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Introduction
Juvenile courts in the United States processed nearly 1.8 million delinquency cases in 1997. This number represents a 48% increase over the number of delinquency cases handled in 1988. Nearly 6 out of 10 cases processed in 1997 were handled formally (i.e., a petition was filed requesting an adjudicatory or waiver
hearing). In nearly 6 out of 10 petitioned cases, the court adjudicated the youth delinquent. The juvenile court waived jurisdiction and transferred youth to criminal court in 1% of formally handled cases. The court ordered the youth placed in a residential facility in 3 out of 10 adjudicated delinquency cases.
These statistics are among the findings reported in Juvenile Court Statistics 1997, the latest in a series of Reports on cases handled by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction. Although courts with juvenile jurisdiction handle a variety of cases, including abuse, neglect, adoption, and traffic
violations, Juvenile Court Statistics Reports focus on the disposition of delinquency cases and formally processed status offense cases (see Petitioned Status Offense Cases for a description of status offenses). Each Report includes national estimates of the number of cases handled by juvenile courts and an appendix that lists caseload statistics for individual States and jurisdictions within each State. This Bulletin highlights some of the important findings presented in the 1997 Report.
Findings from Juvenile Court Statistics 1997 include the following:
- The number of criminal homicide cases processed by juvenile courts dropped 17% between 1996 and 1997.
- In 22% of delinquency cases processed in 1997, the most serious charge was a person offense. Person offenses accounted for 17% of all cases in 1988.
- Juveniles were held in secure detention facilities at some point between referral and disposition in 19% of all delinquency cases disposed in 1997, about the same proportion as in 1988.
- There were 25% more delinquency cases judicially waived to criminal court in 1997 than in 1988, but 28% fewer than in 1994.
These national estimates of juvenile court cases are based on data from nearly 2,000 courts that had jurisdiction over 71% of the U.S. juvenile population in 1997. The unit of count in Juvenile Court Statistics is a case disposed during the calendar year by a court with juvenile jurisdiction. It is
possible for an individual youth to have been involved in more than one case during the year. Each case represents a youth processed by a juvenile court on a new referral, regardless of the number of offenses
contained in that referral. Cases involving multiple offenses are categorized according to the most serious offense. For example, a case involving both a charge of vandalism and a charge of robbery
would be characterized as a robbery case. Similarly, cases involving multiple dispositions are categorized according to the most restrictive disposition. A case that resulted in both probation and placement in a residential facility would be coded as a residential placement.
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| Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1997 |
Juvenile
Justice Bulletin • October 2000 |
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