Submit your Criminal Law claim details for a free, no obligation case review.
Get Started:
Juvenile crime statistics are gathered from local law enforcement agencies by the FBI in order to better understand the nature and extent of juvenile crimes in the United States. Juvenile crime statistics reflect arrest information and do not account for unreported juvenile crime rates. Juvenile crime statistics rates have steadily dropped since 1994 when crimes involving juveniles reached a record high. Since 1994, juvenile crime statistics have dropped by forty seven percent.
There are currently about seventy million Americans under the age of 18, or a quarter of the total US population. Juvenile crime statistics report that 2.3 million juveniles were arrested in 2002. This accounts for 17 percent of all arrests and 15 to 25 percent of all violent crimes. According to juvenile crime statistics, murder accounted for five percent of violent crimes committed by juveniles, 12 percent for rape, 14 percent for robbery, and 12 percent for aggravated assault.
According to 1997 juvenile crime statistics, 1700 juveniles were involved in 1400 murders that year. One hundred thirty of these murders were perpetrated by a female. Approximately eighty percent of juvenile murders involve the use of a firearm. Forty percent of these crimes involve two or more juvenile offenders. Fifty six percent of the victims in these crimes are acquaintances of the murderer and 34 percent are strangers.
Juvenile crime statistics show that crimes committed by juveniles are most likely to occur on school days in the hours immediately following the end of a school day. On non-school days juvenile crimes are most likely to occur between the hours of eight and ten at night. Between 1993 and 2002, juvenile crime statistics rates for drunk driving offenses increased by 46 percent, with a very dramatic increase for female offenders (an increase of 94 percent versus 37 percent for male offenders).
The first juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1899. With an increase in juvenile crime statistics in the 1990s, state and federal legislatures have implemented many new laws in an attempt to crack down on juvenile crime. Juveniles enter the justice system through arrests, and two thirds of these juvenile criminals are processed through a juvenile court. In some cases, a prosecutor will file juvenile cases in the adult court system. According to juvenile crime statistics, one million juvenile crime cases are processed through the juvenile court system each year and 200,000 are processed through the adult legal system.
Probation is one of the most common sentences given to a juvenile criminal. Fifty eight percent of all juvenile sentences involve probation punishments. In fourteen percent of juvenile crime cases, the court orders out-of-home residential placement of offenders.
Juveniles who commit crimes have the right to seek legal representation in their cases. There are attorneys who specialize in juvenile criminal defense, and can help secure and protect a minor''s rights in a criminal case.