Most arrested juveniles are referred to court

In most States, some persons below the age of 18 are, due to their age, or by statutory exclusion of certain offenses from juvenile court jurisdiction, under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system. For those persons under age 18 and under the original jurisdiction of their State's juvenile justice system, the FBI's UCR Program monitors what happens as a result of the arrest. This is the only instance in the UCR Program in which the statistics on arrests coincide with State variations in the legal definition of a juvenile.

In 1997, 25% of arrests involving youth that were eligible in their State for processing in the juvenile justice system were handled within the law enforcement agency, and then the youth was released. The FBI reports that 67% of juvenile arrests were referred to juvenile court, and 7% were referred directly to criminal court. The others were referred to a welfare agency or to another police agency. The proportion of arrests sent to juvenile court has gradually increased from 1980 to 1997. In 1997, the proportion of juvenile arrests sent to juvenile courts was similar in cities and suburban areas (66%) and somewhat greater in rural counties (70%). The proportion of juvenile arrests sent directly to criminal court in 1997 (7%) was the highest in the last two decades.

In contrast to violent crimes, the property crime arrest rate for juveniles and young adults in 1997 was actually at or below the corresponding rate in 1980

Chart

bullet Between 1980 and 1997, while property crime arrest rates for juveniles and persons in their early twenties declined about 10%, the rates increased substantially for persons ages 30-34 (44%), ages 35-39 (67%), ages 40-44 (52%), and ages 45-49 (21%).

Data source: Analysis of arrest data from the FBI and population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. [See data source note 2 for detail.]

Blue Line
Juvenile Arrests 1997 Juvenile Justice Bulletin   ·  December 1998