The Violent Crime Index monitors violence trends

The FBI assesses trends in the volume of violent crimes by monitoring four offenses that are consistently reported by law enforcement agencies nationwide and are pervasive in all geographical areas of the country. These four crimes are murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Other crimes may be considered violent by their nature or effect (e.g., kidnaping, weapons possession, extortion, drug selling), but the four crimes that together form the Violent Crime Index have traditionally been used as the Nation's barometer of violent crime.

After more than a decade of consistency, the juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate increased from 1989 to 1994 and then fell, so that by 1997, it had nearly returned to the 1989 level

Chart

bullet Between 1994 and 1997, the juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate dropped 23%. Even with this decline, the 1997 rate was still about 30% greater than the average rate of the years between 1980 and 1988.

Data source: Analysis of arrest data from the FBI and population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. [See data source note 1 for detail.]

Blue Line
Juvenile Arrests 1997 Juvenile Justice Bulletin   ·  December 1998