Juvenile arrest rates for burglary declined substantially in the 1980s and 1990s

Unique among major offense categories tracked by the FBI’s UCR Program, the juvenile arrest rate for burglary fell 60% between 1980 and 1999 Burglary arrest rate trends by gender and race In contrast to the declining male trend, the juvenile female arrest rate for burglary was relatively stable over most of the 1980s and 1990s. Data source: Analysis of arrest data from the FBI and population data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census. [See arrest rate data source note for details.]

In 1980, 45% of all persons arrested for burglary were under age 18. During the 1980s, juvenile burglary arrests fell 43%, while adult arrests dropped just 4%. As a result, in 1989, juveniles were involved in just 32% of all burglary arrests. During the 1990s, burglary arrests dropped one-third for both juveniles and adults. As a result of these declines, juveniles were less than half as likely to be arrested for burglary in 1999 than they were in 1980.

The large decline in the juvenile burglary arrest rate was primarily the result of a decline in male arrests. In 1980, 6% of juveniles arrested for burglary were female; by 1999, 11% were female. Although burglary remained primarily a male behavior in 1999, the substantial decline in the male arrest rate between 1980 and 1999 stands in sharp contrast to the stability of the female rate between 1983 and 1999. Over this period, while the male rate fell 51%, the female rate dropped just 12%.

In 1980, the black juvenile arrest rate for burglary was 2.0 times the white rate; by 1999, the ratio had fallen to 1.7. Thus, during this period, while both rates fell by more than half, the black arrest rate fell more than the white rate (65% vs. 58%).

Law Enforcement and Juvenile Crime	OJJDP National Report Series Bulletin December 2001