Juvenile Violent Offenders

But just as these fundamental changes were being made in the juvenile justice system in the United States, juvenile violent crime began to decline. Between 1993 and 1997 (the newest NCVS data available), the rate of serious violent crime committed by juveniles fell dramatically, to nearly the lowest level since 1973. By 1998, the juvenile Violent Crime Index arrest rate had fallen to the lowest levels in the 1990s, but still about 10 percent above the levels of the mid 1980s. Between 1993 and 1998 the juvenile arrest rate for murder also fell substantially, erasing all of the increase that occurred after 1987. Therefore, based on different measures, the rate of juvenile violence in the late 1990s was similar to or below the rates of the early 1980s. In the late 1990s the notion of juvenile super predators came under attack, loosing favor with legislators and policy-makers. But its legacy, the fundamental changes in how some juvenile offenders are handled by the justice systems in the United States, remained.