This nationwide report for 2006 provides statistics on juvenile offenders and victims as well as the justice system's response to juvenile crime.
The report indicates that the rate of juvenile violent crime arrests has consistently declined since 1994, reaching the lowest level recorded since at least the 1970s. During this decline in overall juvenile violence, however, the female proportion of juvenile violent crime arrests has increased, especially for assaults, indicating an important change in the types of youth entering the juvenile justice system and in their programming needs. The report describes when and where juvenile violent crime occurs, noting the critical afterschool hours. Statistics presented throughout the report show that racial disparity in the juvenile justice system is declining, as the disproportionate rate of Black juvenile arrests for violent crime compared to that of white juveniles declined between the late 1980s and 2003. Also during the same period, the Black juvenile arrest rate for drug abuse violations decreased from five times to less than double the white rate. The report presents new findings from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's national Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement. They show that the daily number of youth held in public and private facilities increased 28 percent between 1991 and 2003, with the increase being much larger in private than in public facilities. After peaking in 1999, the number of youth in custody began to decline for the first time in a generation. Statistics on juvenile victims address homicide victims, suicides, statutory rape, victimization through the Internet, kidnapping, and child maltreatment. Data also address missing children, runaway and "thrownaway" children, children in foster care, and adopted children. Other data pertinent to juvenile victims cover victimization risk factors, the time and location of juvenile victimization, and the characteristics of offenders who victimize juveniles. Extensive tables and figures and a subject index