23 percent from 1995 levels. Some observers predict that, as a result of this population increase, the number of homicides in the United States may rise disproportionately, with other violent offenses rising proportionally. The 18-to-24 year old population segment is projected to increase in both absolute number and as a proportion of the total population over the next decade. Thus, if effective corrective actions are not implemented, one may expect the next decade to be marked by increasing levels of youth violence (Bazemore, 2005).
While the outcomes of violent behavior are the most dramatic, they are far from being the only adverse outcomes of criminal behaviors by young people in the United States. The downward trends in the frequency of criminal; behavior periodically reported by governmental agencies in relation to criminal behavior by young people tend to be received skeptically by the general public for two major reasons. First, the downward trends typically are based on percentage reductions that when trans
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