The next slide (fig. 3) shows the juvenile trend over the same period of time. Notice that delinquency arrests have increased from 175,000 to 275,000 over the past period. Again the basis of the comparison was chosen to more normally represent that segment of the population which is involved, since we are calculating rates. It is interesting to see that over the whole 5-year period the worst increase ratewise has been in the delinquency, which is the minor skirmish with the police. The juvenile violent crime, which is shown at the bottom, has not increased substantially. If one does an analytical least square calculation of these data, one finds that the annual delinquency rate has increased less than 4 percent. Violent crime has increased less than 2 percent per year. The next slide (fig. 4) shows adult felony arrests over the same past 5-year period. This slide is also prepared on the basis of a more representative population, 18 to 64 for all arrests and 18 to 29 for the violent group. Notice that the violent rate actually decreased over this period as did the total. The next slide (fig. 5) describes one of the characteristics of the people that we commit to the institutions. We have talked about the dimensions of the crime. Now we can talk about the offenders' characteristics. These are the characteristics of the individuals entering the institutions. These are the people already fairly far into the system. In the adult category the educational distribution centers about the seventh grade. The juveniles is slightly higher, 9th or 10th. The dotted line represents the California population statistic, the average statistic, for the total population. SOURCE: Department of Corrections, State of California" U.S. Census 1960, Bureau of the Census, United States Dept. of Commerce FIGURE 5 The next slide (fig. 6) describes the ethnic distribution that we are currently committing to our institutions. The center bar illustrates the California population as a whole. The two bars on the sides represent the juvenile and adult distribution. We can note easily that the Negro and the Mexican American populations are significantly overrepresented in commitments to the institutions. From a geographical standpoint we find that our commitments are for a very large part from the districts in which these minority groups are represented. The next slide (fig. 7) shows a very important characteristic of the population that we commit. At the top the juvenile age is shown as a darkened distribution curve ranging from approximately age 10 to 21. The adult distribution curve is shown as beginning at age 17, with the percent of the total institutional admittances and age groups as the parameters. If we combine these two distributions and put them on a percentage basis, we end up with the dotted line. Now a very careful analysis of this dotted distribution of percentage versus age will reveal that 75 percent of the people we commit to the institutions are between 14 and 29. This is important to us, because the next chart (fig. 8) shows the age histogram for California from 1960 through 1975. Now this means that in 1960 there were a certain number of 14year-olds, which is represented by the intersection of 14 with the population in thousands over at the left. The crime susceptible group the 14 to 29 group that we are interested in, is represented by the dark area. Now you can see what is happening. As the people in California get older and as the immigration continues, as has been predicted, popuation in thousands over at the left. The crime susceptible group, is increasing faster than the population and will continue to do so between the years 1960 and 1975. |