[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 111 (Thursday, July 25, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8867-S8868]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

       By Mr. BIDEN (by request):
  S. 1991. A bill entitled the ``Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Control 
Act of 1996''; to the Committee on the Judiciary.


          The Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Control Act of 1996

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Anti-Gang and Youth 
Violence Control Act of 1996. This is the President's juvenile justice 
bill, and I am introducing it at his request.
  Over the last several years, a consensus has been building in our 
Nation, and we are now in the unusual position of having the public and 
the experts in agreement that juvenile crime and violence is the most 
pressing problem facing America.
  Moreover, we now have the statistics to back up the consensus: This 
past February, the U.S. Department of Justice released an update to its 
first national report on juvenile offenders and victims.
  The numbers in this report, as well as those in the FBI's most recent 
uniform crime report, demonstrate what many have been warning of for 
the last several years--we are facing a devastating rise in juvenile 
violence and crime.
  Between 1988 and 1994 the juvenile violent crime arrest rate has 
increased by more than 50 percent.
  In 1994, there were more than 125,000 juvenile arrests for violent 
crime offenses and another 131,000 juvenile arrests for drug abuse 
violations.
  A total of more than 2.2 million juveniles were arrested for crimes 
in 1994.
  Between 1993 and 1994, while adult arrest rates remained virtually 
stable, the total number of juvenile arrests increased 11 percent.
  Over this same period, the number of juvenile arrests for violent 
crime increased 6.5 percent.
  Most frightening, the Justice Department study also forecast that, 
even if the overall crime rate stops growing, the rising number of 
juveniles will nonetheless produce a 22-percent rise in violent crime 
arrests.
  And, should the violent crime rate continue to grow as it has between 
1983 and 1992, the number of juveniles arrested for violent crimes will 
double by the year 2010 to more than 260,000 arrests.
  The President's Anti-Gang and Youth Violence Control Act includes 
important provisions to address these increases in chronic, violent 
offenders, including transferring the most serious offenders to adult 
court for prosecution, increasing the range of sanctions available to 
the courts in sentencing a juvenile, increasing the length of time a 
juvenile can be incarcerated, and increasing the access courts have to 
a juvenile offender's prior record.
  In my view, these provisions take an important first step toward 
beginning a needed dialog about a problem that is complicated and must 
be addressed over the long term. I hope that we can build on what the 
President has proposed, because we face a three-tiered challenge in 
reforming the juvenile justice system.
  As juvenile violence grows, both in rate and intensity, it is, of 
course, important to reform the juvenile justice system to address the 
most violent young criminals. The current system was never designed to 
handle either the number of juveniles or the level of violence being 
perpetrated by a small number of juveniles. The President's bill 
focuses on this aspect of juvenile justice reform.
  Just as critical--if not more so--if we are to effectively end the 
rise of juvenile crime rates is to focus on where this new breed of 
criminals is coming from and work to prevent future increases like the 
ones we have seen over the past decade.
  Allow me to put some of the aforementioned statistics in context.
  First, even with the increases in juvenile crime and violence, 
juveniles accounted for just 14 percent of all violent crimes and 25 
percent of all property crimes in 1994.
  Second, a small proportion of all children commit most of the violent 
juvenile crimes--less than one-half of 1 percent of all juveniles were 
arrested for a violent crime, and approximately 7 percent of youth who 
commit crime are violent offenders.
  This last number is both heartening and frightening. On the one hand, 
it indicates that there is a small target population which demands our 
immediate attention, and that targeting this population could have 
significant results in lowering juvenile crime rates. As I noted, the 
President's bill addresses this need to crack down on this group.
  On the other hand, the President's bill does not address the very 
real need to address the 95 percent of kids who are not yet committing 
serious crimes, but are on the crime path and will become part of this 
5 percent if left unchecked.
  In other words, we must do more to identify those offenders who will 
end up a part of that dangerous 5 percent and turn them around before 
they are too far down the road to violence.
  Focusing attention only on the violent 5 percent misses the essential 
point that most kids in the juvenile justice system--95 percent of all 
juveniles arrested--are not violent. They are also often first-time 
offenders. These are the juveniles the system was originally designed 
to handle, and rightfully so, because these are the children who can 
still be deterred from becoming life-long criminals if we provide 
juvenile courts with the appropriate prevention and intervention 
resources at this critical stage.
  Today, in most States, a juvenile can commit multiple, nonviolent 
offenses before they get any real attention from the juvenile justice 
system. This must change. We must help these 95 percent of juvenile 
offenders at the time of their first misbehavior and keep them from 
becoming repeat or serious offenders. This means giving juvenile court 
judges the ability to impose a range of graduated sanctions designed to 
prevent additional criminal behavior.
  Finally, we must realize that most children are not delinquent--94 
percent of children in 1994 did not come before a judge--but these 
children are in danger of becoming delinquent due to the risk factors 
many of them face.
  Any truly comprehensive juvenile justice plan must address not only 
those children already in the system, but it must also focus on those 
children who may enter the system if their needs are not addressed.
  This task may sound like an impossible task, but it is not. We know 
what works and we can implement it. For example, we know that nearly 50 
percent of all youth crime occurs during the hours after-school and 
before dinnertime, as these are the hours that 80 percent of America's 
children during these hours return to homes where no adults are present 
to provide supervision.

  By providing ``safe-havens'' such as boys and girls clubs and police 
athletic leagues where children can go after school, we can remove 
children from the streets and keep them out of trouble.
  In addition, we know that most juvenile offenders target other 
juveniles as their victims. By providing safe, supervised activities 
for children, we also achieve the goal of ``target-hardening''--that 
is, we can reduce juvenile crime by removing potential victims from 
offender's paths.
  Mr. President, as I have stated, although I generally support the 
efforts and initiatives of the President's Anti-gang and Youth Violence 
Control Act, it can only be one component of an overall juvenile 
justice initiative if it is to be successful. The President's bill does 
contain some important initiatives to deal with the most violent youth 
offenders. Among others, these provisions--which incorporate proposals 
made by me and other Members of Congress, include programs to initiate 
drug and gun courts in the juvenile system, to increase penalties for 
engaging children in drug trafficking, and for increasing controls on 
dangerous drugs such as Rohypnol and methamphetamine which are becoming 
increasingly popular among youth.
  I commend the President on his efforts, and I urge the President and 
my colleagues to continue to address the

[[Page S8868]]

issues of juvenile justice by working with me to develop a 
comprehensive youth violence control and delinquency prevention plan.
                                 ______