THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995 TAG: 9509080522
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
Juveniles have become the driving force behind the nation's alarming increases in violent crime. Juvenile arrests for murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault have grown sharply over the last decade as handguns and drugs have become more available, a new Justice Department study shows.
The study, billed as the most comprehensive compilation of youth-offender information to date, shows that juvenile arrests for major violent crimes grew from 83,400 in 1983 to 129,600 in 1992. The number of juvenile homicide offenders doubled from 969 in 1984 to 2,202 in 1991.
If those arrest rates continue and the juvenile population grows, as expected, by 22 percent over the next decade, the report projects a staggering 261,000 arrests of youth offenders in the year 2010.
``What you see here is a road map to the next generation of crime,'' Attorney General Janet Reno said Thursday at her weekly news briefing. ``Unless we act now to stop young people from choosing a life of violence and crime, the beginning of the 21st century could bring levels of violent crime to our community that far exceed what we have experienced.''
The report by the department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention chronicles a number disturbing trends that have developed over the past decade, including:
The use of handguns by juveniles has grown steadily. In 1976, 59 percent of juvenile homicide offenders killed with a gun, by 1991 the figure was 78 percent.
Teenagers have recently become more likely victims of violent crime than adults over the age of 25.
New York had the highest violent juvenile offender rate, followed by Florida, New Jersey, Maryland and California. Virginia is ranked 36th in violent juvenile arrests
Nationally, Virginia ranks relatively low in the arrests for juveniles for violent crimes - 36th in 1992.
Violent crime represented only 3.1 percent of all juvenile arrests in Virginia in 1993, according to Virginia's Commission on Youth, one of two commissions currently studying juvenile justice.
A commission appointed by Gov. George F. Allen also is studying changes in how young offenders are handled by the courts.
Both groups are expected to make recommendations to the General Assembly in the 1996 legislative session.
Linda Nablo, a senior policy analyst at the Action Alliance for Virginia's Children and Youth, says that Virginia is not likely to feel the worst of the trends predicted by the Justice Department report but ``the future that they're describing will to some degree play out in Virginia.''
Nablo monitors the two commissions working to reform juvenile justice in the state.
The real question is what we do about it, Nablo says.
``Do we accept that future and simply try to figure out how to incarcerate after the crimes have been committed, or do we start now to get serious about starting to change that future?'' Nablo asked.
``It would take a real focus at the neighborhood and state level to identify causes, develop effective strategies and commit the necessary resources to child-abuse prevention, substance abuse, education, rebuilding safe neighborhoods, de-glamorizing violence and, in general, giving these kids better role models and hope in their future.''
Barbara Rawn, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Virginia in Richmond, says that preventing child abuse is a key factor in reducing juvenile delinquency.
``If you degrade and neglect and abuse a child, those kids end up full of anger, they have no sense of empathy,'' she said. ``Those are the kids who will pick up a gun and shoot someone. They know violence is a way to resolve conflict.''
The dire predictions for juvenile crime don't have to come true, Rawn says. ``I think we can stop this,'' she said. ``We've got to start with families.'' MEMO: Staff writer June Arney and The Washington Post contributed to this
report.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE CRIME STATISTICS by CNB