Frequently Asked Questions

Child sexual abuse statistics are available in the Department of Health and Human Services' annual report, Child Maltreatment. For additional information and topical resources, visit the Child Abuse Special Feature section of our website.

Juvenile arrest statistics are available in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report, Crime in the United States and in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)/National Institute of Justice bulletin, Juvenile Arrests 2018.

Also see the Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime and the Juvenile Arrest Rates sections of the OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book (SBB).

Race and ethnicity data on confined youth can be found on the Juvenile in Corrections section of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Statistical Briefing Book. Also see the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement data set.

According to Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2014 National Report, a report funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP): "There is no national recidivism rate for juveniles. Each state's juvenile justice system differs in organization, administration, and data capacity. These differences influence how states define, measure, and report recidivism rates. This also makes it challenging to compare recidivism rates across states." In addition, view the report Measuring and Using Juvenile Recidivism Data To Inform Policy, Practice, and Resource Allocation and Core Principles for Reducing Recidivism and Improving Other Outcomes for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System, which are sponsored by OJJDP and the Bureau of Justice Assistance.

Also see Measuring Juvenile Recidivism an online interactive resource from the Pew Charitable Trusts' Public Safety Performance Project.

You may also wish to conduct a search of the Abstracts Database, which contains a number of reports on recidivism at the state level. Also see the recidivism data collection from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Data on homicides cleared by arrest or exceptional means can be found in the Federal Bureau of Investigation annual Crime in the United States report. These annual reports also provide a definition of crimes cleared by exceptional means.

Less-lethal technology devices serve to minimize the risk of death and injury to public safety officers, suspects, detainees, and the public. Information about less-lethal technologies can be found on the Less-Lethal Technologies section of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) website. This page captures information about the topic and provides links to NIJ resources and reports concerning these technologies.

Also see the Less Lethal Technologies section of our website for additional resources.

Information and data showing the prevalence of youth gangs are available in the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) fact sheet In Focus: Youth Gangs, the report Highlights of the 2012 National Youth Gang Survey and the OJJDP-sponsored Guide to Assessing Your Community's Youth Gang Problem. The National Gang Center website also contains information and resources on the topic. For additional information, see our Gangs Special Feature.

Data on hate crimes can be found in the Federal Bureau of Investigation annual report, Hate Crime Statistics, and in the Hate Crime series of reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. See the Department of Justice Community Relations Service website for additional information and resources.

College-specific crime statistics are available on the Campus Security Data Analysis Cutting Tool website from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE).

Additional data and information can be found on the U.S. Department of Education's Campus Security page. Also, Crime in the United States, an annual report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, provides university/college campus crime data that are reported by law enforcement agencies.

For additional information about campus crime and safety, visit the following sites:

• Special Feature: Campus Safety, OJP
• Crime Victimization: Campus Crime, Office for Victims of Crime