Characteristics of Juvenile Offenders

Answer 1: When examining the juvenile justice system, it is important to recognize some general commonalities about juvenile offenders. Before explaining some general characteristics of juvenile offenders, it must be pointed out that these characteristics are based on the information about juveniles who go through the system, which means that these general characteristics might be very different if every youth in America were processed the same. Some juveniles are let go by the police and no formal action is taken, nor is any statistical information recorded. Also, there are juveniles who are not caught for their offenses, which means that their demographic information is also not recorded. So, the existing information is on juvenile offenders who have been processed to some degree through the system, and the characteristics we discuss may not be real representations of all juvenile offenders. After examining some of the different aspects of juvenile offender characteristics and their explanations, along with some sociological theoretical explanations, it will become clearer why some juveniles are treated differently than others.