The almost two-decade decline in the number of juveniles arrested in Wisconsin each year continued to decline through 2015, as noted in a recent WCCF Report on The State of Juvenile Justice in Wisconsin.  As one would expect, that leads into declines in a number of other areas, including declines in the number of youth in a juvenile correctional institution and the overall number of delinquency petitions filed across the state.

As policy-makers’ interest to juvenile justice is drawn to issues related to Lincoln Hills and some increases in some specific serious offenses, future decisions need to be made based on the best data available rather than what might garner media attention.