After reading this chapter, students will be able to:

• Describe the main strategies used to measure the amount of crime occurring in the United States
• Compare and contrast the various crime measurement strategies
• Describe strategies used to measure the extent of juvenile delinquency
• Identify three crime patterns that characterize the distribution of various offenses
• Explain why crime varies across time and space
• Describe juvenile offending trends and the aging-out phenomenon
• Discuss three reasons why it is believed that men commit more crime than do women