Higher Risk Subgroups

Property crime victimization rates are high and relatively constant across the full spectrum of adolescence from age 12 to 17 (figure 1). The situation with regard to younger children is unclear. Police data from NIBRS show relatively little property crime reported for victims younger than age 12, but this could primarily reflect social norms that deem it inappropriate to involve police in property offenses against children of elementary school age or younger.

Boys are somewhat more likely than girls to suffer property crime (57 percent vs. 43 percent), but the disproportion is not as great as for violent crime (63 percent vs. 37 percent) (differences significant at p=0.05).

Others at relatively high risk for property victimization are African American juveniles, juveniles in urban areas, and juveniles in the West, whose vulnerability mirrors the higher risk for adults in these categories (table 2). However, in some important respects, the risks for property victimization are different for juveniles and adults. For example, adults from higher income families have some insulation from property victimization compared with low-income adults. Yet youth from higher income families experience property victimization at rates that are higher (although not significantly so) than those of low-income youth. These high-income youth do not seem to share the protection that their parents enjoy. In general, some of the categories with the lowest overall property crime rates (for example, higher income, rural residence, Northeast region) show the greatest disproportion between the experiences of youth and adults. That means that a number of statuses that confer protection to adults do not confer equal protection to youth.

The experience of affluent youth is also distinctive in that they bear substantially more of the property crime burden than of the violent crime burden. Juveniles from families with annual incomes of more than $40,000 experience 47 percent of all property crime against juveniles, compared with 39 percent of the violent crime against juveniles. The property crime victimization of affluent juveniles is also greater than the portion of the property crime suffered by affluent adults, who experience only 38 percent of property crime against all adults (differences significant at p=0.05).

In contrast to affluent youth, Hispanic juveniles apparently have some relative protection from property crime. Although property crime victimization among Hispanic adults tends to be higher than that of non-Hispanic adults (table 2), property victimization rates of Hispanic juveniles are lower than those of non-Hispanic juveniles (both differences significant at p=0.05).

Juvenile Victims of Property Crimes	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • December 2000