The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has served as the primary source of information on criminal victimization in the United States since 1973. The most recent data, which was released in September 2023, shows no major shift in the incidence and patterns of youth crime. However, local increases in incidences in certain types of behavior remain a source of concern.

Data from 2021 and 2022 show that youth make up a small proportion—roughly 8 percent—of violent crime. Youth's share of all crime including non-violent crime is also small. In fact, young people are more likely to be the victims of violent crime, with one recent study showing that young people who had been involved with the youth justice system were 23 times more likely than the general population to die of gun violence.

Youth crime has been decreasing for nearly 30 years, with violent crime among young people decreasing by 87 percent between 1993 and 2019. Among youth who were arrested in 2020, only 8% of youth arrests were for crimes of violence.

No. Among the 54.3 million young people below age 18 in the United States in 2020, there were 424,300 arrests. OJJDP published research that examined the histories of 161,057 youth who were referred to juvenile court. Just over 60 percent of the young people in that group did not return to court after their first referral. A small percentage (7 percent) were initially referred to juvenile court for a violent crime, with just 0.1% considered chronically violent with four or more referrals to juvenile court for violent offenses. 

Research shows that most young people will age out of delinquent behavior as their prefrontal cortex develops and they become less likely to engage in risky and thrill-seeking behaviors. Deeper interventions from the youth justice system, such as residential placement, can increase the likelihood that a young person will come back into contact with the system.

Accountability in the youth justice system takes on many forms. In many jurisdictions, accountability is defined "as taking responsibility for your behavior and taking action to repair the harm." This definition is broader than sanctions and punishment, with the goal of the youth justice system to help rehabilitate young people and give them the services and supports they need to lead successful lives. This requires an individual assessment that looks at the unique circumstances or "best interest" of the child balanced with public safety. This approach is based on an understanding that young people have better outcomes when they are able to take responsibility and make amends for their actions. 

Research shows that these accountability measures work better than sanctions and lengthy punishments, as young people are more responsive to short term incentives that help establish new behavior patterns, than long term consequences like lengthy sentences that can take them out of school and lead to long-term negative outcomes for young people and their communities. 

We know from longitudinal research supported by OJJDP and the National Institute of Justice that most young people who engage in delinquent behavior age out of it. Even youth who commit serious offenses are not destined to end up in the adult criminal justice system. The vast majority of youth greatly reduce offending over time, regardless of intervention.

Young people can and are being charged as adults, particularly for serious crimes against another person (such as carjacking, armed robberies and aggravated assaults). Every state and US territory has statutes that allow youth to lose the protections of juvenile court and be sent to the adult court.

However, this practice is not tied to better public safety outcomes. Studies show that young people who are charged and sentenced as adults are more likely to return to the justice system with new offenses.

To prevent violence and improve positive outcomes for youth involved in crime, communities should employ evidence-based, comprehensive approaches that address the multiple factors that impact violence—both risk factors that increase the likelihood of violence, and protective factors that buffer against risk and promote positive youth development. To create a better understanding of what works for youth justice services, OJJDP developed a Continuum of Care for Communities (CoC). The CoC centers around the needs of youth, families and communities by targeting service areas such as prevention, an array of community interventions, out-of-home placement and community reintegration. To see a visual representation of the CoC and get more information about how the CoC service areas support youth and families to reduce reoffending, follow this link. 

Examples of strategies that work to successfully address the needs of this high-risk group include:

• High-intensity wraparound services that are individualized and begin with a family assessment to address immediate safety concerns and match youth with trained mentors to help deter the youth from future harmful behavior.
• Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST), an intensive, community-based, family-involved therapy model that provides youth with a team of therapists over the course of four months, multiple times a week, and in times of crisis. MST focuses on the young person's environment and risks in the school and community, as well as with friends and family.
• Successful approaches also address relationships with peers, parents, and other caring adults. Successful strategies connect young people with caring adults and prosocial activities, engage the young person's family and draw on neighborhood resources to foster positive activities and prosocial development, strengthen young people’s connection to school, and create protective community environments that reduce exposure to community-level risks.

The adolescent brain tends to focus on short-term benefits while ignoring long-term costs and make impulsive decisions in emotionally-charged situations. These limitations make adolescents in the justice system vulnerable to coercion when being confronted and questioned by law enforcement authorities. In particular, youth have a greater likelihood of falsely confessing (i.e. confessing to crimes they did not commit) when psychological techniques of interrogation are applied by law enforcement.

For that reason, youth—like adults—have a right to have an attorney present when they are being questioned by police. Youth need increased protections due to their general inability to fully understand the legal and long-term implications of their statements and actions. The presence of an attorney during a youth's interrogation serves as a critical protection of the youth's Constitutional due process rights and, consequently, against the inducement of a false confession.

Before a court can try either an adult or a minor, the court must make an initial determination of  whether the individual is competent to stand trial. This determination seeks to establish that a person who is facing charges can understand and logically participate in the court proceedings. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that if a person is not competent to stand trial, the court cannot proceed against them.

Competency hearings are utilized to make those determinations in court proceedings and apply to both adults and children. Determinations of competency are particularly important in cases involving youth due to their still-developing brains, which impacts their ability to fully understand the nature of a legal proceeding and long-term implications of the court's judgment.

OJJDP's mission is to prevent and to reduce delinquent behavior. This is a broad mission to respond to the needs of youth across a full continuum of care for youth at risk or already involved in the juvenile justice system. A small percentage of young people who engage in serious, violent crime. For those high-risk youth, OJJDP focuses our resources on supporting intervention and treatment to help reduce the likelihood that they will reoffend and to ensure the most beneficial outcomes for both the youth and the public. OJJDP is committed to stemming the flow of high-risk youth into the adult criminal justice system.

Prevention and early intervention is the most effective and supportive strategy to address the needs of the vast majority of youth who are at risk of system involvement. We know from decades of research that investing resources in prevention and early intervention yields the best outcomes for youth and for community safety. More services and supports for youth are needed in the community to adequately and appropriately address this need. Many youth are not getting the supports they need at home and in the community.

OJJDP is investing in continued research through our sister agency, the National Institute of Justice to learn more about ways to prevent and reduce the most serious offenses among young people. We are also working with stakeholders who touch every decision point, including prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, probation and parole, detention and corrections, and law enforcement. OJJDP's work reflects a comprehensive continuum of care approach.