Time of Day

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Serving Children, Families, and Communities

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Time of Day

Q:	When are juveniles most likely to commit violent crime?
A:	Violent crimes by juveniles occur most frequently in the hours immediately following the close of school on school days.

Note: Violent crimes include murder, violent sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault. Data are from law enforcement agencies in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

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Juvenile violence peaks in the afterschool hours on school days and in the evenings on nonschool days.
On nonschool days, the incidence of juvenile violence increases through the afternoon and early evening hours, peaking between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
About half of the days in a year are school days. The other days fall in summer months, on weekends, and on holidays. Despite this, 61% of all violent crimes by juveniles occur on school days. In fact, 20% of juvenile violent crime occurs in the 4 hours between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days, while 14% occurs during the standard juvenile curfew hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
The annual number of hours in the curfew period (i.e., 8 hours every day in the year) is 4 times greater than the number of hours in the 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. period on school days (i.e., 4 hours in half of the days in the year). Therefore, the rate of juvenile violence in the afterschool period is almost 6 times the rate in the juvenile curfew period.
Consequently, efforts to reduce juvenile crime after school would appear to have greater potential to decrease a community’s violent crime rate than do juvenile curfews.

Internet citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03301.asp?qaDate=2001. Released on September 22, 2006.

Adapted from Snyder, H. & Sickmund, M. (2006). Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report, Chapter 3. Washington, D.C.: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Data Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation. National Incident-Based Reporting System master files for the years 2000–2001 [machine-readable data files]. Washington, D.C.: FBI.