Each year local law enforcement agencies in the United States report data on arrests made during the calendar year to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program which the FBI then analyzes and uses to prepare the FBI’s annual Crime in the United States report (Snyder, 2003). The information contained in the Crime in the United States report is used to determine the impact and nature of juvenile crime in the United States. The “Juvenile Arrests 2001 Bulletin” published by The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention examined the data contained in the FBI’s Crime in the United States 2001 to assess the trends of juvenile crime in the United States today compared to past data reports. According to the “Juvenile Arrests 2001 Bulletin” which analyzed the data gathered on national and state levels by the FBI, juvenile arrests have drastically declined in many areas including violent crimes and property crimes while other areas of juvenile arrest rates remain a concern for the juvenile justice system. In 2001, law enforcement officers in the United States made approximately 2.3 million arrests, 17% which were juvenile arrests and 15% were juveniles arrested for violent crimes (Snyder, 2003). Violent crime rates and property crime rates for juveniles drastically declined; however, arrests of female juveniles for different offenses, overall arrests for assault, and drug related offenses continue to remain significantly high in 2001 (Snyder, 2003). The offenses included in the Violent Crime Index offense report for the Federal Bureau of Investigation are murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. In analyzing the data gathered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the arrest rate for Violent Crime Index offenses decreased in 2001 causing the Violent Crime Index rate to be at the lowest since 1983 (Snyder, 2003). In fact, the juvenile arrest rate for murder declined 70% from 1993 to 2001 in which the juvenile arrest rate declined from 3,800 arrests in 1993 to only 1,400 arrests in 2001 for murder (Snyder, 2003). Additionally, juvenile arrests for burglary decreased by 66% between 1980 and 2001, juvenile arrests for forcible rate reached the lowest level since 1976, and the juvenile arrest rate for aggravated assault declined between 1994 and 2001 (Snyder, 2003). According to the data analyzed by the ”
In contrast to the decline in violent crime rates for juveniles, drug offenses and simple assault rates significantly increased in 2001. The juvenile arrest rates for simple assaults dramatically increased by over 150% between the late 1980s and 1990s and reached a historical high by 2001 (Snyder, 2003). In fact, local law enforcement agencies reported approximately 239,000 “other assaults” which include simple assaults for juvenile arrests in 2001 (Snyder, 2003). Meanwhile, drug arrests among juveniles is consistently increasing as approximately 202,500 juvenile drug abuse violations were made in 2001 and between 1992 to 2001 juvenile arrests for drug abuse violations increased to 121% (Snyder, 2003). Thus, juveniles accounted for approximately 1 in 8 arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States (Snyder, 2003). Juvenile drug abuse violations peaked between 1993 and 1997 to an increase of 77% while adult drug abuse violation arrests only increased by 33% in 2001 (Snyder, 2003). The increase in drug abuse violations and simple assaults among juveniles in the United States pose important concerns for the juvenile justice system because of the proven relationship in drug abuse crimes leading to other more violent crimes.
Finally, when analyzing the data contained in the “Juvenile Arrests 2001 Bulletin” the data indicates a disproportion in crime rates between male and female juveniles and white juveniles in comparison to minority group juveniles. Of the total juvenile arrests in 2001, 645,000 juvenile arrests were females under 18 years old and between 1992 and 2001 arrest rates of juvenile females decreased slowly and less significantly than male juveniles, especially with violent crime rates (Snyder, 2003). Female juveniles made up approximately 23% of aggravated assault arrests and 32% of other assault arrests (Snyder, 2003). Therefore, evidence indicates that in addition to the declining crime rates among juveniles a significant portion of the crime offenses are committed by female juveniles. A difference exists in violent crime arrest rates between black juveniles and white juveniles as well indicating a disparity in minority juvenile crime rates. The racial division of the juvenile arrests in 2001 consisted of 78% Caucasian, 17% African American, 4% Asian/Pacific Islander, and only 1% American Indian juvenile arrests (Snyder, 2003). In fact, of all the juvenile violent crime arrests in 2001, 55% were Caucasian offenders, 43% were African American, and only 1% was Asian (Snyder, 2003). Therefore, when analyzing the data presented total juvenile arrests consisted of a Caucasian majority followed by African American juveniles and other minorities.
After completion of the data analysis reported by the “Juvenile Arrests 2001 Bulletin” evidence indicates juvenile crime rates are on the decline for violent crimes and other crimes while drug offenses and simple assaults remain a serious concern. Additionally, female juvenile crime rates are failing to decline as rapidly as male juvenile crime rates while crime rates among minorities are decreasing significantly more than among Caucasian juvenile offenders. Finally, the number of juvenile arrests exceeded the number of juvenile arrests cleared indicating that juveniles are more likely to commit offenses and be arrested in groups than adults. The data presented through the tracking of juvenile arrests annually provides vital information to juvenile justice professionals in determining the trends if juvenile crime. Such trends are used to assess the effectiveness of the direction the juvenile justice system is taking to address crime rates among juveniles. When juvenile crime rates begin to increase juvenile justice professionals determine the causes of the increase and establish a plan of action to decrease the rates. Therefore, the information gathered locally and nationally to be analyzed and reported by the FBI on juvenile arrests constitutes the future direction of the juvenile justice system.
References
Snyder, H. (2003, December). Juvenile arrests 2001 bulletin. Retrieved August 4, 2009, from http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/201370.pdf
