CJA/374
Juvenile Crime Statistics
“In 2008, about one in ten murder victims were a juvenile,” (ncjrs.gov, 2009). When a child is harmed or obtain physical pain or injury, it is something that produces a reverberating sound with the community and it is something that is of growing concern. A juvenile that becomes a delinquent is considered to be a child and treated as such in a juvenile court until their habits goes beyond a level that is unacceptable and they are treated as adults. When this happens a juvenile child can be lost forever and sent into an adult system. In this paper we will look at some statistics as they relate to delinquency prevention and juvenile justice. It will talk about the total decrease in juvenile arrests. It will talk about the increase in simple assaults as well as drug offenses. This paper will mention the conclusion that can be drawn for juvenile females and members of racial and ethnic minorities. I will also discuss the low numbers of arrest in male juveniles for violent crimes as well as the increase in arrests of juvenile females. This paper will give an estimation of tracking juvenile arrests as a way of measuring the amount of and trends in juvenile crime.
Between the year 2007 to 2008 the statistics show that there was a decrease of 3% in the amount of juveniles arrested. The statistic that is most astounding is how over the past decade how much the percent of juveniles that are arrested as dropped. Since 1999 to 2008 the amount of juveniles arrested per year has decreased 16%. That number is amazing if we consider that the 16% is based on the 2.1 million of juveniles that were arrested in 2008. The number of juveniles that are being arrested continues to decrease and this is something that the juvenile justice system should be happy with and we as a community should be as well (ncjrs.gov, 2009).
In 2008 the amount of simple assaults in males decreased 6% however it increased an amazing 12%