by James Alan Fox

About the author: James Alan Fox is dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston. He is the author of Trends in Juvenile Violence: Report to the United States Attorney General on Current and Future Trends in Juvenile Offending.

Judging from countless media reports in newspapers from coast to coast, it would surely seem that we have finally gotten a handle on the Nation’s crime problem. The most recent FBI release of crime statistics for 1995 revealed a welcome drop in violent crime, including an 8 percent decline in homicide. After four straight years of lower crime levels, some crime experts and law enforcement officials have even dared boldly to suggest that we’re winning the war against crime.

Declining Crime Rates but Rising Juvenile Crime Rates