Future of the Juvenile Justice System Presentation and Paper

Juvenile Crime Statistics
By Shirley Deeds
Instructor Paul Cleverley
University Of Phoenix
March 21, 2011

This is a summary of statistics from the Juvenile Arrest 2001 bulletin report. In order to measure juvenile crimes there is the need to take statistics. According to (Snyder, 2003) “the arrest statistics report the number of arrests made by law enforcements in a particular year-not the number of individuals arrested, nor the number of crimes committed.” The FBI keeps an eye on four offenses which are forcible rape, murder, aggravated assault and robbery. They keep this information in what is referred as the Violent Crime Index. The information is provided by law enforcements agencies and this information is provided to the FBI annually. This information is used to distinguish the level and nature of juvenile crimes that comes involved in the justice system. These statistics are very encouraging such as in 2001 the crime rate of juveniles fell 44%. Violent crime arrests between 1980 to 2001 among the African Americans and white juveniles declined greatly. Drugs arrests between 1990 to 1993 rates stayed about and because drugs are in great demand a decline as not likely to be seen. In 2001 about 2.3 million juveniles under the age of 18 were arrested for various crimes such as 15% were for violent crimes. Murder arrests accounted for 10%, aggravated assault was 14%, burglary accounted for 31%, robbery was 24%, and 23% was with weapons. In 2001 there were 1400 juveniles arrested for murder. Crimes such as murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assaults declined in 2001. The arrest rate was the lowest for these crimes in 1983. From 1993 to 2001 arrest of juveniles for the crime of murder decreased about 70%. Arrests cleared for violent crimes accounted for 12%, murder was 5%, and forcible rape was 12%, robberies at 14% and 12% for aggravated assault. The term “cleared” means the crime was resolved by an arrest, death of the offender or unwillingness on the part of the victim not being cooperative. Crimes among juveniles are cleared more than crimes committed by adults (Juvenile Arrest 2001 Bulletin). Between the years 1980 to 2001 there was a 66% decline in burglary arrests. “Offenses “cleared” by juvenile arrests in 2001 (21%) was below all but two years in 1980’s and 1990’s” (Juvenile Arrest 2001 Bulletin). In 2001 about 28% of arrests were of females under the age of 18 and in 1992 to 2001 female arrests increased compared to males being arrested. Arrests for simple assaults greatly increased from 1983 to 1997 more than 150% but from 1997 to 2001 there was a 7% decreased. National attention was put on juvenile violence after the increase in violence between the years 1988 to 1994. Juvenile violent crimes peaked in 1994 and from 1995 to 2001 arrest dropped. During the years of 1992 and 2001 the decline of juvenile arrests were greater than those of adults being arrested for violent crimes.

References
Juvenile Arrests 2001 Bulletin (www.ncjrs.gov)
Snyder, H.N., December, 2003. “Juvenile Arrests 2001” (www.ncjrs.gov)