Crime and Delinquency in America
Complete 8 pages APA formatted article: Crime and Delinquency in America. Background Information on Crime and Delinquency Defining Crime and Delinquency Crime and delinquency are actions undertaken that are against moral, social and legal laws due to the fact that it can bring harm to a person or a group in the society. This is a general definition since, it is a challenge to limit, measure, explain, and define the true nature of crime and delinquency. The complexity of these terms is due to the involvement of the different social institutions such as the family, the school, the media, the work institutions, the law enforcement agencies, and the political institutions (Regoli, Hewitt and DeLisi, 2009). It is important to consider that crime and delinquency are almost similar terms but there is a minor difference between the two terms. Based on the work of Regoli, Hewitt and DeLisi, the main factor that separates the definition of crime with that of delinquency is the age of the offender. Delinquency is a term used for illegal activities of the youth or juveniles (2009, p. 27). Crime and delinquent actions are considered to be major concerns in the society on the basis of the negative and harmful effects. There are different types of crimes and delinquencies on the basis of the action and the victimization. These include violent crimes, personal theft, and property crimes. Violent crimes include murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated or simple assault. Property crimes include household burglary, larceny-theft, or motor vehicle theft (Truman and Rand, 2010, p.1. US Census Bureau, 2011). Statistical Information on Crime and Delinquency The prevalence of cases of crime and delinquency in the United States is the main reason for the concern regarding the issue. For that matter, numerous studies related to the causes and patterns of crime are being undertaken to be able to understand the issue well and decrease and eventually stop crimes. Based on the study conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice, the trend in crime and delinquency in 2009 includes 4.3 million violent crimes, 15.6 million property crimes, and 133,000 personal thefts (Truman and Rand, 2010, p.1). It was observed that there are more black people that fall victims to crimes and delinquent behavior as compared to white people. In terms of gender, there are more male victims of crimes as compared to female but more female cases are reported. There are 53% female cases as compared to 45% males cases reported in 2009. Based on age, younger members of the population are the common victims of crimes specifically age 24 and younger. In 2009, citizens on US age 12 above had been victims of approximately 20 million violent and property crimes (Truman and Rand, 2010, p.1). Trends of crimes in the past few years had been observed to decrease. Thus, continuous efforts are being undertaken to increase the knowledge in the different crimes as well as seek solutions to be able to resolve issues related to crime and delinquency. Based on the National Crime Victimization Survey, from the year 2000 to 2009, the overall crime rates decreased significantly by 39% (Truman and Rand, 2010, p.1). Notable decline in the crime rate had also been observed in the trends from 1980 to 2008 by the US Census Bureau (2011).
