What Do the Numbers Tell Us about Crime and Youth?

Abstract

Using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System and the Uniform Crime Reporting Program of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the author explores the relationships between prevalence of drug use and incidents of violence with arrest rates of Black and White youth. She presents this information by state and concludes that there is little relationship between prevalence and arrest rates. During any investigation of illegal activity among the youth of this country, it is important to begin by examining data. The present paper examines existing data sets in order to explore the relationship between prevalence of drug use and incidents of violence to arrest rates among youth. There are numerous national data sets available but few that contain data from almost all of the states and report by age. One of those data sets comes from the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which contains arrest data submitted by individual states. Data are submitted for defined categories of crimes by age of the youth.1 For the present paper, arrests related to drug and/or alcohol use and arrests related to violence for youth to age 21 are examined. The particular offenses used in this article are: (a) drug/alcohol related arrests, which include drug abuse violations, driving under the influence, liquor laws, and drunkenness and (b) violence related arrests, which include murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, aggravated assault, and robbery (UCR, 2000). Table 1 below presents arrest data by state for these two categories of arrests. The total number of arrests for each state is shown in the first column. The number of those arrests related to drug offenses is shown next followed by the percent of total arrests that number represents. The same pattern is repeated for arrests related to violence. Drug arrests range from a low of 16% of all youth arrests in Hawaii to a high of 53% of all youth arrests in Vermont (median 27%). For arrests related to violence, the range is considerably lower-from 1%, shared among North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Idaho to 10% in Massachusetts (median 3%). Each type of arrest is examined separately by the race of the persons arrested. Results are shown in Table 2 for White youth and Black youth. The arrest rate per thousand youth was calculated for each state by racial group based on its population. The range of arrests rates for White youth is somewhat lower than that for Black youth. For White youth, arrests range from less than one arrest per thousand youth in Illinois and Kentucky to almost 24 arrests per thousand in Wyoming, while for Black youth the range begins at 2.5 arrests per thousand in Georgia to a high of 32 arrests per thousand in Nebraska. This result is evident for all states except Hawaii, Indiana, Michigan, North Dakota, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming where the arrest rate for White youth is larger than that of Black youth. The median arrest rate for White youth is 7.2 arrests per thousand and the overall arrest rate is 6.2. The median arrest rate for Black youth is 12.6 and the overall rate is 10.3. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) is another data set that is derived from multiple state administrations and that may help in understanding the relationship of use of drugs and drug arrests along with participation in violence and violence-related arrests. The YRBS collects data from high school youth in the spring of each odd numbered year on, among other items, drug/alcohol use and violent behavior. The YRBS is unique in that a nationally representative sample of 9th through 12th grade students is surveyed during the same timeframe as the individual state administrations. Totals shown for drug/alcohol use or violence are taken from the 1999 national administration of the YRBS. The YRBS is conducted by more than half of the states and where available, their 1999 YRBS results are presented along with arrest data. …