Murder rates for victims ages 2–11 reached a 21-year low in 2000

Children ages 2–11 accounted for 22% (or 9,590) of the juvenile murder victims between 1980 and 2000. The average annual murder rates for 2-year-olds (3.3) and 3-year-olds (2.1) were above the rates for children ages 4–11 (which averaged about 0.9) over this period. In general, the murder rate for children ages 2–11 decreased by 32% between 1980 and 2000.

The age-specific murder rates for male and female victims in the 2–11 age group were essentially equal from 1980 to 2000. The average murder rate for male victims ages 2–11 was 1.3, compared with 1.2 for female victims. The murder rates for both male and female juveniles ages 2–11 decreased between 1980 and 2000 (31% and 33%, respectively), reaching 21-year lows in 2000 (1.0 and 0.9, respectively).

Between 1980 and 2000, the murder rate for black children in the 2–11 age group averaged 3.3, nearly four times the average murder rate of 0.9 for white children in this age group. The murder rate for white juveniles ages 2–11 decreased 33% between 1980 and 2000 (to end at 0.7), while the rate for black juveniles in this age group decreased 27% over this period (reaching 2.3 in 2000); both fell to their lowest levels of the 1980s and 1990s.

The increase and subsequent decrease in the murders of juveniles between 1980 and 2000 were attributable mostly to changes in the murder rate for males

• Variations in the substantially smaller victimization rate for white juveniles are masked when placed on a graph displaying the corresponding black rate. So that readers can see the relative variations within the white and black rates, the white rates are presented separately using a magnified scale on the y axis.
  
  
• Between the low year of 1984 and the peak year of 1993, the juvenile murder rate increased 117% for males and 23% for females. By 2000, the male rate had fallen to a level 9% higher than the 1984 rate and the female rate had fallen to a level 23% lower than the 1984 rate.
  
  
• Between 1984 and 1993, murder rates increased 167% for black males, 72% for white males, 50% for black females, and 4% for white females. By 2000, the rates for both white females and black females had fallen below their 1984 levels (31% and 11% lower, respectively). In contrast, in 2000, murder rates for both white males and black males were still higher than their 1984 levels (5% and 12% higher, respectively).

Data source: Analysis of the FBI's Supplementary Homicide Reports for the years 1980–2000 [machine-readable data files] and population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. [See data source note for detail.]

Trends in the Murder of Juveniles: 1980–2000	OJJDP Bulletin • September 2004