Juvenile Confinement - Trends In Juvenile Arrests

During the period when the majority of states enacted tougher transfer, sentencing, and confidentiality statutes relating to juveniles, juveniles age ten to under eighteen declined as a proportion of total population from 13,482 per 100,000 in 1980 to 11,540 in 2000. Juvenile arrest and incarceration trends are thus not simply a reflection of a growing population of people in their teens—pure demographics, in other words—but some mix in behavior and the legislative/law enforcement response to that behavior.

Juvenile arrest rates for the crimes included in the FBI's Property Crime Index and Violent Crime Index are charted in Figure 7.1 and Figure 7.2 for the same period—during which the juvenile incarceration rate began to rise. Measured as arrests per 100,000 juveniles in the ten-to-seventeen age bracket, the data show both property and violent crime arrests decreasing at first from 1980 to around 1984. Property crime arrests then began increasing gradually while violent arrest rates began to climb more sharply by 1988. Arrest rates began to drop again in 1994 for both property and violent crimes, more steeply for violent crimes. The 2002 rates for both property and violent crimes were the lowest they had ever been during the twenty-two-year period covered.

Table 7.2 shows that 2.2 million juveniles were arrested in 2003. Thirty-two percent of these juveniles were under fifteen years of age. The majority of juveniles (463,300) were arrested for property crimes, while 92,300 were arrested for violent crimes. Of the violent FIGURE 7.1
Juvenile arrest rate for property crimes, 1980–2002
SOURCE: Howard N. Snyder, "After Years of Relative Stability, the Juvenile Property Crime Index Arrest Rate Began a Decline in the Mid-1990s That Continued through 2002," in Juvenile Arrests in 2002, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September 2004, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204608.pdf (accessed April 3, 2005) FIGURE 7.2
Juvenile arrest rate for violent crimes, 1980–2002
SOURCE: Howard N. Snyder, "The Juvenile Violent Crime Index Arrest Rate in 2002 Was Lower than in Any Year since at Least 1980 and 47% below the Peak Year of 1994," in Juvenile Arrests in 2002, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September 2004, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204608.pdf (accessed April 3, 2005) TABLE 7.2
Estimated number of juvenile arrests, 2003
SOURCE: "Estimated Number of Juvenile Arrests, 2003," in OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, February 28, 2005, http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/crime/qa05101.asp?qaDate=20050228 (accessed April 3, 2005)

		Percent of total juvenile arrests		Percent change
Most serious offense	Number of juvenile arrests	Female	Under age 15	1994–03	1999–03	2002–03
Total	2,220,300	29%	32%	−18%	−11%	0%
Violent Crime Index	92,300	18	33	−32	−9	0
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter	1,130	9	11	−68	−18	10
Forcible rape	4,240	2	37	−25	−11	9
Robbery	25,440	9	25	−43	−8	3
Aggravated assault	61,490	24	36	−26	−9	0
Property Crime Index	463,300	32	37	−38	−15	3
Burglary	85,100	12	35	−40	−15	1
Larceny −theft	325,600	39	38	−35	−15	3
Motor vehicle theft	44,500	17	25	−52	−15	4
Arson	8,200	12	61	−36	−12	3
Nonindex
Other assaults	241,900	32	43	10	5	5
Forgery and counterfeiting	4,700	35	13	−47	−36	8
Fraud	8,100	33	18	−29	−37	9
Embezzlement	1,200	40	6	15	−30	17
Stolen property (buying, receiving, possessing)	24,300	15	27	−46	−19	5
Vandalism	107,700	14	44	−33	−11	2
Weapons (carrying, possessing, etc.)	39,200	11	36	−41	−6	11
Prostitution and commercialized vice	1,400	69	14	31	23	11
Sex offenses (except forcible rape and prostitution)	18,300	9	51	2	3	3
Drug abuse violations	197,100	16	17	19	−3	4
Gambling	1,700	2	15	−59	46	1
Offenses against the family and children	7,000	39	35	19	−24	19
Driving under the influence	21,000	20	2	33	−9	4
Liquor law violations	136,900	35	10	4	−22	6
Drunkenness	17,600	23	13	−11	−19	6
Disorderly conduct	193,000	31	41	13	0	6
Vagrancy	2,300	25	25	−50	−20	9
All other offenses (except traffic)	379,800	27	28	−2	−12	1
Suspicion	1,500	24	26	−77	−74	53
Curfew and loitering	136,500	30	29	−1	−18	8
Runaways	123,600	59	36	−42	−18	2

FIGURE 7.3
Juvenile crime rate, 2003
SOURCE: "Juvenile Proportion of Arrests by Offense, 2003," in OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, February 28, 2005, http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/crime/qa05102.asp?qaDate=20050228 (accessed April 3, 2005)

In 2003 juvenile arrests made up 16% of all arrests in the nation, according to the OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book (Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, February 28, 2005). (See Figure 7.3.) Juveniles were arrested for 15% of all Violent Crime Index offenses and for 29% of all Property Crime Index offenses. Juveniles made up a particularly large percentage of the arrests for arson (51%), vandalism (39%), disorderly conduct (30%), motor vehicle theft, and burglary (both 29%).

Arrest Rates by Gender

Data on juvenile arrest rates for three types of violent crime and for drug abuse (see Figure 7.4) show that the majority of juveniles arrested were males, but arrest rates for females grew proportionately more than for males. According to Howard N. Snyder in Juvenile Arrests in 2002 (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September 2004), between 1980 and 2002, the female juvenile arrest rate for aggravated assault grew by 99%, while the male rate grew by 14%. The female rate for simple assault grew by 258% during the same period, while the male rate grew by 99%; and the female rate for weapons law violations grew by 125% versus the male growth rate of 7%. In 2002, 29% of juveniles arrested were female. Data for females are shown graphed both with males, indicating much lower female involvement, as well as separately to show the trend lines more clearly than is possible in combination with the much more numerous male arrests in each category.

Juvenile Offenders by Race

According to Juvenile Arrests in 2002, the majority of all juveniles arrested in 2002 were white, representing 55% of violent crime arrests and 70% of property crime arrests. Forty-three percent of violent crime arrests and 27% of arrests for property crimes involved African-Americans. Asians/Pacific Islanders comprised 1% of those arrested for violent crimes and 2% of those arrested for property crimes; Native Americans represented 1% of arrests in each category. Table 7.3 shows the African-American proportion of juveniles arrested for a variety of both violent and property offenses. Of all juveniles arrested for murder, for example, half were African-American. African-Americans comprised 36% of those juveniles arrested for forcible rape, 59% of those arrested for robbery, and 38% of those arrested for motor vehicle theft.

Figure 7.5 compares the juvenile arrest rates for African-Americans and whites from 1980 to 2002. The respective rates for violent crimes have narrowed over this period, according to Snyder in Juvenile Arrests in 2002. In 1980 the African-American juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate was 6.3 times the white rate; in 2002, the rate disparity had declined to 3.8. Arrest rates for murder showed a particularly sharp decline. The murder arrest rate for white juveniles dropped by two-thirds between 1993 and 2002; the rate for African-American juveniles dropped by 80%. The 2002 murder rates were lower than any year in the 1980s or 1990s for both white and African-American juveniles. Property crime also showed dramatic drops during this period. The 2002 Property Crime Index arrest rates for both white juveniles and African-American juveniles were only half of what they had been in 1980.

FIGURE 7.4
Juvenile arrest rates for assault, weapons, and drug offenses, by gender, 1980–2002

Disposition of Juveniles Arrested

A change in the disposition of juveniles arrested appeared in the 1970s. In 1972, 50.8% of those arrested were referred to juvenile courts; 45% were handled within police departments and released; only 1.3% were transferred by referral to criminal or adult courts, according to the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, 2002 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, August 2004). By 2002, cases handled internally (followed by release) had dropped to 18.1%. The majority of cases were referred to juvenile court (72.8%). The cases FIGURE 7.4
Juvenile arrest rates for assault, weapons, and drug offenses, by gender, 1980–2002 [CONTINUED]
SOURCE: Howard N. Snyder, "Male Juvenile Arrest Rates for Aggravated Assault and Simple Assault Fell from the Mid-1990s through 2002, while Female Rates Remained Near Their Highest Levels," in Juvenile Arrests in 2002, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September 2004, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204608.pdf (accessed April 3, 2005) TABLE 7.3
Arrests of African-American youths as a percentage of all juvenile arrests, 2002
SOURCE: Howard N. Snyder, "Black Proportion of Juvenile Arrests in 2002," in Juvenile Arrests in 2002, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, September 2004, http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/ojjdp/204608.pdf (accessed April 3, 2005)

Most serious offense	Black proportion of juvenile arrests in 2002
Murder	50%
Forcible rape	36
Robbery	59
Aggravated assault	37
Burglary	25
Larceny-theft	26
Motor vehicle theft	38
Weapons	31
Drug abuse violations	25
Curfew and loitering	29
Runaways	18

referred to adult jurisdictions had escalated to 7% of all cases. (See Table 7.4.)