A summary and analysis of the national and State juvenile arrest data reported in the FBI’s 1999 report, Crime in the United States 1998.
In 1998, an estimated 2.6 million persons under the age of 18 were arrested in the United States. Juveniles accounted for 18 percent of all arrests and 17 percent of all violent crime arrests. For the fourth consecutive year, the total number of juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses- murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault- declined. Between 1994 and 1998, juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses fell 19 percent, compared with just a 6 percent decline for adults. Even with this substantial decline, the number of juvenile violent crime index arrests in 1998 was still 15 percent above the 1989 level. Charts and graphs.