There were more than 60,000 arrests of minors in California in 2016, according to a recent report by the California Department of Justice.
More than half of the juveniles (57 percent) were arrested for a misdemeanor offense. Nearly a third (31.3 percent) were arrested for a felony offense, and the remainder (11.7 percent) were arrested for a status offense, the report stated.
Additional findings of the report:
Of those arrested, 44,980 were males and 3,312 were females.
Juveniles in each age group from 12 to 17 were arrested for similar proportions of felony, misdemeanor and status offenses.
A greater percentage of Whites were arrested for misdemeanors (62 percent).
A greater percentage of Blacks were arrested for a felony (42.1 percent).
Regardless of race/ethnic group, the smallest proportions were for drug offenses.
The Criminal Justice Statistics Center of DOJ has been compiling data on California’s juvenile justice system since 1947. Its role is to collect, analyze and report statistical data that provide valid measures of crime, to better describe crime and to promote the responsible presentation and use of crime statistics.