Violent Crime Against Youth, 1994–2010

December 2012, NCJ 240106:

Introduction
From 1994 to 2010, the overall rate of serious violent crime against youth declined by 77%, from 61.9 victimizations per 1,000 youth ages 12 to 17 in 1994 to 14.0 per 1,000 in 2010 (figure 1). Among serious violent crimes against youth, the rate of rape or sexual assault declined by 68%, robbery declined by 77%, and aggravated assault declined by 80% (table 2). The overall rate of simple assault declined by 83% during the same period, from 125.1 victimizations per 1,000 youth in 1994 to 21.6 per 1,000 in 2010. Declines in simple assault against youth were similar from 1994 to 2002 (down 61%) and from 2002 to 2010 (down 56%).

Declines in serious violent crime were greater from 1994 to 2002 (down 69%) than from 2002 to 2010 (down 27%). The data in this report were developed from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which annually collects information on nonfatal victimizations reported and not reported to the police against persons age 12 or older from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households. Homicide data in this report are from the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR). ..Source.. by Nicole White, Ph.D., and Janet L. Lauritsen, Ph.D., University of Missouri - St. Louis