Cja 374 - Juvenile Arrest Statistics

Juvenile Arrest Statistics

CJA 374

June 26, 2012

Juvenile arrests seem to have become more prevalent or has it? In order to assess the juvenile justice system and any programs associated with the youth of America is having any success in reducing juvenile delinquency. It seems that crime among juveniles is becoming a growing problem.

In 2008, it seems to be a better year for crime rates in the juvenile court systems. There was a 3% drop in juvenile arrests from 2007 to 2008 as well as a 2% decline in juvenile violent crimes. In 2005 and 2006 there was a significant increase in juvenile crime that was pushing what juvenile justice professionals would label as a national juvenile crime wave. Juvenile make up 16% of violent criminal arrests and 26% of property crime arrests. Unfortunately there is a grim statistic of 11% of murder victims were under the age of 18 and of that percentage 38% were under the age of 5. On the flip side of this statistic the murder arrest rate for juveniles was 3.8 arrests per 100,000 ages 10 to 17 in 2008.

There are other positive trends in juvenile crime rates. One area that does have a disproportionate representation is the amount of minorities in the justice system. For example, the arrest rate for robbery was 10 times higher for black than for white juveniles in 2008. The juvenile drug arrest rate was at a high of 145% by 1997 but that rate declined 28% over the next 9 years. The ethnic breakdown of this is that white drug rates decreased by 13% while black drug rates has been up and down but fell 13% from the 2002-2007 rate. Female juvenile arrests accounted for 30% in 2008. Through 2008 arrests of juvenile females did not decreased as much as their male counterparts. The differences in female and male arrest trends of juvenile's being arrested may have a correlation with the adult female arrest trend. The simple assault juvenile arrest rate was at a peak in 1997 at 156%. In 2008 the simple assault rate of juveniles has decreased by 10% from the 1997 rate. In some of the crime categories such as driving under the influence (DUI), simple assault, and theft female juvenile offenders and arrests increased while male juvenile offenders and arrests decreased. Luckily juveniles showed the largest decline in violent crimes. The juvenile violent crime rate has decreased by 37% for 18 year olds and 40% for 10 to 17 year olds. The racial makeup of the juvenile justice system population in 2008 was 78% white/Hispanic, 16% black, 5% Asian, and 1% American Indian. Of that the violent crimes committed by juveniles is 47% white/Hispanic, 52% black, 1% American Indian, and 1% Asian. Overrepresentation of black youth is a common problem in the juvenile justice system. For violent crimes the rate of arrest of black juveniles was 5 times higher than white juveniles. For property