Glossary

30-day prevalence	In self-report surveys, the use of a drug at least once during the previous month.
achieved status	A status that is earned.
adjudication hearing	A hearing held to determine whether the child committed the offense of which he or she is accused.
adolescence-limited offenders	Juveniles whose lawbreaking behavior is restricted to their teenage years.
adolescent-limited offenders	Juveniles whose law-breaking behavior restricted to their teenage years.
age-crime curve	Crime rates increase during preadolescence, peak in middle adolescence, and steadily decline thereafter.
age-crime curve	Crime rates increase during preadolescence, peak in late adolescence, and steadily decline thereafter.
aging-out phenomenon	The gradual decline of participation in crime after the teenage years.
annual prevalence	In self-report surveys, the use of a drug at least once during the prior year.
ascribed status	A status that is received at birth.
assortative mating	The concept that people choose mates that are similar to themselves.
atavistic beings	Criminals are a throwback to a more primitive stage of development.
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)	The most common neurobehavioral child-hood disorder.
authoritarian parents	Parents who place a high value on obedience and conformity, tending to favor more punitive, absolute, and forceful disciplinary measures.
authoritative parents	Parents who are warm but firm; they set standards of behavior for their child and highly value the development of autonomy and self-direction.
baby boomers	People born between 1946 and 1964.
bail	A money or cash bond deposited with the court or bailbondsman allowing the person to be released on the assurance he or she will appear in court at the proper time.
Baker v. Owen	Teachers can administer reasonable corporal punishment for disciplinary purposes.
behavioral theory	A theory that blames behavior on a person's interactions with others throughout her or his lifetime.
Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser	Schools may prohibit vulgar and offensive language.
blended sentencing	Juvenile courts may impose adult criminal sanctions on particular types of juvenile offenders.
Board of Education of Pottawatomie County v. Earls	Schools may require students to submit to a urinalysis for illegal drugs prior to participating in all competitive extracurricular activities.
Board of Education of Pottawatomie County v. Earls	The Supreme Court held that mandatory drug testing of students involved in any extracurricular activity was constitutional.
bond	The glue that connects a child to society.
booking	The official recording of a person into detention after arrest.
boot camps	Short-term confinement facilities where youths are exposed to a militaristic environment in which the emphasis is on physical conditioning, work, and education.
Brady Bill	Federal legislation mandating a five-day waiting period for the purchase of handguns.
Breed v. Jones	Criminal prosecution of a child following a juvenile court hearing is unconstitutional because it constitutes double jeopardy.
bullying	Negative acts by students carried out against other students repeatedly over time.
Child Savers	Nineteenth century reformers who believed children were basically good and blamed delinquency on a bad environment.
Chimel v. California	Established the one-arm's-length rule: Once a suspect is arrested, police may search the suspect and the immediate area he or she occupies.
chivalry hypothesis	The belief that lower rates of delinquency among females reflect men's deference and protective attitude toward women whereby female offenses are generally overlooked or excused by males.
chronic offenders	Juveniles who continue to engage in law-breaking behavior as adults.
chronic status offender	Children who continued to commit status offenses despite repeated interventions by family, school, social service, or law enforcement agencies.
Classical School Delinquency	is blamed on the choices people make.
coercive exchange	A test of wills in which a child uses misbehavior to extort a desired outcome from her or his parents.
collective efficacy	The mutual trust among neighbors combined with willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good, specifically to supervise children and maintain public order.
community policing	Based on the concept that police officers and private citizens working together can help solve community problems related to crime, fear of crime, social and physical disorder, and neighborhood decay.
compulsory school attendance law	A legislative act that requires students to attend school between specific ages, for example, 6-16 years old.
conduct norms	Rules that reflect the values, expectations, and actual behaviors of groups in everyday life. They are not necessarily the norms found in the criminal law.
conflict theory	Society is held together by force, coercion, and intimidation and that the law represents the interests of those in power.
continuity of crime	The idea that chronic offenders are unlikely to age-out of crime and more likely to continue their law-violating behavior into their adult lives.
corporal punishment	The infliction of physical pain as a penalty for violating a school rule.
Crime Index	A statistical indicator consisting of eight offenses used to gauge the amount of crime reported to the police. It was discontinued in 2004.
crime norms	Criminal laws that prohibit specific conduct and provide punishments for violations.
crimes of interest	The crimes that are the focus of the National Crime Victimization Survey.
cultural transmission	The process by which criminal values are transmitted from one generation to the next.
cumulative disadvantage	The process by which successive misbehavior leads to a serious attenuation of an individual's life chances.
dark figure of crime	The gap between the actual amount of crime committed and crime reported to the police.
decarceration	The policy, since the early 1970s, of removing status offenders from "secure" institutions.
decriminalization	The relaxing of the enforcement of certain laws, for example, drug laws.
delinquent career	The pattern of delinquent behavior that an individual exhibits over time.
delinquent propensity	The likelihood of committing delinquency and other antisocial acts; it is a trait that is largely set in early childhood.
demand waiver	A juvenile may request to have his or her case transferred from juvenile court to criminal court.
detention	The temporary confinement of children pending implementation of disposition.
determinate sentences	Prison sentences of a fixed amount of time (e.g., five years).
developmental theories	Theories that focus on an individual's entire life course rather than one discrete point in time.
differential coercion theory	Children who are exposed to coercive environments are more likely to develop social-psychological deficits that increase the possibility of their commit-ting crimes.
differential oppression theory	Delinquency is the culmination of a process that begins at conception and evolves through adolescence; the more a child is oppressed, the greater the likelihood he or she will become delinquent.
differential social organization	Neighborhoods are differentially organized.
disintegrative shaming	A form of negative labeling by the juvenile justice system that stigmatizes and excludes targeted youths, tossing them into a class of outcasts.
disposition hearing	A juvenile court hearing in which the court determines what action will be in the youth's and community's best interests; the equivalent of the sentencing stage in the criminal court process.
dizygotic twins (DZ)	Fraternal twins; develop from two eggs fertilized at the same time.
double jeopardy	The prosecution of an individual a second time for the same offense. It is prohibited by the Fifth Amendment.
doubly oppressed	The notion that adolescent girls are oppressed both as children and as females.
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.)	A program aimed at children in kindergarten through twelfth grade, designed to equip students with appropriate skills to resist substance abuse and gangs.
dualistic fallacy	The idea that delinquents and nondelinquents are two fundamentally different types of people.
ecological fallacy	The mistake of assuming relationships found at the neighborhood level mean those factors are related at the individual level.
ecology fallacy	Using neighborhood-level data to draw conclusions about individual residents.
Eddings v. Oklahoma	Courts must consider all mitigating circumstances before imposing the death penalty.
electronic monitoring	An active or passive computer-based tracking system in which electronic signals are used to verify that the youth is where he or she is supposed to be.
eugenics	The science of improving the human race through better breeding.
exclusionary rule	Evidence police produce illegally is not admissible in court (see Mapp v. Ohio).
falsely accused	Juveniles who are thought to have committed a crime when they have not.
falsely accused	Juveniles who are thought to have when integrated structural-Marxist theory Serious delinquency is the result of the reproduction of coercive control patterns tied to the relationship between production and class structure in capitalist societies.
fine	A cash payment determined by the court and paid by the youth.
focal concerns	The values that monopolize lower-class consciousness.
free will	People choose their behavior.
Garcia v. Miera	School authorities who use excessive or extreme punishment against a child may be sued for damages suffered by the student and attorney fees.
gender-role	identities Individual identities based on sexual stereotypes.
Goss v. Lopez	Students who may be suspended for up to 10 or more days must receive a hearing.
Hall v. Tawney	Parents do not have a constitutional right to exempt their children from corporal punishment in public schools.
harm reduction	An approach to drug control that involves using a public health model to reduce the risks and negative consequences of illicit drug use.
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier	School administrators can regulate the content of student publications in public schools for educational purposes.
hierarchy rule	In the Uniform Crime Reports, the police record only the most serious crime incident.
home confinement	The intensive supervision and monitoring of an offending youth within his or her home environment.
In re Gault	Juveniles may not be denied basic due process rights in juvenile adjudicatory hearings.
In re Gault	Juveniles may not be denied basic due process rights in juvenile adjudicatory hearings.
In re Winship	In delinquency cases, juveniles have the right to be convicted only if there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
incidence measure	A measure of how much delinquency someone over a given period of time.
incidence	The number of delinquent acts committed.
indeterminate sentences	Prison sentences of varying time lengths (e.g., 5-10 years).
indifferent parents	Parents who are rather unresponsive to their child and may, in extreme cases, be neglectful.
individual justice	The criminal law must reflect differences among people and their circumstances.
individual theories	Delinquency is blamed on personal traits such as temperament, genetics, and brain chemistry.
indulgent parents	Parents who are more responsive, accepting, benign, and passive in matters of discipline and place few demands on their child.
infanticide	Homicides in which recently born children are killed by relatives who do not want the children or who are suffering from childbirth-related psychiatric disturbances.
informal adjustment	Cases that are handled through discretionary nonjudicial dispositions.
informal probation	A case adjustment practice in which the child and family comply with requirements of probation personnel without a formal court order.
Ingraham v. Wright	Corporal punishment does not violate the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment.
intake	The initial case-screening process in the juvenile court system. It is designed to screen out cases that do not warrant a formal court hearing.
intelligence	The ability to learn, exercise judgment, and be imaginative.
IQ score	The ratio of a person's mental age multiplied by 100 and divided by her or his chronological age.
judicial waiver	A method used for transferring youths to criminal court in which the juvenile court judge is the primary decision maker in determining whether the youth should be transferred.
justice model	A corrections philosophy that promotes flat or fixed-time sentences, abolishment of parole, and use of prison to punish offenders.
juvenile delinquency	Behavior committed by a minor child that violates a state's penal code.
juvenile delinquent	A child with a long and problematic history of involvement in crime.
juveniles	Persons under age 18.
Kansas City Gun Experiment	A 1992 experiment in which the use of additional police to patrol in target areas for the exclusive purpose of gun detection significantly increased gun seizures and decreased gun crimes.
Kent v. United States	A formal waiver hearing must take place before transfer of a juvenile to criminal court.
klikas	Age cohorts within Latino gangs.
labeling theory	Social control leads to deviance; how behavior is reacted to determines whether it is defined as deviant.
latchkey children	Children who regularly care for themselves without adult supervision after school or on weekends.
legalization	The elimination of many laws currently prohibiting the distribution and possession of drugs, but not necessarily eliminating all regulation.
liberation hypothesis	The belief that changes brought about by the women's movement triggered a wave of female crime.
life-course persistent offenders	Individuals who suffer from a number of neuropsychological deficits that are likely to push them into delinquency throughout their lives.
lifetime prevalence	In self-report surveys, the use of a drug at least once during the respondent's lifetime.
maltreatment	Severe mistreatment of children, including physical and sexual abuse, physical neglect, lack of supervision, emotional maltreatment, educational maltreatment, and moral-legal maltreatment.
Mapp v. Ohio	Applied the exclusionary rule to state courts (see above).
master status	The status of an individual that people react to first when they see or meet her or him for the first time.
McKeiver v. Pennsylvania	Juveniles do not have a constitutional right to a jury trial in juvenile court.
member-based definition	Defining a crime as gang-related when a gang member or members are either the perpetrators or the victims, regardless of the motive.
middle-class measuring rod	The standard teachers use when they assign status to students.
Miranda v. Arizona	Established the right to protection from self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment and the right to legal counsel under the Sixth Amendment.
mitigating circumstances	Factors that may be responsible for an individual's behavior, such as age, insanity, and incompetence.
monozygotic twins	(MZ) Identical twins; develop from one fertilized egg.
motive-based definition	Defining a crime as gang-related when committed by a gang member or members in which the underlying reason is to further the interests and activities of the gang.
National Crime Victimization Survey	An annual nationwide survey of criminal victimization conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics.
National Opinion Research Center	Conducted the first nationwide victimization survey.
National Youth Survey	Nationwide self-report survey of approximately 1,700 people who were between the ages of 11 and 17 in 1976.
Neoclassical School	A school of thought that considers circumstances when determining culpability for delinquency.
New Jersey v. T.L.O.	School officials can conduct warrantless searches of individuals at school on the basis of reasonable suspicion.
one-arm's-length rule	Once a suspect is arrested, police may search the suspect and the immediate area he or she occupies (see Chimel v. California).
Operation Ceasefire	A gun prevention program in Boston involving direct law enforcement attack on illicit firearms traffickers supplying juveniles with guns.
parens patriae	A doctrine that defines the state as the ultimate guardian of every child.
parole revocation	If a youth violates the law or one of the discretionary conditions of parole, parole may be revoked and the youth is returned to a correctional facility.
parole	The release of an offender from a correctional institution before the scheduled period of confinement has ended. It typically involves supervision by a parole officer.
patriarchy	A social system that enforces masculine control of the sexuality and labor power of women.
peer groups	Groups of youths of similar ages and interests.
petition	A document setting forth the specific charge against a juvenile.
police discretion	The authority of police to choose one course of action over another.
Positive School	Delinquency is blamed on factors that are in place before crime is committed.
power-control theory	Emphasizes the consequences of the power relations of husbands and wives in the workplace on the lives of children.
precocious transition	An important life event (e.g., pregnancy) that is experienced too early in life.
prevalence measure	A measure of whether an individual has committed any delinquency during a given period of time.
prevalence	The number of juveniles committing delinquency.
primary deviation	Deviant behavior that everyone engages in occasionally.
probable cause	A set of facts that would lead a reasonable person to believe a crime has been committed and the person to be arrested committed it.
probation	The conditional freedom granted by the court to an alleged or adjudicated offender, who must adhere to certain conditions and is generally supervised by a probation officer.
prosecutorial waiver	A method used for transferring youths to criminal court in which the prosecutor is the primary decision maker in determining whether a youth should be transferred. The prosecutor typically has concurrent jurisdiction to file charges in either juvenile or criminal court.
pseudo families	Relationships established in correctional institutions for girls and intended to substitute for those found on the outside.
psychodynamic theory	Delinquency is blamed on unconscious mental processes developed in early childhood.
racial profiling	A practice where police use race as an explicit factor in profiles for guiding their decision making.
radical nonintervention	An approach to juvenile justice whereby police and the courts would, whenever possible, "leave kids alone."
rational choice theory	Delinquents are rational people who make calculated choices before they act.
reintegrative shaming	The expression of community disapproval of delinquency, followed by indications of forgiveness and reacceptance into the community.
restitution	A court-ordered action in which an offender pays money or provides services to victims of the offense or to the community.
retribution	Punishment philosophy based on society's moral outrage or disapproval of a crime.
reverse waiver	A juvenile who is being prosecuted as an adult in criminal court may petition to have the case transferred to juvenile court for adjudication or disposition.
Roper v. Simmons	The Supreme Court held that the death penalty for persons under the age of 18 was a violation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.
routine activities theory	Focus on the crime target, which is anything an offender wants to take control of.
Schall v. Martin	Juveniles may be held in preventive detention while awaiting adjudication if they are determined to be "serious risks" to the community.
Seattle Social Development Project	A leading study in the creation and application of developmental theory.
secondary deviation	Deviant behavior based on the youth's taking on and accepting the deviant role as part of her or his identity.
secret delinquents	Juveniles whose crimes are not known to the police.
secret deviant	An offenders whose deviant behavior is hidden from others.
self-report studies	Unofficial measures of crime in which juveniles are asked about their law-breaking behavior.
single-parent families	Families composed of children and one parent who is divorced or widowed or who was never married.
socialization	The process through which children learn the ways of a particular society or social group so that they can function within it.
Stanford v. Kentucky	The Supreme Court held that the execution of a person who was age 16 or 17 at the time of his or her offense was not unconstitutional.
status	A socially defined position in a group.
status offense	An act illegal only for children, such as truancy.
status offenses	A behavior that is unlawful only for children.
statutory exclusion	A method used for transferring youths to criminal court, whereby the most serious or persistent offenders or those over a certain age are excluded from juvenile court jurisdiction and automatically prosecuted as adults.
stigmata	The distinctive physical features of criminals.
Stubborn Child Law	Passed in 1641, the law stated that children who disobeyed their parents might be put to death.
techniques of neutralization	Rationalizations used to explain delinquent behavior.
theories	An integrated set of ideas that explain and predict phenomena.
Thompson v. Oklahoma	Supreme Court ruled that the execution of a person under age 16 at the time of his or her crime was unconstitutional.
token economy	A system of distributing points that can be exchanged for privileges such as watching TV.
turf	A gang's sense of territoriality.
turning points	Key life events that can either drive someone toward delinquent behavior or initiate the process of desisting from it (e.g., marriage).
Uniform Crime Reports	Annual publication from the Federal Bureau of Investigation presenting data on crimes reported to the police, number of arrests, and number of persons arrested.
United States v. Lopez	U.S. Supreme Court held that the Gun Free School Zones Act of 1990 was unconstitutional.
utilitarian punishment model	Offenders must be punished to protect society.
victimization survey	A method of producing crime data in which people are asked about their experiences as crime victims.
wraparound programs	Programs designed to build constructive relationships and support networks between delinquent youth and their families, teachers, and other caregivers and agencies in the community.
Yarborough v. Alvarado	Police do not need to factor in the age and inexperience of a suspect in their decision of whether to read a juvenile his or her Miranda rights if the youth is not believed to be "in custody."
youth gang	A group of youths willing to use deadly violence to claim and protect territory, to attack rival gangs, or to engage in criminal activity.