STOP, which stands for Services, Training, Officers, Prosecutors, provides funding for communities to improve their response to domestic violence. I know many organizations in Tucson have already taken advantage of this vital program. The Community Oriented Policing Services program, or COPS, also is helping local law enforcement and victim advocates develop innovative strategies to combat domestic violence, ensuring the victim's safety as well as their own. I am pleased to say that both of these grant programs are fully funded for FY 1998, and I have encouraged my colleagues in Congress to continue full funding in the FY 1999 budget, as well. It is still too early to assess what effect this multimedia blitz is having on Tucson's youth, but I am encouraged by initial reports.
Drugs turn kids into criminals.
The more kids we can get and keep off drugs, the more kids we can rescue from a life of crime. The depressing fact is that violent juvenile crime has skyrocketed during the past decade, and today teenagers account for the largest share of all violent crime in America. Over the last ten years, the juvenile arrest rate for murder has almost doubled. Sadly, this issue is as immediate as last month's tragic headlines from Jonesboro, Arkansas. Last summer Congress passed the Juvenile Crime Control Act, which assists states and localities as they struggle to reduce juvenile crime and reform overloaded juvenile justice systems.