Introduction

In 2001, law enforcement agencies in the United States made an estimated 2.3 million arrests of persons under age 18.* According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), juveniles accounted for 17% of all arrests and 15% of all violent crime arrests in 2001. The substantial growth in juvenile violent crime arrests that began in the late 1980s peaked in 1994. In 2001, for the seventh consecutive year, the rate of juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses—murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—declined. Specifically, between 1994 and 2001, the juvenile arrest rate for Violent Crime Index offenses fell 44%. As a result, the juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate in 2001 was the lowest since 1983. From its peak in 1993 to 2001, the juvenile arrest rate for murder fell 70%.

These findings are derived from data reported annually by local law enforcement agencies across the country to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. Based on these data, the FBI prepares its annual Crime in the United States report, which summarizes crimes known to the police and arrests made during the reporting calendar year. This information is used to characterize the extent and nature of juvenile crime that comes to the attention of the justice system. Other recent findings from the UCR Program include the following:

  • Of the nearly 1,630 juveniles murdered in 2001, 39% were under 5 years of age, 67% were male, 52% were white, and 44% were killed with a firearm.

  • Juveniles were involved in 10% of murder arrests, 14% of aggravated assault arrests, 31% of burglary arrests, 24% of robbery arrests, and 23% of weapons arrests in 2001.

  • In the peak year of 1993, there were about 3,800 juvenile arrests for murder. Between 1993 and 2001, juvenile arrests for murder declined, with the number of arrests in 2001 (1,400) about one-third that in 1993.

  • Arrests of juveniles accounted for 12% of all violent crimes cleared by arrest in 2001—specifically, 5% of murders, 12% of forcible rapes, 14% of robberies, and 12% of aggravated assaults.

  • Juvenile arrest rates for burglary declined 66% between 1980 and 2001.

  • Between 1994 and 2001, the aggravated assault arrest rate for both the youngest (under age 13) and the oldest (age 17) juveniles declined, but the decline was proportionally much greater for the older juveniles than the younger juveniles (38% versus 9%).

  • The disparity in violent crime arrest rates for black juveniles and white juveniles declined substantially between 1980 and 2001.

  • In 2001, the juvenile arrest rate for Property Crime Index offenses reached its lowest level since at least the 1960s.

What do arrest statistics count?

To interpret the material in this Bulletin properly, the reader must have a clear understanding of what these statistics count. The arrest statistics report the number of arrests made by law enforcement agencies in a particular year—not the number of individuals arrested, nor the number of crimes committed. The number of arrests is not equivalent to the number of people arrested, because an unknown number of individuals are arrested more than once in the year. Nor do arrest statistics represent counts of crimes committed by arrested individuals, because a series of crimes committed by one individual may culminate in a single arrest, or a single crime may result in the arrest of more than one person. This latter situation, where many arrests result from one crime, is relatively common in juvenile law-violating behavior because juveniles are more likely than adults to commit crimes in groups. This is the primary reason why arrest statistics should not be used to indicate the relative proportion of crime committed by juveniles and adults. Arrest statistics are most appropriately a measure of flow into the criminal and juvenile justice systems.

Arrest statistics also have limitations for measuring the volume of arrests for a particular offense. Under the UCR Program, the FBI requires law enforcement agencies to classify an arrest by the most serious offense charged in that arrest. For example, the arrest of a youth charged with aggravated assault and possession of a controlled substance would be reported to the FBI as an arrest for aggravated assault. Therefore, when arrest statistics show that law enforcement agencies made an estimated 202,500 arrests of young people for drug abuse violations in 2001, it means that a drug abuse violation was the most serious charge in these 202,500 arrests. An unknown number of additional arrests in 2001 included a drug charge as a lesser offense.

The juvenile proportion of arrests exceeded the juvenile proportion of crimes cleared by arrest in each offense category, reflecting the fact that juveniles are more likely to commit crimes in groups and are more likely to be arrested than are adults

Chart showing juvenile share of total arrests and clearances, by offense category, 2001
Data source: Crime in the United States 2001 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2002), tables 28 and 38.

What do clearance statistics count?

Clearance statistics measure the proportion of reported crimes that were resolved by an arrest or other, exceptional means (e.g., death of the offender, unwillingness of the victim to cooperate). A single arrest may result in many clearances. For example, 1 arrest could clear 40 burglaries if the person was charged with committing all 40 of these crimes. Or multiple arrests may result in a single clearance if the crime was committed by a group of offenders. For those interested in juvenile justice issues, the FBI also reports information on the proportion of clearances that were cleared by the arrest of persons under age 18. This statistic is a better indicator of the proportion of crime committed by this age group than is the arrest proportion, although there are some concerns that even the clearance statistic overestimates the juvenile proportion of crimes.

For example, the FBI reports that persons under age 18 accounted for 24% of all robbery arrests but only 14% of all robberies that were cleared in 2001. If it can be assumed that offender characteristics of cleared robberies are similar to those of robberies that were not cleared, then it would be appropriate to conclude that persons under age 18 were responsible for 14% of all robberies in 2001. However, the offender characteristics of cleared and noncleared robberies may differ for a number of reasons. If, for example, juvenile robbers were more easily apprehended than adult robbers, the proportion of robberies cleared by the arrest of persons under age 18 would overestimate the juvenile responsibility for all robberies. To add to the difficulty in interpreting clearance statistics, the FBI’s reporting guidelines require the clearance to be tied to the oldest offender in the group if more than one person is arrested for a crime.

In summary, while the interpretation of reported clearance proportions is not straightforward, these data are the closest measure generally available of the proportion of crime known to law enforcement that is attributed to persons under age 18.

* Throughout this Bulletin, persons under age 18 are referred to as juveniles. See Notes.

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Juvenile Arrests 2001 OJJDP Bulletin • December 2003