Juveniles commit crimes for many reasons, and one of the most common is that the juvenile has been a victim.
Victimization can include assault, homicide, bullying, robbery, hate crimes, sexual assault, stalking, sibling violence, property theft, family or neighborhood violence and any type of abuse. The National Center for Victims of Crime reports that young people ages 12 to 24 suffer more violent crime than any other age group in the U.S.
In Indiana, 21,413 juvenile delinquency and status case filings were made in 2013. In Vanderburgh County alone, that number was 529. According to data from the 2015 Indiana Youth Institute’s Kids Count Data Book, 92 percent of delinquent youth have been a victim before their own crime.