The chief strength of official records is that they are very reliable counts of juveniles who have been arrested, processed, and incarcerated by juvenile and criminal justice systems. They show trends in arrests and processing which may ultimately affect policymaking decisions. Court and correctional statistics are excellent measures of the number of cases processed and the population in juvenile correctional facilities.  To achieve maximum points for content analysis, the following elements need to be thoroughly addressed:

• explain three strengths and three weaknesses of using official statistics to measure juvenile crime.
• Explain why report percentage for crimes involving juveniles is low compared to that of crimes involving adults?
• Explain the three main methods of collecting juvenile crime information used in the United States?
• Explain three strengths and three weaknesses of using victimization surveys to measure juvenile crime.
• Explain three strengths and three weaknesses of using self-report surveys to measure juvenile crime.
• Based on your research, which method is most valid? Why?