| Violent juvenile crime has been a serious problem in the United States for as long as crime statistics have been collected. With the decline in juvenile crime over the past several years, many now believe the problem no longer exists or is no longer of concern. The fact that arrests of juveniles for violent offenses is proportionally the same, or in some cases worse, means policymakers must continue to devote resources to this serious problem. Most research on the issue of violent juveniles has focused on an entire cohort of juveniles; or on identified neighborhoods where juvenile violence has been a problem. Such research as exists also was conducted primarily in the Northeast, the Midwest or in California.;The present research uses modern geographic information systems (GIS) technology to identify "hot spots" of juvenile violence in Dallas, TX. Dallas is different from most cities where this type of analysis has been conducted in its' demographic composition and its' economic mix. Identified are those hot spots where the offenses occur, hot spots where victims of violent juveniles live, and hot spots where violent juvenile offenders live. This approach allows analysis of the social ecology of juvenile violence in a way that has not been attempted before. The GIS software precisely identifies those neighborhoods where the units of observation are most densely concentrated in space, as opposed to previous research that relies on simply identifying where a bunch of observations are.;The difference between this approach and past research is clear. In the past policy makers had to focus on those areas where large numbers of offenses occurred. This does not, by definition, mean that these were the worst areas. The approach used here identifies where concentrations of offenses occur "in space." This approach leads to analysis of victims' and offenders' demographic characteristics and of the environment where they live, and where they intersect at the scene of the crime. |
