A Message From OJJDP

Homicides are always tragic, but the killing of a child is especially so. This Bulletin draws on statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program—in particular, supplementary homicide report data—to analyze trends in the murder of youth between 1980 and 2000.

Between 1980 and 2000, approximately 434,000 persons were murdered in the United States. About 1 in 10 of these victims were juveniles. Fortunately, the number of youth murdered in 2000 (1,610) was considerably below the number of youth murdered in 1993 (2,880)—the peak year in the period covered by this Bulletin.

In fact, the 2000 murder rate for juvenile victims was lower than in any of the preceding 20 years. Moreover, the murder rate for youth dropped 47% in just 7 years.

Despite the decrease, there is small comfort in numbers when they represent the violent deaths of more than 1,600 children each year. While the findings reported in these pages show marked improvement, there is still reason for concern. For example, the murder rate for children younger than age 1 was higher than the rate for all youth ages 1–15.

While the trend over the past several years has been positive, there is work to be done.