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The number of child delinquents entering the juvenile justice system is increasing, as evidenced by rising arrest rates and court caseloads. Compared with adolescents who become involved in delinquency in their teens, child delinquents between the ages of 7 and 12 have a two- to threefold greater risk of becoming serious, violent, and chronic offenders. Child delinquents consume a disproportionately large amount of the resources of schools, the juvenile justice system, and child welfare and mental health agencies. To better determine the prevalence of child delinquency, information about the types of delinquent acts committed, and how the juvenile justice system deals with child delinquency, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Preventions (OJJDPs) Study Group on Very Young Offenders (the Study Group) focused on two sources of data. The Study Group looked at a wide range of official reports, from juvenile arrest data to how the courts specifically handle child delinquency cases. It also studied self-report data gathered from children and young adolescents to enhance the information obtained from official records and shed more light on what is believed to be a substantial number of offenses committed by child delinquents that never come to the attention of the police or the courts. The information presented in this Bulletin provides a basis for bringing some of the issues into focus. The longterm goal is to use this information to foster effective interventions that target very young children before they accumulate multiple offenses and develop a pattern of chronic offending. (GCP)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert