THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 13, 1995 TAG: 9511130068
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Nearly one in four people arrested for weapons crimes are juveniles, and weapons offenses are the fastest-growing youth crime, the Justice Department reported Sunday.
A study by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics found that juveniles accounted for 23 percent of all weapons crime arrests in 1993, compared to 16 percent in 1974. Such juvenile arrests more than doubled, from less than 30,000 to more than 61,000, between 1985 and 1993 while adult arrests for these crimes grew by one-third.
Juvenile delinquency cases involving weapons violations grew by 86 percent between 1988 and 1992, more than any other type of juvenile offense.
Weapons offenses include the illegal use, possession, trafficking, carrying, manufacturing, importing or exporting of guns, ammunition, silencers, explosives and some types of knives.
President Clinton said in a statement Sunday that the statistics are ``a chilling reminder'' that juvenile violence is the country's top crime problem. ``Now is not the time to weaken our laws,'' he said.
Teenage violence, particularly with guns, has been rising steadily since 1985, even as the number of teenagers declined. During the next 20 years, the age 14-to-17 group is expected to grow.
The government already has begun to the respond to the soaring teenage gun violence. Last year's crime act made it a federal offense for people under 18 to own a handgun and provided up to 10 years in prison for anyone providing a handgun to someone under 18.
Last week, Attorney General Janet Reno allocated $8 million for six communities to test a variety of ideas for reducing youth violence. Under the crime act, 10 police departments have been allocated $1 million to devise community policing programs designed to curb youth gun crimes.
The administration is asking Congress to override a Supreme Court decision that struck down a law prohibiting people from bringing guns onto school property.
The Justice Department study showed that weapons violations are overwhelmingly committed by males and proportionately more prevalent among blacks than whites.
Males accounted for 92 percent of the arrests in 1993 for weapons offenses. Although whites accounted for 55.4 percent of those arrests, the arrest rate for blacks was five times greater. Among whites, 70 of every 100,000 were arrested for weapons offenses in 1993. Among blacks, the figure was 362 of every 100,000.
By age and gender, the highest arrest rate was among 18-year-old males, 1,007 arrested out of every 100,000 people of that age and sex. The next highest was 17-year-old males, 857.8 per 100,000.
Urban areas accounted for 81 percent of the arrests; suburbs, 14 percent; rural areas, 5 percent. ILLUSTRATION: WEAPONS OFFENSES
Juvenile delinquency cases involving weapons violations grew by
86 percent between 1988 and 1992, more than any other type of
juvenile offense.
KEYWORDS: GUNS JUVENILES STATISTICS by CNB