What evidence do crime statistics offer for superpredators?
The most common crimes juveniles commit are property offenses. If there were a change in the nature of juvenile offending in the last decade, it should generate changes in juvenile property crime arrests. The juvenile arrest rate for Property Crime Index offenses, however, changed little in the 1980’s and 1990’s. There is evidence that juvenile violence did increase for a few years in the early 1990’s. The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) found that after years of stability the rate of juvenile serious violence did increase in the early 1990’s breaking out of its historic range to a level well above that of past generations. The NCVS data also show, however, that by 1995, the rate had returned to its traditional level. Rather than providing evidence for development of a juvenile superpredator, the NCVS data indicate that, despite a temporary increase, the rate of serious juvenile offending as of the mid-1990’s was comparable to that of a generation ago. The large increase in
