Good News: Youth Crime Down
December 31, 2000
Sunday, Final Edition
The Justice Department has announced that arrests of juveniles for murder dropped 68 percent from 1993 to 1999, and overall arrests of young people for violent crimes dropped 23 percent from 1995 to 1999. Juvenile crime is down for the sixth straight year.
Unfortunately, our 1998 poll found that 62 percent of adults believed youth crime was on the increase. A 1996 survey in California for the California Wellness Foundation reported that 60 percent of likely voters believed youth "committed most crime nowadays."
The Post's Dec. 15 news story on the drop in juvenile crime was on Page A14
If juvenile homicides rose by 68 percent, it would be on the front page. Good news should receive equal treatment.
MARK SOLER
Coordinator
Building Blocks for Youth Washington
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Building Blocks for Youth
For a fair and effective youth justice system
...a comprehensive effort to protect minority youth in the justice system
and to promote rational and effective juvenile justice policies...
