A comparison of police processing reports for juvenile graffiti offenders: societal implications

Abstract

This paper reports on a Western Australian Police database investigation into gender, age and offence type differences in the processing reports recorded for 1060 juvenile graffiti offenders. The findings reveal no significant differences exist in the processing reports recorded for male and female juvenile offenders. However, the recorded offences committed by 10–12 year old preteen offenders differ significantly from those of 13–14 year old early adolescent and 15–17 year old late adolescent offenders. In light of these differences, the possibility of affording greater processing discretionary powers to Police when dealing with preteen graffiti offenders is discussed.