are behavior problems on the rise?

According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) which compiles arrest information provided by law enforcement agencies each year and creates reports examining the trends, rates and statistics of juvenile criminal activity, juvenile crime is on a decline. Every four years the OJJDP publishes a comprehensive study as part of its Juvenile Offenders and Victims National Report Series (the next report will be published in 2005). The reports generated by the OJJDP, although not infallible in representing crime rates, are effective at showing trends and general patterns. The following patterns in juvenile crime have been particularly interesting:

• Between 1987 and 1994 most arrest rates increased sharply. Aggravated assault rates doubled, as did murder rates.
   
• Since 1994 most arrest rates have been in steady decline. Murder arrest rates, for example, were 74% lower in 2000 than they were in 1993.
   
• Males drove the 1987-1994 spike in the murder arrest rate, and the increases were seen in acts committed with firearms.
   
• Drug abuse arrest rates rose steadily through the ’90s and have not yet dropped significantly.
   
• The arrest rate among females did not experience the sharp rise and fall that occurred with males during the ’90s. Arrest rates among female offenders instead, have continued to rise steadily since the 1980s.

Summarizes and analyzes national and state juvenile arrest data presented in the FBI report Crime in the United States 2003. As the Bulletin reports, the juvenile violent crime arrest rate in 2003 reached its lowest level since 1980. The rate, which grew substantially during the late 1980s and peaked in 1994, has decreased for 9 consecutive years. In 2003, it was nearly half its 1994 peak level. The juvenile arrest rate for each of the offenses tracked in the FBI’s Violent Crime Index (murder, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault) has been declining steadily since the mid-1990s; for murder, the rate fell 77% from its 1993 peak through 2003 (H. N. Synder. (2005). Juvenile Arrests, Bulletin.)

What HAS changed is the way our media is presenting the problem. A couple of summers ago, you would have thought there was an increase in shark attacks because the media decided to promote stories on shark attacks, but there really was no difference in the number of attacks that were occurring. Currently the focus of the media is on disappearing children, yet the number of children disappearing really has not changed.

Are behavior problems on the rise? Well, yes, if you look at problems being reported in schools. The number of behavior problems has risen from about 11% a decade ago to over 20% today. Why this is occurring cannot be explained in a short article such as this but I do plan to write a book on this topic very soon.