Juvenile Offenders and Victims

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report
(Report Summary)

Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report is the fourth edition of a comprehensive report on juvenile crime, victimization, and the juvenile justice system. The report consists of the most requested information on juveniles and the juvenile justice system in the U.S. Developed by the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ) for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the report draws on reliable data and relevant research to provide a comprehensive and insightful view of young offenders and victims, and what happens to those who enter the juvenile justice system in the United States. The report offers to Congress, state legislators, other state and local policymakers, educators, juvenile justice professionals, and concerned citizens-empirically based answers to frequently asked questions about the nature of juvenile crime and victimization and about the justice system's response.

The juvenile justice system must react to the law-violating behaviors of youth in a manner that not only protects the community and holds youth accountable but also enhances youth's ability to live productively and responsibly in the community. The system must also intervene in the lives of abused and neglected children who lack safe and nurturing environments.

To respond to these complex issues, juvenile justice practitioners, policymakers, and the public must have access to useful and accurate information about the system and the youth the system serves. At times, the information needed is not available or, when it does exist, it is often too scattered or inaccessible to be useful.

This report bridges that gap by pulling together the most requested information on juveniles and the juvenile justice system in the United States. The report draws on numerous national data collections to address the specific information needs of those involved with the juvenile justice system. The report presents important and, at times, complex information using clear, nontechnical writing and easy-to-understand graphics and tables. It is designed as a series of briefing papers on specific topics, short sections designed to be read separately from other parts of the report.

The material presented here represents the most reliable information available for the 2010 data year on juvenile offending and victimization and the juvenile justice system. Given the breadth of material covered in this report, a data-year cutoff had to be established. We elected 2010 as a common anchoring point because all the major data sets required for the report were current through 2010 at the time we began writing. Although some newer data are now available, the patterns displayed in this report remain accurate.

We expect that this report will be used mainly as a reference document, with readers turning to the pages on specific topics when the need arises. But we encourage you to explore other sections when time permits. Each section offers something new, something that will expand your understanding, confirm your opinions, or raise questions about what you believe to be true.

It has been nearly 20 years since the first edition of this report. Since that seminal publication, this report has become a primary source of information on juvenile crime, juvenile victimization, and the juvenile justice system, and it will provide a context for debates over the direction we are taking to respond to these important social issues.