Flutterby™! : California youth crime at an all time low

California Youth Crime Plunges to All-Time Low (PDF). From the the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. I clicked through 'cause the Boing Boing link mentioned that it correlated the all-time low in youth crime to marijuana decriminalization, which it does, but it's also noteworthy that:

In the 1950s, youth arrests equivalent to 8.7% of California’s total youth population were recorded; today, that figure is 3.4%. Youth crime declines have been more substantial since the 1970s. Total arrests, felonies, rape, homicide, property crime, and misdemeanor/status offense rates now stand at the lowest levels ever reliably tabulated. Only robbery and assault rates are higher today than 60 years ago, though still lower today than at any time since 1967.

However, these numbers may understate the youth crime decline. Many youth offenses may have been hidden in the past, due to historic data collection limitations. An average of 90,000 arrests per year in the 1950s, were reported as “delinquent tendencies,” a broad category that included various violent, property, drug, and status offenses. In contrast, only 22,000 juvenile arrests were classified as status offenses in 2011; all other arrests were reported as specific criminal offenses.

This is particularly apropos 'cause I'd just followed a link from my Twitter stream to this interview with author Andrew Vachss that began:

Zola: Today, high school massacres are common. But that wasn’t the case 40 years ago. When you were writing the novel, did you think it might be too shocking for publishers?

And instantly all my bullshit detectors triggered and I closed the tab.