This Juvenile Justice Bulletin from the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) analyzes national and State juvenile arrest data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's report on "Crime in the United States 2005."
From 2004 to 2005, juvenile arrests for murder and robbery increased 20 percent and 11 percent, respectively. In 2004, juvenile arrests for these crimes were close to their lowest points in a generation, so the number of arrests for these offenses in 2005 was still far below the peaks of the mid-1990s. In the peak year of 1993, there were approximately 3,790 juvenile arrests for murder. By 2004, the number of juvenile murder arrests had declined to 1,110, which was 71 percent below the 1992 level; however, in 2005, this figure increased to 1,260. The violent crime arrest rate for Black juveniles was four times greater than the rate for Whites in 2004 and five times greater in 2005. Females accounted for 24 percent of juvenile arrests for aggravated assault and 33 percent of those for other assaults in 2005, far more than their involvement in other types of violent crimes. Between 1980 and 2005, the juvenile arrest rate for simple assault increased 105 percent for males and 285 percent for females. Between 1980 and 2005, the juvenile arrest rate for simple assault increased 105 percent for males and 285 percent for females. Between 1996 and 2005, juvenile arrests for drug abuse violations decreased 14 percent for males and increased 14 percent for females. The juvenile arrest rate for motor vehicle theft declined consistently and substantially between 1990 and 2005, decreasing 68 percent. The juvenile arrest rate for weapons law violations increased 27 percent between 2002 and 2005, after declining for the 10 years prior to 2002. 9 figures and 2 tables