approximately 465 per 100,000 population in 2002 รน an increase of 52 percent over the period and an increase that stated from a higher base level (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004). By any reckoning, the youth violent crime problem is serious.
Criminal behavior by young people represents a growing social problem. This behavior ranges from vandalism to property crimes and to crimes of violence including murder. Minority population groups on the whole believe that society and the criminal justice system within society are biased against them. The high level of teenage violence found in many minority neighborhoods is likely related to this perception. Another trend in youth crime is the use of children under the age of 12 to perform criminal acts for older teenagers. This practice occurs because young persons under the age of 12 years old frequently are not subject to adult prosecution, and thus can act with relative impunity (Barlow, 1991).
In absolute numbers the teenage and young adult population aged 15 to 24 years old actually declined in the United States from 1995 through 2002. Violent criminal behavior attributable to persons in this age bracket continued to increase, however, because the per capita frequency of violent behavior for this population group increased. From 1965 to 1985, the national homicide rate changed almost exactly in proportion to the change in the size of the 18-to-24 year old population segment. In 1985, however, the two phenomena diverged sharply from one another. The number of young adults as a proportion of the population declined after 1985; however, the overall homicide rate increased, because among this proportionally smaller group of juveniles the homicide rate increased by 65 percent between 1985 and 2002. Among those aged 15-to-17 years old, the homicide rate more than doubled (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2004).
In 2005, the population aged 15-to-17 years old has increased by...