Juvenile Crime Statistics Analysis

Juvenile Crime Statistics Analysis

Shanda Biglow

CJA/374

October 31, 2011

LaDetra C. Jones

Juvenile Crime Statistics Analysis

Juvenile crime has been an issue throughout the United States since the 1800s. In an effort to reform U. S. polices concerning juveniles, the first court system was established in 1899. Dealing with juvenile crime evolved over time, as did the juvenile crimes committed. In order to examine the trends of juvenile arrests, and criminal activity, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) published a comprehensive study of juvenile arrest statistics (FindLaw, 2011). Each year law enforcement agencies report but not limited to arrests, violent crimes, simple assault, and drug offenses for this comprehensive study to compare and find trends of juvenile criminal activity.

The juvenile justice bulletin of 2008 shows a decrease of three percent in juvenile arrests than in 2007. The juvenile violent crime arrests fell two percent and continue to decline from an increase in 2005 and 2006 when it was feared the nation was on a juvenile crime wave (Puzzanchera, 2008). There were 2.11 million juveniles arrested in 2008, which was a decrease of 16% when compared to the arrests in 1999. An estimated 324,000 juveniles were arrested for larceny-theft, resulting in a 17% decrease between 1999 and 2008. At the same time there was a two percent increase in the violent crime index between 2007 and 2008. The four crimes that make up the violent crime index consist of murder, and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. These crimes had a 10-year decline from 1994 to 2004, but increased from 2004 to 2006, then declined 2 years later. Arrests for rape and aggravated assault among juveniles is the lowest it has been in 2008 since 1980s, but arrests for murder increased yearly from 2005 to 2007 before taking a five percent decline in 2008. Both arrest rates for simple assault...