Youth arrests for violent crime reach lowest level in 20 years

Good news from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). In their recently released Juvenile Arrests 2009 bulletin (the latest year data is available), OJJDP analysts found that in 2009, youth arrests for violent crime reached the lowest level in 20 years.

From the news release:

According to the 2009 data, U.S. law enforcement agencies made an estimated 1.9 million arrests of persons younger than 18 years old, nine percent fewer than in 2008. Between 2008 and 2009, there were declines in nearly every offense category. The number of juvenile arrests for Violent Crime Index offenses--murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault--decreased ten percent from 2008, reaching its lowest level since the early 1990s.

Liz Wu is a Digital Accounts Manager at Prichard Communications, where she oversees digital outreach for Reclaiming Futures and edits Reclaiming Futures Every Day. Before joining the Prichard team, Liz established the West Coast communications presence for the New America Foundation, where she managed all media relations, event planning and social media outreach for their 6 domestic policy programs. Liz received a B.A. in both Peace and Conflict Studies and German from the University of California at Berkeley. She tweets at @LizSF.