Reported in this article are findings that were derived from data given annually by local law enforcement agencies across the country to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program. In 1999, law enforcement agencies in the United States made an estimated 2.5 million arrests of persons under age 18. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), juveniles accounted for 17% of all arrests and 16% of all violent crime arrests in 1999. The substantial growth in juvenile violent crime arrests that began in the late 1980s peaked in 1994. In 1999, for the fifth consecutive year, the rate of juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses – murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault – declined. Specifically, between 1994 and 1999, the juvenile arrest rate for Violent Crime Index offenses fell 36%. As a result, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate in 1999 was the lowest in the decade. The juvenile murder arrest rate fell 68% from its peak in 1993, when it reached its lowest level since the 1960s.
Juvenile Arrests Decline for the Fifth Consecutive Year
10/29/01
Report