Juvenile Homicide

Juvenile Homicide | What is Psychopathy? | Juvenile Psychopathy Research | Multicultural Issues

Juvenile Arrests for Homicide: 1984-2008
	The rate of juvenile arrests for homicide rose steadily in the 1980's, before peaking in the early 1990's. High-profile school shootings around this time prompted unrealistic fears that youth violence was skyrocketing in the United States. However, in 1994 juvenile arrests began to decline sharply and have been fairly stable in recent years.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 1984-2008: Uniform Crime Reports.
	Although severe violence at school is an important concern, student homicides are far more frequent outside of school than at school. For example, in 2004-05 there were 21 student homicides at school, but 1,513 not at school. (Dinkes, Kemp, Baum, & Snyder, 2009)
Source: Dinkes, Kemp, Baum, & Snyder, 2009.

Juvenile vs. Adult: Murder Arrests, 2008

	According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, a total of 9,888 people were arrested for murder in 2008. Only 974 (10%) of those arrested were individuals under the age of 18.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 2008: Uniform Crime Reports.

Juvenile Murder Arrests by Gender and Race, 2008
	According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports from 2008, male juvenile arrests for homicide were nearly nine times greater than for females. The number of African American juvenile arrests for homicide were disproportionately high relative to Caucasian juvenile arrests, given that there were more than twice as many Caucasian as African American juveniles in the U.S. population in 2006. See our multicultural issues page for more information.
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States, 2008: Uniform Crime Reports
Homicide Rates for Selected Countries, 2006
	The United States has one of the highest rates of homicide in the world. Some of the countries with rates higher than the U.S. include Columbia, South Africa, Jamaica, Venezuela, Russia, Mexico, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Thailand.
Source: Statistical Office of the European Communities

Juvenile Homicide References

Cornell, D., Benedek, E., & Benedek, D. (1987). Characteristics of adolescents charged with homicide: Review of 72 cases. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 5, 11-23.

Cornell, D., Benedek, E., & Benedek, D. (1987). Juvenile homicide: Prior adjustment and a proposed typology. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 57, 383-393.

Cornell, D., Miller, C., & Benedek, E. (1988). MMPI profiles of adolescents charged with homicide. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 6, 401-407.

Benedek, E. & Cornell, D. (Eds.) (1989). Juvenile homicide. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press.

Cornell, D. (1990). Prior adjustment of violent juvenile offenders. Law and Human Behavior, 14, 569-578.

Greco, C. & Cornell, D. (1992). Rorschach object relations of adolescents who committed homicide. Journal of Personality Assessment, 59, 574-583.

Cornell, D. (1993). Juvenile homicide: A growing national problem. Behavioral Sciences and the Law, 11, 389-396.

Loper, A., & Cornell, D. G. (1996). Homicide by adolescent girls. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 5, 323-336.