At Least 30% of Kids Will Be Arrested Before Age 23
According to a new study in Pediatrics, somewhere between 30.2 and 41.4 percent of 8- to 23-year-olds in the U.S. will be arrested before their 23rd birthdays. Now the younger kids in that age range aren't getting arrested at crazy rates -- the "greatest growth in the cumulative prevalence of arrest occurs during late adolescence and the period of early or emerging adulthood" -- but those in the under-23 crowd are being picked up by police more frequently than in the past. According to USAToday:
The new data show a sharp increase from a previous study that stunned the American public when it was published 44 years ago by criminologist Ron Christensen. That study found 22% of youth would be arrested by age 23. The latest study finds 30.2% of young people will be arrested by age 23.There seems to be two probable cause for calculated increase in arrests (which excludes traffic violations):