Juvenile Justice Bulletin -- October 2000 -- Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1997

Delinquency Cases

U.S. juvenile courts handled 4,800 delinquency cases each day
In 1997, U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction handled an estimated 1.8 million cases in which the juvenile was charged with a delinquency offense (i.e., an offense for which an adult could be prosecuted in criminal court).

An individual juvenile may be involved in more than one case during the year. The annual ratio of cases to juveniles is about 3 to 2. Therefore, juvenile courts handled about 1.2 million individual juveniles charged with delinquency offenses in 1997.

Juvenile court workloads have grown and changed
Changes in the juvenile court delinquency caseload in recent years have strained the court’s resources and programs. The 48% increase between 1988 and 1997 in the volume of cases means that juvenile courts handled 1,600 more cases each day in 1997 than in 1988. Over this period, however, the courts were asked to respond not only to more cases, but also to a different type of caseload.

From 1988 through 1997, the juvenile courts saw disproportionate increases in violent and other person offense, weapons offense, and drug offense cases. The property offense share of the delinquency caseload declined from approximately 60% to approximately 50%. Courts have had to adapt their program resources accordingly.

Youth were charged with a property offense in nearly half the delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts in 1997

The 1997 delinquency caseload of nearly 1.8 million was virtually the same in volume as the caseload for 1996. The offense profile for the 1997 caseload was also essentially the same as the profile in 1996.

Delinquency cases may be referred to juvenile court from a number of different sources, including law enforcement, social service agencies, schools, parents, probation officers, and victims. Law enforcement agencies refer the majority of delinquency cases to juvenile court (85% in 1997). The proportion of all cases that were law enforcement referrals varied by offense: person (85%), property (90%), drugs (93%), and public order (67%).

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Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1997	Juvenile Justice Bulletin • October 2000