Juvenile Arrest Rate for Violent Crimes Declines 9.2%

The juvenile arrest rate for violent crimes dropped a dramatic 9.2% in 1996, marking the second straight year that it declined after rising for seven consecutive years.

In announcing the figures Thursday, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno attributed the sharp drop to an emphasis on tougher punishment, better policing in communities and more attention to after-school youth programs.

Although arrests for violent youth crimes were down 2.9% in 1995, “I have worried since that it might be a blip,” Reno told her weekly news briefing. “But this drop, I think, is real now.”

The new FBI figures were disclosed as Republican-sponsored juvenile-crime legislation, which the Clinton administration believes contains too little money for such preventive measures as youth counseling and after-school activities, moves through Congress. The GOP bills stress harsher punishment for violent crimes and treatment of youths as adults.

Some crime analysts outside government called the figures encouraging but said that it was impossible to determine who deserves the credit. Reno cited the president’s crime plan for providing “more money” for community policing and “tougher laws” to crack down on violent teenage gangs.

Reno also praised local crime-fighting efforts, saying that “communities across America and their police, their prosecutors, mentors in the community and young people themselves are working harder than ever to keep young people on the right track, to give them opportunity and to provide punishment and intervention when they stray.”

For every 100,000 youths age 10 to 17 last year, there were 464.7 arrests for violent crimes--including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault--according to FBI figures. Murder arrests alone dropped 10.7% in 1996.

The overall arrest figures were down from 511.9 arrests per 100,000 youths in 1995 and a high of 527.4 arrests per 100,000 in 1994. From 1987 to 1994, juvenile arrest rates for violent crimes surged by 69%.

Officials said that no state or city breakdowns were available.

Despite the decreases, Reno said that juvenile-arrest rates still are too high. “We still continue to hear of too many serious violent crimes committed by young people,” she said.

Noting that “juvenile crime peaks in the hours immediately after school,” Reno declared that “good after-school programs are critical to cutting youth crime” and urged Congress to “make after-school programs a priority in its funding decisions.”

Some experts have warned that, unless more attention is devoted to preventive programs, a wave of youth crime could occur over the next decade as the number of Americans between the ages of 10 and 17 swells to record proportions.

Gerald M. Caplan, dean of the McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, said that the new youth-arrest figures are “very encouraging because the fear of crime among Americans has remained high.”

Caplan, a former director of the National Institute of Justice, a research arm of the Justice Department, said that apprehension about juvenile crime has been especially severe because “gang crimes usually are cruel, unpremeditated and random.”

While warning that “we still don’t know enough about the causes of lower crime rates,” Caplan hailed what he called a more enlightened attitude toward violent youth crime.

“In the 1960s sociologists and even some law enforcement officials said juvenile offenders were not fully developed, and made excuses for them,” he said. “But now we’re holding juveniles accountable for what they do and this attitude is pretty much embraced by liberals as well as conservatives. I think this is a healthy climate.”