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Juvenile arrests for
violence in 1999 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 each year from 1995
through 1999. The number of juvenile
arrests in 1999 was the lowest since 1988
for all Violent Crime Index offenses combined
and the lowest since 1984 for murder,
1983 for forcible rape, and 1991 for
aggravated assault. The number of juvenile
arrests for robbery in 1999 was
lower than in any year since at least the
early 1970’s.
Between 1995 and 1999, the decline in
the number of violent crime arrests was
greater for juveniles than adults for most
violent crime offenses:
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| Juvenile Arrests 1999 |
Juvenile
Justice Bulletin • December 2000 |
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