Juvenile arrests for property crimes declined substantially in recent years

As with violent crime, the FBI assesses trends in the volume of property 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, which form the Property Crime Index, are burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson.

For the period from 1988 through 1994, during which juvenile violent crime arrests increased substantially, juvenile property crime arrest rates remained relatively constant. After this long period of relative stability, juvenile property crime arrests began to fall. Between 1994 and 1999, the juvenile Property Crime Index arrest rate dropped nearly 30%, to its lowest level since at least the 1960’s. Juvenile burglary arrests have been declining for a generation. The number of juvenile arrests for burglary in 1999 (101,000) was just one-third the number of such arrests in 1975 (291,300).

Data source: Analysis of arrest data from the FBI and population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. [See data source note for detail.]

Data source: Analysis of arrest data from the FBI and population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. [See data source note for detail.]

Juvenile Arrests 1999	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • December 2000