Violent crime by youth time of day<br>(per 1,000 youth who committed a violent crime)

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Serving Children, Families, and Communities

Printer-friendly

Time of Day

Q:	When are youth most likely to commit violent crime?
A:	Violent crimes by youth (ages 7-17) occur most frequently in the hours immediately following the close of school on school days.

Note: Violent crimes include murder, violent sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, simple assault, and kidnapping.
Data are from law enforcement agencies in 45 states and the District of Columbia.

[ Text only ] [ CSV file ]

Violence committed by youth peaks in the afterschool hours on school days and in the evenings on nonschool days.
On nonschool days, the incidence of violence committed by youth increases through the afternoon and early evening hours, peaking between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
The number of school days in a year is essentially equal to the number of nonschool days in a year. Despite this split, most (64%) violent crimes committed by youth occur on school days. Nearly one-fifth (18%) of violent crimes committed by youth occur in the 4 hours between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days. A smaller proportion of violent crime committed by youth (13%) occurs during the standard juvenile curfew hours of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. (inclusive of both school and nonschool days).
The annual number of hours in the curfew period (i.e., 8 hours every day in the year) is 4 times greater than the number of hours in the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. period on school days (i.e., 4 hours in half of the days in the year). Therefore, the rate of violence committed by youth in the afterschool period is nearly 6 times the rate during the juvenile curfew period (inclusive of both school and nonschool days).
Consequently, efforts to reduce offending by youth after school would appear to have greater potential to decrease a community’s violent crime rate than curfews.

Internet citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03301.asp?qaDate=2019. Released on April 18, 2022.

Data source: Federal Bureau of Investigation. National Incident-Based Reporting System Master Files for the years 2018 and 2019 [machine-readable data files]. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation.