• Since 1980, drug abuse violation arrest rates for white juveniles generally declined through 1991 while the black rate soared. Between 1980 and the peak year of 1996, the black arrest rate for drug abuse violations increased nearly 350%. The declining trend in the white arrest rate turned around in the early 1990s, but not until 1994 did the rate surpass its 1980 level. By 2010, the white rate was 34% above its 1980 level.
• Despite the substantial decline between 1995 and 2002 for black juveniles, the black rate was nearly 50% above the white rate in 2010.
• The trend in the American Indian arrest rate essentially paralleled the trend in the white rate. Both rates increased substantially from 1991 to 2010, with the American Indian rate increasing far more than the white rate (251% and 192%, respectively).
• The rate for Asian juveniles declined considerably between the early 1980s and 1989 and then more than tripled between 1989 and 1997. This large increase returned the Asian rate to its levels of the early 1980s; however, the arrest rate then decreased 32% from 1997 to 2010.

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Internet Citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available:
http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05274. 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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