For those who wish to view the juvenile offender problem in America more holistically, it should be noted that this is complicated. In terms of a national rate for multiple offenders, this cannot be reliably assessed as individual states have dominion over their proceedings of juvenile law, and may thus approach it in very different ways.

Nonetheless, in surveys from a handful of states regarding the repeated involvement of courts for juvenile offenders, fairly large differences have been observed in the style of such recidivism. While multiple offenses of an exclusively juvenile nature (e.g. status offenses) are uncommon in some states, less than 15 percent, re-arrest of juvenile offenders for criminal charges may exceed 50 percent in some jurisdictions. 

As is to be expected, the more a juvenile offender is exposed to the juvenile court system, the more he or is she is likely to return. On the whole, for juvenile delinquents who have never been requested to appear before a juvenile court, only about two in five receive re-referrals, but perhaps most notably, re-referral percentages are higher the earlier the age of first referral to court.

Statistics are less readily available for the juvenile offender being retried in court as an adult. As far as some courts are concerned, comparing adult and juvenile offenders is like comparing apples and oranges. Still, some states will record this data. For instance, the State of Washington estimates that about a quarter of its adult criminals committed crimes as juveniles.

For juvenile drug treatment to be successful, it has to target a specific drug-related issue, though this does not mean that addictions to several drugs cannot be treated. Juvenile drug abuse is so prevalent for youths in detention, in fact, that juvenile drug treatment is a necessity for a lot of facilities and rehabilitation programs.

According to a five-year study conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, also known as CASA, some 80% of juvenile arrests in the United States involved children with some sort of drug problem. It is estimated less than 5% of those children received adequate juvenile drug treatment from facilities to help the fight against habitual use.

Consequently, it can be reasoned that youths who do not receive juvenile drug treatment will be at risk for drug abuse in the future. Statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse confirm as much: offenders who had completed drug treatment during juvenile detention were likely to be arrested for drug crimes than those who never sought juvenile drug treatment or dropped out of treatment.

In hypothesizing about the relationship between one’s family and one’s propensity toward delinquency, researchers have devoted much attention to the type of home setup involved as a contributing factor. The results are fairly illuminating. Significant increases in delinquency have been observed in families of individuals who have committed at least one juvenile offense where parental supervision is lacking, or where marital strife and domestic abuse are present.

Another key predictor of juvenile offenses and delinquency may not come as a surprise. It has been well documented that children are more likely to be charged with a juvenile offense if one or more parents has a criminal record. Worst of all, the cycle of juvenile offenses is often perpetuated by these offending minors once they reach adulthood and have families of their own.

Noting how juvenile offenders have statistically been linked to poor employment records, low income and fractured households, the same conditions that enabled their lives of crime may pave the road to delinquency for their own children. Oftentimes, it takes a strong network of support and outside professional help for families to finally break this cycle.   

For adult members of some communities, there is less concern that their young children may be mixed up in a gang than there is concern for their safety and that of their children. Given the size of the American population, juvenile inclusion in a gang is low. Studies suggest that most children who do affiliate themselves with a gang at some point, anywhere from a half of them to two-thirds of them will only align themselves with such an organization for a year or less.          

Moreover, seeing as juvenile gang violence is the biggest source of violent crime. Those who have been in the juvenile justice system are also more than five times as likely to be arrested as adults for serious crimes than those who were never confined.d.en compared to rates in the 1990s. 

One important distinction to make regarding juvenile crime statistics is to separate the number of arrests from cases closed. Juvenile crime statistics take more than just the raw numbers of crimes into account. They also give a profile of the juvenile delinquent population in the United States, especially with regard to race and gender.

One group that stands out in terms of juvenile delinquency statistics is young black males. Though they make up only about a sixth of the total child population in America, black minors were responsible in 2008 for more than half of all juvenile violent crimes. Juvenile crime statistics also tell of what types of crimes were committed by minority groups and how they have changed with time. According to juvenile delinquency statistics, females make up only 30% of all juvenile arrests, but have seen increases in crime rates for specific crimes (e.g. disorderly conduct, DUI, assault).         

Overall, though, juvenile crime statistics tell a positive story for the United States as a whole. Granted, there are areas within where underage crime is higher than the national average in a statistically significant way. Nonetheless, compared to past epochs, crime is down for all age groups under the age of 40 when compared to rates in the 1990s.