Juvenile Court Trend Analysis

Juvenile Court Trend Analysis

We do not want to think of our children as being criminals, in this society there is a chance that someone's child is in the juvenile court system. Although the crime rate for some areas has declined there is certainly an increase in order areas of crimes that these children are committing in today's society. It is hard for a parent to think that they have children that is caught into this system however we are living in a reality that we do. We can only make strives to keep our children out of this system.

According to Juvenile Crime 2001 more then two million arrest were made of criminals under the age of eighteen. Of the arrest that were made during this year the juveniles were involved in 10% of the murders that were committed, 14% of the arrest were made because of aggravated assault, 23% were for weapons. The majority of the arrests was for robbery (24%) and burglary (31%). With such a high number of arrest made for burglary we may wonder were these children are from and how they were raised.

We can not say that if a person comes from a bad neighborhood that is what will make them turn to a life of crime. In fact the rate for the arrest and crimes committed by juveniles has actually fallen 12% since 1988. Through the years for the 1988 until 2001 the rates were steadily increasing and had its first decline in this year.

When we look at the statistics for the youth arrest made in 2001 for every 100,000 youths between the age of 10 and 17 there were 296 arrests. That number comes to about 2.3 million juveniles arrested each year for crimes that have been committed in the United States. Most states will automatically refer the juvenile into the system so that they can be monitored. Of the arrest made 19% was handled directly with the law enforcement agency that arrested the juvenile, 72% we put into the juvenile criminal court system and the other 7% because of the severity of the crime committed was sent to directly to the criminal court system.

Over time it would seem that most drug offenses and assaults may directly tie into together. Some members of society would say that because of drugs a person would tend to do whatever it takes to get what it is that they think they need to survive. Assault would tie into either a person whom is selling drugs or someone who is using drugs. A person who uses drugs may assault someone because they are under the influence of the toxin and may be attempting to get more. The person who is selling the drugs may use assault as a means to collecting money that is owed to them either by someone whom is selling for them of buying from them on credit.

Of all the arrest made in 2001 the amount of the arrest that was female was 28%. It goes on to show that the increase of the female arrest steadily has