NCJ Number
168349
Date Published
1997
Length
23 pages
Annotation
The Director of the National Institute of Justice discusses youth violence in terms of its current nature and incidence, experiences of cities that are reducing juvenile violence, and new ways to conceptualize police in this area.
Abstract
Over the past decade the United States has experienced a sharp increase and now a sharp decrease in violent crime. Property crime rates have been declining steadily for more than 20 years. The increase in juvenile violence in the mid-1980's may have resulted from the increase in crack dealing and the resulting diffusion of guns into the youth culture. However, juvenile crime has fallen substantially in the past 2 years. The challenge is to accelerate this decline through efforts to address youth involvement with guns, drugs, and gangs. Promising approaches being researched include actions to remove guns from the hands of juveniles; drug testing of all arrested juveniles, together with graduated sanctions and drug treatment; and gang prevention and gang control strategies. In all three of these areas, communities around the country are demonstrating that ingenuity, solid analysis, and active implementation can reduce juvenile violence. Figures