I was sort of in the same envelope as Mr. Dechert. This data doesn't provide us any sense of outcomes for the youth involved. It's a statistical overview, and we're all, of course, very interested in outcomes, but that's another story. I just want to comment--and bring it to a very quick conclusion with a comment from you, if you have one--that since 1991, in the last 20 years, there has been this huge drop in the youth court caseload, a material drop in youth court cases and crime. All the data you're showing us shows a material decrease.
We're not sure why. Mr. Dechert says maybe the population in this cohort has dropped, but youth court cases have dropped from 95,000 25 years ago to about 58,000 in 2009. That is about half. I don't think the youth population has been cut in half.
There are a whole lot of people out there doing something right, or something huge is happening in society to get that kind of a trend line. Is there something else that you would be aware of, as statisticians, that could explain to me why that trend line is so precipitously down? We are interested in that.
The bill, in some context, is suggesting we have to focus on some deterrence and denunciation here for youth, when there is no evidence in the statistics that these factors are relevant at all, especially given the fact that the sentencing is down, the crime is down, the number of youth involved in court is down, etc.