• The juvenile arrest rate for simple assault increased 176% between 1980 and 1997, declined through 2002, then rose again through 2004. Following the decline since 2004, the 2010 rate was 19% below the 1997 peak.
• Unlike the trend for simple assault, the juvenile aggravated assault arrest rate declined steadily since the mid-1990s, falling 53% between 1994 and 2010.
• As a result of these divergent trends, a greater percentage of assaults that law enforcement handled in recent years has been for less serious offenses. In 1980, there were 2 juvenile arrests for simple assault for every 1 juvenile arrest for aggravated assault; by 2010, this ratio had grown to 4-to-1, with most of this growth occurring after the mid-1990s.

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Internet Citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available:
http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05211. December 17, 2012.

Adapted from Puzzanchera, C. and Adams, B. (2012). Juvenile Arrests 2009. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

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