probation 38,200 35%

Other 22,600 21%

Dismissed 47,600 44%

Figure 2: Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases Involving

Juveniles Younger Than 13: 1988 and 1997

Note: Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.

Source: Snyder, 2001.

Child Delinquents

Serious

Chronic

Violent

Chronic

Serious

Violent

Older Onset

Delinquents

Figure 3: Very Young Offenders Have a Greater Percentage of Serious,

Violent, and Chronic Careers Than Older Onset Delinquents

Source: Snyder, 2001.
5

How the Courts Respond to

Child Delinquents

As expected, juvenile courts respond

very differently to offenders younger

than 13 than to older juveniles. For

example, between 1988 and 1997, the

likelihood of detention between referral and court disposition was much

less for children age 12 and younger

(10 percent) than for older juveniles

(21 percent). Juvenile courts were also

more likely to handle informally cases

involving child delinquents than they

were cases involving older juveniles.

However, from 1988 to 1997, U.S. juvenile courts intervened significantly in

the lives of a growing number of very

young juvenile offenders. For example,

the proportion of formally handled cases

involving this age group increased from

29 percent to 40 percent. In addition,

the number of cases involving a child

delinquent that resulted in formal courtordered probation increased 73 percent.

Although boys and girls had similar offense profiles, young males were more

likely to be formally processed than

young females (42 percent versus 34

percent), to be adjudicated delinquent 

if petitioned (52 percent versus 46 percent), and slightly more likely to be

ordered to out-of-home placement (20

percent versus 17 percent). As a result,

while four times as many boys as girls

were referred to juvenile court between

1988 and 1997, six times as many boys

as girls were ordered to residential

placement, and five times as many boys

were placed on formal probation.

Racial minorities were overrepresented

at almost every stage in the juvenile justice system. Although nonwhite youth

constituted about 20 percent of the U.S.

juvenile population in 1997, they were

involved in 37 percent of court cases of

juveniles younger than 13. Court cases

of nonwhite juveniles were more likely

to involve detention while the youth

were awaiting court disposition (16 percent versus 7 percent) and more likely

to be placed on the court docket (45

percent versus 37 percent). Although

equal proportions of white and nonwhite

juveniles were adjudicated delinquent,

nonwhite juveniles were more likely to

be ordered to out-of-home placement

(23 percent versus 17 percent).

From 1988 to 1997, placement of all child

delinquents (regardless of sex and/or

race) in residential facilities increased

49 percent. In 1997, about 23,000 child

delinquents were placed on formal,

court-ordered probation and about 7,000

were placed in a residential facility (see

figure 2). An increasing number of child

delinquents are being brought before

the courts charged with serious delinquent offenses and courts are now more

likely to impose formal sanctions. 

Self-Report Data

Self-report data from children and

young adolescents enhance information based on official records. Previous

developmental and epidemiological

studies using self-report measures have

indicated that young people are willing

to report accurate information about

committing both minor and serious

delinquent acts (Espiritu et al., 2001). 

The Study Group found only seven studies that examined delinquency in children and adolescents and that also

included the self-reported prevalence

or incidence of delinquency in children

age 12 and younger (Espiritu et al.,

2001). This reflects the limited amount

of published epidemiological information available on child offenders. For

example, only two studies (the Denver

Youth Survey and the Pittsburgh Youth

Study) provided prevalence rates for

very young children (i.e., respondents

between the ages of 7 and 10). These

two studies, however, are based on highrisk urban samples. Although weighted

to provide representative samples of

high-risk urban children, they do not

provide estimates for general populations or rural areas.

Child Delinquency Research: An Overview

Historically, delinquency studies have focused on later adolescence, the time when

delinquency usually peaks. This was particularly true in the 1990s, when most researchers studied chronic juvenile offenders because they committed a disproportionately large amount of crime. Research conducted during this period by OJJDP’s

Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders concluded that youth referred to juvenile court for their first delinquent offense before age 13 are far more

likely to become chronic offenders than youth first referred to court at a later age.

To better understand the implications of this finding, OJJDP convened the Study

Group on Very Young Offenders in 1998. Its charge was to analyze existing data and

to address key issues that had not previously been studied in the literature. Consisting of 16 primary study group members and 23 coauthors who are experts on child

delinquency and psychopathology, the Study Group found evidence that some

young children engage in very serious antisocial behavior and that, in some cases,

this behavior foreshadows early delinquency. The Study Group also identified several important risk factors that, when combined, may be related to the onset of early

offending. The Study Group report concluded with a review of preventive and remedial interventions relevant to child delinquency.

The Child Delinquency Bulletin Series is drawn from the Study Group’s final report,

which was completed in 2001 under grant number 95–JD–FX–0018 and subsequently published by Sage Publications as Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention,

and Service Needs (edited by Rolf Loeber and David P. Farrington). OJJDP encourages parents, educators, and the juvenile justice community to use this information

to address the needs of young offenders by planning and implementing more effective interventions.
6

According to self-reports from the studies conducted in Denver and Pittsburgh,

14–19 percent of young boys (ages 7–10)

engaged in “street offenses” (offenses of

social concern, such as stealing more

than $50, aggravated assault, and burglary). In general, however, boys reported

higher levels of involvement in “other

serious offenses,” such as stealing less

than $50, simple assault, arson, and

joyriding (37–41 percent in Pittsburgh,

20–30 percent in Denver). These boys

also reported similar or greater levels of

involvement in “minor offenses,” such

as status or public disorder offenses

(23–29 percent in Pittsburgh, 13–24 percent in Denver). In the Denver study,

girls reported lower rates of delinquency involvement than boys, except for

minor offenses; girls were not studied

in Pittsburgh.

Findings from several studies revealed

that the prevalence of serious offenses

committed by 11- to 12-year-olds was

fairly consistent, despite differences in

sample characteristics, cohort, locale,

and methodology. Results indicated that

approximately 5–17 percent of 11- to 12-

year-old males engaged in one or more

types of serious assault. When considered in the context of rates of 2 percent

for 7-year-olds and 7 percent for 10-

year-olds, these data show that the

prevalence of serious assaults increases

as age increases. Although rates of serious property offenses were slightly

lower for 11- to 12-year-olds, overall statistics show that a substantial number

of young people engaged in serious

delinquent acts (Espiritu et al., 2001).

Prevalence rates for minor delinquent

acts were substantially higher than

for serious delinquent acts. Approximately 25 percent of 11- to 12-year-olds

reported committing a minor assault at

least once. Prevalence rates for minor

property acts ranged from 2 to 39 percent in these studies. Overall, the selfreported rates for status and public

disorder offenses were much lower. As

reported in two national surveys—the

1976 National Youth Survey and the

1997 National Longitudinal Survey of

Youth—rates for acts of public disorder

were 6–9 percent and 4–7 percent, respectively (Espiritu et al., 2001). Although some aspects of delinquency,

such as weapons use, have changed

over the years, a comparison of the

1976 National Youth Survey and the

1997 National Longitudinal Survey of

Youth indicates that the prevalence of

delinquent offending among 11- to 12-

year-olds appears to have remained

relatively the same over the past two

decades.

Developmental Aspects

of Child Delinquency

Because detailed measures on child

delinquency from national surveys are

lacking, the Study Group relied on two

specialized studies of child populations

in different localities within the United

States, namely, self-report data from the

Denver Youth Survey and Pittsburgh

Youth Study. In analyzing these data,

the Study Group examined the following

aspects of child delinquency: aggression

and violence, other offenses, length of

involvement in delinquency, delinquency patterns during ages 7–12, and police

contact. These aspects are discussed in

the following sections.

Aggression and Violence

According to self-report data, some

aggressive behavior (hitting, fighting,

physically attacking) appeared to be

normative during the early ages, when

more serious forms of aggression and

violence were less common. For example, in Denver and Pittsburgh, 82–88

percent of these samples of high-risk

youth reported engaging in some form

of aggression or violence before age 13,

with roughly 60 percent of Denver children and nearly 80 percent of boys in

Pittsburgh reporting these behaviors

before age 9. Approximately 24–33 percent reported involvement only in aggression in which no one was injured.

The prevalence of minor assaults in

which the victim was injured was approximately 50 percent in Denver (57

percent of boys and 40 percent of girls)

and 32 percent of boys in Pittsburgh. 

How widespread is violence among children? Keeping in mind that the answer

depends on how aggression and violence are defined, initial involvement

in serious violence generally does not

occur until ages 11–12 or later, and

prevalence rates typically decline as the

seriousness of violence increases. Only

about 5 percent of children in Denver

(9 percent of boys and 3 percent of girls)

and 7 percent of boys in Pittsburgh

were involved in serious violence by

age 12. However, in the studies noted,

the vast majority of both boys and girls

were involved in less serious forms of

aggression.

Other Offenses

As compared to their participation in

aggression and violence, children reported substantially less involvement

in other types of offenses by age 12.

Influence of Older,

Deviant Juveniles

Older juveniles often influence younger children. In addition, studies have

shown that juveniles who associate

with deviant peers are more likely to

be involved in delinquent behavior

and arrested at a younger age than

those who do not associate with such

deviant juveniles (Coie et al., 1995).

Therefore, it is important to note that,

in 1997, the vast majority of very

young offenders held in juvenile facilities were housed with older juveniles.

Only 1 percent of residents age 12

and younger were in facilities that

held no teenagers, and 96 percent

were in facilities with juveniles age 

15 and older. These very young offenders were placed in situations that

brought them in contact with older,

deviant juveniles, thereby increasing

the likelihood that these young offenders would continue their involvement in delinquent behavior.
7

Among boys, self-reports of offenses in

Denver and Pittsburgh included theft

(38 percent in Denver and 56 percent in

Pittsburgh), property damage (31 percent in Denver and 54 percent in Pittsburgh), status offenses (19 percent in

Denver and 39 percent in Pittsburgh),

burglary (6 percent in Denver and 8 percent in Pittsburgh), and arson (8 percent

in Denver and 9 percent in Pittsburgh).

Overall, rates were lower for girls than

for boys. As with aggression, initiation

of involvement in other offenses was

spread fairly evenly across ages 7–12.

The use of alcohol and marijuana was an

exception, with a higher rate of initiation

in 11- to 12-year-olds.

Length of Involvement

Self-report information from childhood

through adolescence indicated that a

good deal of involvement in delinquency

was limited to childhood. For example,

about half of the Denver children (49

percent) who initiated minor violence

in which the victim was injured were

involved in this activity for 2 years or

less. For the other half, however, involvement in most forms of delinquency continued for 5 years or more. In terms of

serious violence, a large proportion (40

percent) were involved for 2 years or

less, with about 35 percent involved for

3–4 years and 25 percent involved for 5

years or more. Similar findings held for

most other offenses (with the exception

of status offenses and drug use), with

involvement generally limited to childhood for 75 percent or more of juveniles.

Patterns During Ages 7–12

The Study Group found that about

33 percent of children in Denver and

Pittsburgh reported no involvement in

minor violence (with some level of

injury), property offenses, or drug use.

About 29 percent reported involvement

in only one general type of offense and

38 percent engaged in multiple offenses.

In Denver, the most common pattern

included both minor violence and property offenses, involving about 70 percent of multiple offenders; more than

half of these juveniles also used drugs.

Violence and drug use formed the most

common pattern in Pittsburgh.

Police Contact

In Denver, a substantial number of the

high-risk children reported contact

with the police by age 12. Prevalence

of police contact increased with age

(4 percent at ages 7–8, 7 percent at ages

9–10, and 11 percent at ages 11–12), and

boys were more likely than girls to be

contacted by the police for delinquency.

According to the Denver data, most

police contacts were for simple assaults

and theft, followed by vandalism, trespassing, weapons violations, and other

offenses such as status offenses and

civil violations. Children ages 7–10 contacted by police were commonly taken

home or to a social services agency.

However, more than half of children

ages 11–12 contacted by police for

delinquency appeared in court, with

court dispositions commonly involving

fines, community service, restitution, or

probation.

Summary

Most studies of juvenile delinquency

over the past two decades have focused

on older, serious and violent juvenile

offenders. Younger delinquents have

been ignored partly because their number is relatively small and their threat is

not as immediate. However, whereas the

number of very young offenders is small

compared with older juveniles, child

delinquents present unique challenges

that need to be addressed. Intervening

before minor offenses become more

serious and before the occasional offender becomes a chronic offender is

important.

The Study Group’s analyses of available

studies show that official information

on child delinquency is corroborated by

self-reports of delinquent behavior. The

age of onset and patterns of offending

found in these studies provide useful

information for the development of prevention and intervention programs for

at-risk youth. Studies show that children as young as age 7 are involved in

delinquent offenses and that some of

them will have lengthy criminal careers.

As a result, prevention and intervention

programs targeting this young age group

may benefit these children.

Although the majority of children have

limited involvement in delinquency (1–5

years), a large proportion of children are

involved in delinquency during childhood and often begin offending early.

The statistics cited in this Bulletin show

that the number of child delinquents

entering the juvenile justice system is

increasing and, in some communities,

may be reaching critical mass. Whether

this is the result of changes in children’s behavior, in families, in society,

in prosecution practices, or in all of

these factors is uncertain. The mental

health and other needs of child delinquents should not be ignored. Their

behaviors may greatly affect families

and communities. Even modestly successful prevention and intervention programs could yield significant benefits,

including reducing the overall level of

crime in a community, decreasing the

future expenditure of tax dollars, and

improving the overall well-being of families, children, and youth in a community.

References

American Psychiatric Association. 1994.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental

Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, DC: American

Psychiatric Association Press.

Coie, J.D., Miller-Johnson, S., Terry, R.,

Lochman, J.E., Maumary-Gremaud, A., and

Hyman, C. 1995. The influence of deviant

peer associations on juvenile offending

among African-American adolescents.

Paper presented at the annual meeting

of the American Society of Criminology,

Boston, MA, November 9–14.

Espiritu, R.C., Huizinga, D., Crawford, A.,

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This Bulletin was prepared under grant number 95–JD–FX–0018 from the Office of Juvenile

Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice.

Points of view or opinions expressed in this

document are those of the authors and do not

necessarily represent the official position or

policies of OJJDP or the U.S. Department of

Justice.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention is a component of the Office of

Justice Programs, which also includes the

Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of

Justice Statistics, the National Institute of

Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

Acknowledgments

Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D., is Director

of Systems Research at the National

Center for Juvenile Justice. Rachele

C. Espiritu, Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at EMT Associates

in Folsom, CA. David Huizinga,

Ph.D., is a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Behavioral Science, University of Colorado, Boulder,

and Director of the Denver Youth Survey. Rolf Loeber, Ph.D., is Professor

of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh,

PA; Professor of Developmental Psychopathology, Free University, Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Director

of the Pittsburgh Youth Study. David

Petechuk is a freelance health sciences writer.

*NCJ~193411*