Juvenile Homicide

Question 1

Juvenile Homicide Offenders

• most are?
• accomp by?
• take place during? (%)

Answer 1

• believed to be drive-bys or gang related
• accomp by severe family dysfunction
• majority of juv homicides take palce during general altercation episode (gang warfare, felony)
  most common homicides gang related 96%

Question 2

Homicides

• in US?
• Gender male/female%’s
• Gender diffs in killing (girls) (x)
• boys likely to kill?
• gender diff in weapons
• gender diff in reason
• age and juv homicide (% and ages)

Answer 2

• 7%
• 94% juvs arrested are male, 6% female
• Girls compared to boys more likely to kill family members, younger ppl, females, intimate partners, offspring. Female’s 9x more likely to kill intimate partner, 4x to kill child under 5, 2x to kill family members and females
• Boys likely to kill strangers or gang related
• Females more likely to use knives or other weapon where boys prefer guns
• When girls kill they do so to resolve conflict, boys more crime related
• Homicide offending by juveniles increases with age (~72% between ages of 16-17)

Question 3

• Juvenile court prevalence in murderers (why?)
• Juv’s 15 or younger/ % of murders 7-12/ annual rate
• Almost all homicides by children (victim) (%)
• How many victims under 18? 13? rarely is vic?
• killing of parent reason?
• how many use firearms?

Answer 3

• 1985-2000 juvenile courts had 1,7000 juv murders but number has decreasd since 1996, relects nationwide trends to transfer juvs with serious crimes to criminal courts
• Number of juvs 15 or younger who murder very small; 1980-1997 2% (600 cases) of murders involved child delinqs (7-12) and annual rate is 30 per year
• Almost all homicides by children (94%) involved single victim, mostly male
• More than ½ of victims were under 18 and more than 1/3rd under 13; rarely is victim parent
• Killing of parent is often precipitated by child maltreatment
• More than ½ victims killed with firerams

Question 4

Demographics and Psychological Characterstics of Juvenile Murderers
- generally juv’s murders are?
- Myers and Scott study of murders with?
murders are in relation to (%)? or during (%)? how many strangers (%)? not (%)? Results?
- Juv’s who commit violent crimes have history of? (3)
- Myers, Scott, Burgess: % with LD’s, failed %, abilities assoc, most prominent?
- Prominent factor in juv murderes?
- Juv murders often have? (4)
- CD in murderers (%)

Answer 4

• in general they have comitted typical homicids and not of callousness nature
• examined 18 murderers btwn 14 and 17 with CD. Murders committed in relation to criminal activities (72%) or during interpersonal conflict (28%). ½ of vics stranger, other half acquits (38%) or family members (11%)
  Results revealed 16 of 18 murderers had histories of one or more psychotic episodes and other forms of mental disorders
• Research also shows juv’s who comitt violent crimes tend to have history of edu difficulties; deficits in social and cog skills at high risk
• Myers, Scott, Burgess: sample of 25 murderers, 76% had LD and 86% had failed at least one grade. Verbal abilities assoc with antisocial behavior. Langurage handicaps most prominent learning probs among juv murderers
• Another prominent factonr in juv murderers is lack of parent monitoring (parent involvement during mid school critical)
• Juv murderes often have family abuse, sub abuse, alchohol abuse, prior delinquency
  -CD in murderers high (84-88%)

Question 5

Loeber: probability of committing homicide

- violence producing processes

Answer 5

• enhanced by exposure or accumulation of diff risk factors during early development
• Violence producing processes don’t suddenly emerge, but accumulate

Question 6

Dynamic Cascade Model

• by
• theory? helps? is a? hypothesizes?
• Dynamic cascade? (AKA)
• Model starts with? (age) (sequence)
• Deficits (4)
• girls; males more likely
• prevention
• model provides; prevention must

Answer 6

• by Kenny Dodge
• theory beyond risk accumulation, helps explain, organize, understand how and adults get to point of homicide. A coherent developmental story of how violent behavior grows across childhood into dynamic cascade. Hypothesizes that each risk factor group operates on antisocial/violent outcomes by directly influencing the next factor group in sequence.
• Dynamic cascade refers to succession of developmental skills or deficits which enhance or affects next deficit along trajectory (snowballing effect)
• Model starts with child born into adverse neigborhood where parents use harsh inconsistent discipline, life not examined before age 5. Discipline prevents them from getting social and cog skills necessary for social and academic success. Child then shows conduct problems signaling start of LCP. Next in cascade, is school social and academic failure (peer rejection). As they approach adolescene, p monitioring is nonexistent. Deviant peers become assoc with them
• Deficits include: vocab defictis, poor social p solving, hostile attributional bias, emotion rego deficits
• Found girls follow sim path (no gender specific path); males more likely to become violent due to bio diffs and socialization diffs
• There are many preventive ways to steer child away from trajectory of violence. Thus psych treatment of juv murderers may be more realistic than adults
• Dyanamic cascased model provides specific targest for prevention at periods of development; bc new risk arise at each development period, prevention and intervention not complete until thru adolescene

Question 7

Treatment of Juveniles Who Kill

• juv homicide is?
• most treatment info?
• juv murders often placed?
• likelihood of getting intensive psych treatment
• mental health care in juv facilities is?
• psychiatric hospitalization
• Overall, juv murderers (outcome) (especially those)
• Hard-core persistent delinqs outcome

Answer 7

• is complex, rare, defies categroization
• is from case reports
• Juv murderers (if not transferred to criminal court) often placed in juv facility where they don’t always get treatment tailored to needs
• decreases as entering adolescence
• minimal bc of cost and limited awarness of psych needs for them
• (rarely used for young children who kill)
• make satisfactory adjustment in correctional facility and in community after relaese from custody (especially true for youths who have killed fam members is isolated act)
• hard-core persitnent violent delinqs who killed don’t make good adjustment and often continue offending on realease

Question 8

2009 nationally sample of juveniles report

• fights %
• carrying weapons % (gender)

Answer 8

• 31.5 % physical fight in last 12 months

- 17.5% carried weapon in past 30 days (4x higher for males)

Question 9

Juvenile crime occurs most frequently?
Juveniles injure victims when?
Crime with firearm occurs when?
- danger zone (%)

Answer 9

• in hours immediately after school
• in hours immediately after school
• between 7PM – 11PM
• immed after closure of school on school days; 63% violent crime committed on school days

Question 10

Dynamic cascade model: sequence (7)

Answer 10

1. Adverse context
2. Harsh parenting
3. Poor school readiness
4. Conduct problems
5. School failure
6. Low parent monitoring
7. Deviant peers

Question 11

Juvenile violent crime incudes (4)

Answer 11

Forcbile rape, robbery, aggravated assualt, homicide