A research brief by Jeffrey Butts, Violent Youth Crime in the U.S. Falls to New 32-Year Low, shows that after controlling for the size of population the rate of juvenile arrests per 100,000 youth peaked in 1994 at around 500 and hit a new low in 2012 of 190.  There was a slight upsurge in 2008, but every year between 2009 and 2012, the arrest rate has hit a new low.

For Wisconsin the number of juveniles arrested also peaked in 1994 and since 2003 has fallen 42%.  Equally important, the decline in juvenile arrests has far outpaced the decline in adult arrests, which has fallen only 16%. This contradicts claims by some that juveniles are making up an increasing percentage of arrests. This chart clearly shows that the percentage of overall arrests that are juveniles has declined from 27% to 20% over the last decade.     by Jim Moeser