Juvenile arrest rates for burglary: A routine activities approach

Juveniles comprise a substantial portion of the offenders arrested for burglary in the United States each year. Using a Hierarchical Multivariate Linear Model, the current research examines juvenile burglars, by gender, utilizing a routine activities approach. This analysis was performed using data on the thirty five largest cities in Texas, between 1990 and 2004. Increased incidents of juvenile arrests for burglary, in both genders, occurred where there were high levels of poverty and low levels of female headed households. Juvenile males appeared to be arrested more for burglary in areas where there were high levels of unemployment and non-white individuals, while juvenile females were arrested for burglary in places where there were higher numbers of males between the ages of 19 and 24 years. Results suggest that the current measures of routine activities theory better explains variation in juvenile male arrests for burglary.