Trends in Juvenile Violence: A Report to the United States Attorney General on Current and Future Rates of Juvenile Offending

• NCJ Number: 170379
• Author(s): James Alan Fox Ph.D.
• Date Published: November 1996
• Length: 18 pages
• Agencies: BJS
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

This report presents statistics on juvenile homicide victimization and homicides committed by juveniles in 1996, as well as information on other juvenile violence, juvenile demographic characteristics, and trends since 1976, based on data from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program and the National Crime Survey.

Abstract

The discussion notes that the rate of murder committed by adolescents ages 14-17 increased 172 percent from 1985 to 1994. The rate of killing increased sharply for both black and white male teenagers, but not for females. The largest increase in juvenile homicide involved offenders who were friends and acquaintances of their victims. The data on age patterns also reveals that the overall decline in crime committed by people of all age obscures the differing trends for youth and adults. The recent increase in youth crime occurred while the population of teenagers was declining. This demographic trend will change, because 39 million children are under age 10 and will soon reach their high-risk years. Therefore, the country probably will experience a future wave of youth violence that will be even worse than that of the past 10 years. The challenge for the future is how best to address youth violence. Juvenile violence will be an increasing problem unless society undertakes a major effort to educate and support young children and preadolescents today. Tables and figures