Juvenile Justice Bulletin -- December 2000 -- Juvenile Victims of Property Crimes

Conclusion

With one out of six teens experiencing property crime every year, this type of victimization imposes a substantial burden on the lives and lifestyles of the young. For that reason alone, it deserves increased public policy attention. Moreover, juvenile property victimization has distinctive features that suggest its prevention and the recovery of property taken in these crimes may require different kinds of policies than those necessitated by adult property crime. Central among the distinctive features of juvenile property victimization is its frequent occurrence in and around schools. That schools are high-risk environments may help account in part for the fact that youth from higher income families and rural communities do not benefit from the same insulation against property victimization that similarly situated adults do. In fact, more affluent students have higher rates of victimization at school and lower rates away from school, while students from lower income families experience the reverse pattern (Kaufman et al., 1999).

Adult property crime is much more a problem of the home than of the workplace, and home is where much community property crime prevention is targeted. Attention to juvenile victimization will need to involve greater participation of school authorities. Schools need help in evaluating whether solutions like more secure or more available individual lockers, surveillance equipment, theft awareness campaigns, or more investigative personnel are effective in reducing property victimization at school and increasing recovery of stolen items. Schools also need to consider whether the greater involvement of police can be useful.

The extremely low level of reporting property crimes against juveniles to police should be a high-priority issue for policy consideration. The NCVS data suggest that reporting these crimes to the police is associated with an enhanced likelihood of property recovery, even controlling for other factors that might increase chances of recovery. The association may be spurious, but it also may be that property is truly more likely to be found or returned as a result of police investigative actions and the alarm that a police report can create among offenders and their friends. This possibility should encourage school authorities, law enforcement authorities, parents, and youth themselves to work closely in reporting property crimes. The data suggest that much property crime currently reported to school authorities is not being passed on to police. Barriers to such reporting may change with the widespread employment, currently under way, of school resource officers.

Property crime may not be the most dangerous peril in the lives of juveniles in America, but it is one of the most frequent. Before this society can be considered safe and just, it will certainly have to confront such a widespread condition. Property crime against juveniles deserves a place on the agenda of those concerned about the crime problem and those concerned about children and their welfare.

Vandalism

Vandalism is a significant property crime, but individual ownership information on vandalized property is available only through NIBRS, not NCVS. NIBRS shows that vandalism constitutes 30 percent of all property victimizations and 21 percent of property crimes against juveniles known in NIBRS jurisdictions. Four percent of vandalism occurs to juveniles under the age of 18, and 96 percent of vandalism occurs to adults 18 and older. The juvenile property most frequently vandalized and reported to police consists of automobiles and motor vehicle parts or accessories, which make up 50 percent and 31 percent of all vandalized items reported, respectively. The main differences between vandalism reports from juveniles and vandalism reports from adults is a greater representation of bicycles and a lesser representation of boats, tools, and buildings among juveniles.

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Juvenile Victims of Property Crimes	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • December 2000