The overrepresentation of juvenile crime proportions in robbery clearance statistics

Many, especially casual observers, interpret juvenile arrest statistics are a measure of crime committed by juveniles. Others argue that clearance sta tistics are a more representative index of the relative responsibility of j uveniles. Using data from the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting Syste m, this paper explores the likelihoods of arrests for juvenile and adult ro bbery offenders. The findings show that juvenile robbery suspects are 23% m ore likely to be arrested than adults, and 32% more likely after controllin g for other incident characteristics. Analyses also found an increased like lihood of arrest in robbery incidents in which (1) the victim was a juvenil e, a female, or white; (2) the offender was white or female; and (3) the vi ctim was injured. The presence of a weapon was not related to the likelihoo d of arrest. The differential influences of specific incident characteristi cs on the likelihood of arrest for juveniles and adults highlight the under lying biases of law enforcement statistics in assessing the juvenile compon ent of crime.