Good News: Violent crime against youth down 77%

With the pall of Sandy Hook hanging in the air this holiday season, there is some good news for children and young people. The overall rate of serious violent crime against youth ages 12 to 17 declined 77 percent from 1994 to 2010, falling from 61.9 victimizations per 1,000 youth to 14.0 victimizations per 1,000, according to a report released today by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

Serious violent crimes include rape and other sexual assaults, robbery and aggravated assault.  Among serious violent crimes against youth, the rate of rape and sexual assault declined 68 percent, robbery declined 77 percent and aggravated assault declined 80 percent. Overall, declines in serious violent crime among youth were greater from 1994 to 2002 (down 69 percent) than from 2002 to 2010 (down 27 percent).

Simple assault (assaults not involving an injury or weapon) against youth ages 12 to 17 declined 83 percent during the same period, dropping from 125.1 victimizations per 1,000 in 1994 to 21.6 victimizations per 1,000 in 2010.

In 2000, the highest rates of serious violent crime (2.7 per 1,000 youth per hour) and simple assault (4.8 per 1,000 youth per hour) against youth occurred during the after-school hours from 3 pm to 6 pm. However, in 2010 the rate of serious violent crime per hour against youth occurring from 3 pm to 6 pm was similar to the rate from 6 am to 3 pm and 6 pm to 9 pm. The rate of simple assault occurring from 3 pm to 6 pm was similar to the rate from 6 am to 3 pm, but five times higher than the rate from 6 pm to 9 pm.

From 1994 to 2010, more than half of violent crime against youth went unreported to police. However, the percentage of serious violent crimes not reported to police dropped from 62 percent in 1994–02 to 56 percent in 2002–10. Also, the percentage of simple assaults not reported to police decreased from 79 percent to 72 percent during the two periods.

Full report here: http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4575