This report provides a summary and an analysis of national and State juvenile arrest data presented in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s report Crime in the United States 2002.
Annually, local law enforcement agencies from across the United States report crime and arrest data to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Uniformed Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. The data from the UCR was used in preparing this report on the extent and nature of juvenile crime in 2002. Highlights from the report include: (1) law enforcement agencies in the United States made an estimated 2.3 million arrests of persons under the age of 18; (2) juveniles accounted for 17 percent of all arrests and 15 percent of all violent crime arrests; (3) for the eighth consecutive year, the rate of juvenile arrests for violent crime (i.e. murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) decreased; (4) juvenile male arrest rates for aggravated assault and simple assault fell from the mid-1990's through 2002; (5) the disparity in violent crime arrest rates for Black juveniles and white juveniles declined significantly between 1980 and 2002; (6) the juvenile arrest rate for Property Crime Index offenses reached its lowest level in 2002 since the 1960's; and (7) between 1993 and 2002, juvenile arrests for driving under the influence increased 46 percent with the increase far greater for females (94 percent) than males (37 percent). Figures and tables