Five Things About Youth and Delinquency

The National Institute of Justice issued five key findings from research and data on youth and delinquency. The findings include: 1) risk-taking behaviors are a normal part of adolescent development; 2) risky behaviors increase through adolescence and then decline over time as youth mature; 3) few youth are arrested for any crime, and even fewer for violent crime; 4) youth arrests for violent offenses have declined 67% from 2006 to 2020; and 5) youth comprise a smaller percentage of violent crime arrests than other age groups. This resource offers key studies and data points to push back against harmful narratives about youth in the juvenile legal system.