Wake up call: 1 in 3 U.S. teens will be arrested, study says

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
12/19/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Growing numbers of 23-year-olds have been arrested for non-traffic offenses

There is shocking news about the state of the United States' teenagers and young adults. A new study estimates that roughly one in three U.S. youths will be arrested for a non-traffic offense by the age of 23.

Many children, teens and young adults are setting themselves up for a destructive and toxic start to life, whether it is from violent and unsafe behavior, to an increased risk for an unhealthy lifestyle.

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LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - As posted online by the journal Pediatrics, about 25 percent to 41 percent of 23-year-olds have been arrested or taken into police custody at least once for a non-traffic offense. Factoring in missing cases, that percentage could lie between about 30 percent and 41 percent.

The study also shows that by age 18, about 16 percent to 27 percent have been arrested.

"It's a wake-up call," Robert Sege, MD, PhD, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect says.

"By and large, we pediatricians tend to see our patients as victims," Sege says, a pediatrics professor at Boston University. The new report suggests pediatricians must also consider that their patients could become victimizers.

Many children, teens and young adults are setting themselves up for a destructive and toxic start to life, whether it is from violent and unsafe behavior, to an increased risk for an unhealthy lifestyle.

The researchers base their conclusion on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, ages 8 to 23. Data analyzed in the new study came from national surveys of youth conducted annually from 1997 to 2008.

The researchers cite some "compelling reasons" for the increase.

"The criminal justice system has clearly become more aggressive in dealing with offenders (particularly those who commit drug offenses and violent crimes) since the 1960s," the authors, all criminologists, write. In addition, "there is some evidence that the transition from adolescence to adulthood has become a longer process."

From the 1920s through the 1960s, the proportion of the population that was incarcerated stayed remarkably stable at about 100 inmates per 100,000 people. Researcher Robert Brame, PhD, of the department of criminal justice and criminology at the University of North Carolina says that figure has soared to 500 inmates per 100,000 people.

More aggressive treatment of offenders has led to a decline in the crime rate, Brame says. "I think it's pretty clear that some violent crimes have been prevented by having people locked up in prison."

Brame, himself the father of three young children says that he and his colleagues usually publish their research in journals read by criminologists, not pediatricians. They wanted to reach out to pediatricians because they're especially well-suited to heading off problems.

"Our main purpose in this paper was to get pediatricians to think about this and maybe have a broader discussion with their patients than they otherwise would have."

� 2011, Catholic Online. Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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Keywords: Teens, young adults, arrests, prisons, crime

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1 - 4 of 4 Comments

Tonio
1 year ago
The rise in crime is always associated withe how well the education system tends to the requirements of the children.
As the push for college prep curriculum the decline in proper education for non- professional(read non-university required education) has occurred.
Typically speaking, only about 30-35% of high school aged kids really need a university degree. Technical and trades use other, much better suited means for developing people into their work life.
A look at the last twenty years shows as university systems have come to dominate the K-12 school curriculum the graduation rates have fallen and crime rates are rising.
In short, more appropriate ed systems do a lot in making crime rates fall.
Jose Martinez
1 year ago
What you are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.The govt. can only do so much.The blame lays more on our spiritually bankrupt society.The fact that 7 of 10 children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock,that 3 of 10 are born to teens,that education,working and delaying satisfaction are seen as inauthentic and a waste of time were as selling drug's and violence has become the norm.these youths quit school early sell drugs commit crimes get arrested multiple times have no social skills to speak of and live in communities that are mired in crime violence,ignorance and despair.The communities them selves need to take a firm in monitoring there children,but then without Fathers at home drug addiction and the other problems that come from a broken family,The problem wil get worst because these problems are now filtering into the general society.
Robert Burford
1 year ago
I have had grandchildren and nephews in prison. One of them I turned inro the police myself and he deserved it. The only positive result was that he studied and passed his GED. I am not proud of any of this.Crime should be punished but the probation system itself is a crime. These children are unemployed and for the most part no job skills to get them through life. The system dangles the prospect of freedom but qualifies it with fines and court costs and probation officer fees.Even if a prisoner is out and gets a job he has debt to the courts hanging over his head. They cannot get a drivers license because of restrictions and they cannot get a job because they cannot get to work unless it is on the bus line. The system helps perpetuate the criminal behavior. .There is no one political party to blame. The process is only mirrored by the hugh debt the young under take when they have student loans. Since the sixties we have become users of drugs. It may be illegal drugs or the abuse of perscription drugs but it is drugs. The baggage we leave the young is absurd. Serve the time and hopefully give them some skills as they do in some areas of the country. We have to stop the repeat performers and rather place a restriction on them of obtaining new job skills. This might include a GED which is huge requirement but may also include trade school. Our incarceration money might be better spent by trying to give them life skills in return for freedom and hopefully a chance at life.
abey
1 year ago
It sure is an alarming state of affairs & "Put it on the previous administrations" is the special Hallmark of the Obama administration. But then the previous administration included the democrats under the Clinton's . Further studies would point to the Clinton era as the culpritic years or the rupture of this spiritual disease, magnified by the present "regime" in its continuation.

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