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Juvenile arrests for violence in 1998 were the lowest in a decade The FBI assesses trends in the volume of violent crimes by monitoring four offenses that are consistently reported by law enforcement agencies nationwide and are pervasive in all geographical areas of the country. These four crimes—murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault—together form the Violent Crime Index.
 After years of relative stability in the number of juvenile Violent Crime Index arrests, the increase in these arrests between 1988 and 1994 focused national attention on the problem of juvenile violence. After peaking in 1994, these arrests dropped in 1995, 1996, 1997, and again in 1998. The number of juvenile arrests in 1998 was the lowest in the 1990's for all Violent Crime Index offenses combined and the lowest since 1987 for murder, 1983 for forcible rape, 1987 for robbery, and 1991 for aggravated assault. Between 1994 and 1998, the decline in the number of violent crime arrests was greater for juveniles than adults for most violent crime offenses:
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