Data in Mukherjee, Carcach and Higgins (1997) suggest that about 30 per cent of all persons
charged with property offences and about 10 per cent of all the persons charged with violent
offences are juveniles. Yet juveniles are about three and a half times more likely than adults to
be charged with a property offence. On the other hand, juveniles are about half as likely than
adults to be charged with a violent offence. These figures may suggest that juvenile crime is
not as serious as public opinion suggests. What is more important, and in particular for
property offences, these figures seem to indicate that juvenile offenders are more easily
detected by police than their adult counterparts, a result that is consistent with previous
findings (see for example Vandaele, 1978).