Counts and Trends

Status offenses are acts that are illegal only because the person committing them is of juvenile status. In other words, adults cannot be arrested for status offenses. The four major status offense categories used in this Report are running away, truancy, ungovernability (also known as incorrigibility or being beyond the control of one's parents), and underage liquor law violations (e.g., a minor in possession of alcohol, underage drinking).¹

In 1997, U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction petitioned and formally disposed an estimated 158,500 status offense cases (table 51).² This number was 101% more than the number of petitioned status offense cases handled in 1988. Caseloads generally increased between 1988 and 1997 across all four offense categories (figure 18).

The number of petitioned truancy cases increased 96%, runaway cases increased 93%, ungovernability cases increased 65%, and status liquor offense cases increased 56%.

The Nation's juvenile courts processed 5.5 petitioned status offense cases for every 1,000 juveniles in the population in 1997. The case rate for all petitioned status offense cases was 78% higher in 1997 than in 1988. The rate for truancy cases increased 74%, the rate for runaway cases increased 71%, the rate for ungovernability cases increased 46%, and the rate for status liquor law violation cases increased 38%.

In 1997, status liquor law violations and truancy cases each accounted for more than one-quarter of formally handled status offense cases, runaway cases for 15%, ungovernability cases for 13%, and other miscellaneous status offenses for 20% (table 52). Since 1988, liquor law violation and truancy cases have consistently made up a greater share of the status offense caseload than runaway and ungovernability cases.

1 A number of other behaviors may be considered status offenses (e.g., curfew violations, tobacco offenses). All such offenses are combined within a “miscellaneous” category in this Report. Because of the heterogeneity of these offenses, these cases are not discussed independently. However, all totals include the “miscellaneous status offenses.”

2 This Report presents analyses only of formally handled status offenses. See the Introduction to this Report for further explanation.