The "unsurprising" 8.2% uptick in arrests of 11-23 year olds...

A study published in the journal Pediatrics reports that nearly 1 of 3 young people in the United States will be arrested by the time they are 23 years old.  This represents an 8.2% increase since 1968 when a similar study was published.

The data analyzed in the study were collected between 1997 and 2008 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Excluded in the analysis were minor traffic offenses.  Included were arrests for offenses that resulted in an encounter with police and ended in an arrest, but criminal charges were not necessarily filed.

According to criminologist Alfred Blumstein, this increase is unsurprising, as tougher crime policies---for example, drugs and domestic violence---have been implemented in many locales since the 1960s.

Unsurprising or not, The Motley Monk would observe that the 8.2% increase in the number of arrests is quite likely just the "tip of the iceberg."  A lot of criminal activity has been transpiring that does not involve an encounter with police.  The Motley Monk also happens to believe that much of this is a direct consequence of the breakdown of the traditional, nuclear family, the decline in church attendance, and the failure of many of the nation's public schools to teach common morality.


Let the discussion begin...



To read the study in Pediatrics, click on the following link:
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2011/12/14/peds.2010-3710.abstract?sid=63f9d4cc-5037-4c2b-aefa-9802ddea8ca1