Juvenile Arson, 1997

• NCJ Number: 175088
• Author(s): Howard N Snyder Ph.D.
• Date Published: February 1999
• Length: 2 pages
• Agencies: OJJDP

Annotation

Data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program for 1997 revealed that half of all persons arrested for arson were juveniles and that about 3 in 10 youths adjudicated for arson were placed in a residential facility.

Abstract

in 1997, there were 110,000 arson incidents reported to police agencies. The rate was highest in large cities and lowest in rural areas. Eighteen percent of reported arsons were cleared by law enforcement. Arson was the criminal offense with the greatest proportion of juveniles in the arrestee population. Eighty-nine percent of juvenile arson arrests involved males, 79 percent involved white juveniles, 67 percent involved juveniles under age 15, and 35 percent involved children age 12 or younger. Fifty-three percent of the juvenile arson cases disposed by the courts in 1996 were formally processed. About 1 percent of the formally processed cases were transferred to criminal court. In 63 percent of formally processed cases the youths were adjudicated delinquent. Forty-seven percent of the informally handled cases were dismissed; the youths in the other cases voluntarily agreed to comply with probation conditions, pay fines or restitution, and/or enter residential treatment. Figures and table