Trends in youth arrests for violent crimes are reported from counts of arrests detailed by age of arrestee and offense from all law enforcement agencies that reported complete data for the calendar year.
The proportion of the U.S. population covered by these reporting agencies ranged from 70 percent to 86 percent between 1980 and 2020, with 2020 coverage of 71 percent. The estimated number of youth arrests for violent crime, which included murder, robbery, and aggravated assault, has declined since the mid-2000s. By 2020, the number of violent crime arrests involving youth reached a new low, 78 percent below the 1994 peak, and half the number 10 years earlier. Males accounted for 80 percent of all youth arrests for violent crimes in 2020. The number of violent crime arrests involving youth declined 56 percent between 2010 and 2020, compared with a 6-percent decrease for adults. Likewise, from 2019 to 2020, for each of the violent crimes, the relative decline in arrests of youth outpaced adults.