High violent crime arrest rates are found in a relatively small proportion of counties

In 1998, the national juvenile arrest rate for offenses included in the Violent Crime Index was 394 arrests of persons under age 18 for every 100,000 persons ages 10–17 in the U.S. population. Just 10% of the 3,141 counties in the U.S. reported a juvenile violent crime arrest rate higher than the national average. The highest rate reported by a county was more than four times the national rate. Six in ten reporting counties had rates less than half the national average. Half of all reporting counties had juvenile violent crime arrest rates less than 137, and nearly one-fourth reported no violent crime arrests at all for the year. However, the fact that high rates of juvenile violent crime arrests are found in counties with small populations and in counties with large populations indicates that high levels of juvenile violence can occur in any community.

Juvenile violent crime arrest rates varied considerably among counties within a State in 1998 Note: Rates were classified as “Data not available” when agencies with jurisdiction over more than 50% of their county’s population did not report. Data source: Analysis of arrest estimates from the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program data [United States]: County-level detailed arrest and offense data, 1998 [machine-readable data file] and population estimates from the U.S. Bureau of the Census’ Estimates of the population of counties by age and sex: 1990–1999 [machine-readable data files available online, released August 30, 2000].

Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime	OJJDP National Report Series Bulletin December 2001