The characteristics of violent youth offenders and the nature and circumstances of their crimes

Abstract

The study sought to identify characteristics of youth male offenders, the situational context of their crime, and determine whether offender characteristics differentiated the types of violent crime committed using a quantitative cross-sectional study with secondary data. Descriptive statistical methods were used to determine characteristics of violent offenders and to describe the situational context of crimes. Subgroup analysis was used to derive four major crime categories: assaultive violence (18.1%), robbery (54.8%), sexual violence (17.4%) and robbery/sexual (7.1%). A multinomial regression analysis was used to determine if offender characteristics differentiated the types of violent crimes committed within these subgroups. The majority of offenders didn’t complete high school (90.4%) or have stable employment (88.6%). The situational context of their crimes involved the use of firearms (37.7%) or sharp objects (35.9%); and often resulted in death (35.9%) or serious injury (33.8%) for the victims. Further analysis showed a positive association between gang affiliation and robbery.