Youth crime alarms U.S.

Press, 20 August 1981, Page 7

Youth crime alarms U.S.

NZPA correspondent Washington Almost one in four of all violent crimes against-indivi-duals committed in the Un-! ited States in the mid-19705" was the work of a juvenile, according to a Department of Justice report just published. It said that children under 18 were responsible for 24.2 per cent of all robberies committed between 1973 and 1977, 17.8 per cent of all aggravated assaults, and 30.4 per cent of personal larcenies such as purse snatchings and picking pockets.

Juveniles were blamed over-all for 23 per cent of all violent crimes against individuals in the five years surveyed. The report noted that juveniles were responsible for a significant amount of violent crime in the United States and said more effective prevention techniques and rehabilitation measures were essential for the safety of American society. Other official figures show that juvenile crime is not limited to older teenagers.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more than • 117,500 children aged 11 and 12 were arrested in 1979. Some 1900 children between the ages of seven and 12 were arrested in NewYork City alone last year. . The Justice Department report took comfort from the fact that “juvenile crime is less serious in terms of weapons use, thefts, financial losses and injuries than is adult crime.”

While people under 18 were responsible for 23 per cent of .all personal violent crime in the five years surveyed, they accounted for only 14.6 per cent of the population in that period. The survey found that the rate of robberies committed by white males aged 12 to 17 increased in proportion with their unemployment rate. But generally there was virtually no relationship between general economic conditions — as measured by unemployment statistics, the consumer price index, and the gross national product — and crime, whether committed by juveniles or adults.