Recent Improvements in Juvenile Arrest Rates

Juvenile Arrest Rates Review of the DOJ 2008 Juvenile Arrest Report The overall rate of juvenile arrests declined by 3% between 2007 and 2008 for all persons younger than the age of 18 (Puzzanchera, 2009). This continues a trend of year-to-year reductions in overall juvenile arrest rates. Between 2004 and 2008 there was an overall 4% reduction in juvenile arrest rates and between 1999 and 2008 a 16% reduction. The source of this information is the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program.

Although American law enforcement agencies made 2.11 million arrests of persons under the age of 18, this does not mean that 2.11 million juveniles were arrested (Puzzanchera, 2009). A single juvenile may be arrested several times during a reporting year, which means that the number of juveniles responsible for the 2.11 million arrests is less than 2.11 million. In addition, a single juvenile may have committed multiple crimes, but is arrested only once, or multiple juveniles are arrested for a single crime.

Another limitation is that law enforcement agencies are only required to report the most serious crime that the juvenile committed, not all the crimes he or she may have been arrested for. At the end of the report the author mentions that reporting jurisdictions in some parts of the country may have a higher tourist and/or immigrant population and therefore the juvenile arrest rates may not be an accurate reflection of the criminality of resident juveniles.

According to the author of this report, the most appropriate use of juvenile arrest rates is for tracking juvenile flow volume into the criminal justice system. The number of arrests attributed to drug offenses declined by 7% between 1999 and 2008, while for adults it increased by 15% (Puzzanchera, 2009). This may seem like a remarkable improvement, but when juvenile drug-related arrests are examined for the entire period between 1990 and 2008, there was a 78% increase. Likewise, between 1999 and 2008 the juvenile arrest rates for simple assault remained stable, while increasing by 4% for adults.

Taking a longer view reveals that this stability is a relatively recent phenomenon; the simple assault arrests for male and female juveniles roughly doubled and tripled, respectively, between 1980 and 2008. If the more recent stability in simple assault is broken down by gender, then a different story is revealed. Between 1999 and 2008, the juvenile arrests for males declined by 6%, but for females it increased by 12% (Puzzanchera, 2009).

The other crimes categories revealing a big difference in trends between male and female juveniles, where females are doing worse, are larceny-theft (29% decline versus 4% increase), vandalism (9% decline versus 3% increase), driving under the influence (34% decline versus 7% increase), and disorderly conduct (5% decline versus 18% increase). These findings could be a reflection of the end of police deference afforded female juveniles or a decline in the perceived value of maintaining a feminine demeanor, or both. When violent crimes are examined, female juveniles did worse than their male counterparts across the board (Puzzanchera, 2009).

For robbery, the arrest rates for male juveniles increased by 24%.