The FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting Program shows that, in 1997, law enforcement agencies made an estimated 2.8 million arrests of persons under the age of 18, a decline of 1 percent from 1996. Over the 10-year period from 1988 through 1997, arrests of persons in this age group increased 35 percent, but the number peaked in 1994 and has been declining since then. In 1997, there were an estimated 123,400 arrests of persons under the age of 18 for Violent Crime Index (VCI) offenses (including murder, rape, robbery, and assault), a decline of 4 percent from 1996, but still an increase of 49 percent since 1988. VCI offenses accounted for 4 percent of all arrests of persons under the age of 18 in 1997.

It is important to distinguish between persons under the age of 18 and persons legally considered juveniles. The former refers solely to the age of a person at a given time; arrest data from law enforcement agencies provide information in this manner. Depending on the law in the State in which an offense was committed, a youth may or may not be legally considered a juvenile subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. Further, many States have enacted transfer legislation that removes particular types of offenders from the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and places them in the criminal court. Thus, some young offenders may be considered juveniles by virtue of their age but considered adults for trial and disposition purposes.

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OJJDP Annual Report 1998	October 1999