Juvenile Justice System and Risk Factor Data - Illinois Criminal ...

Court data
After being arrested a youth may be referred to the county state’s attorney for prosecution. A
petition is filed when a decision is made to prosecute. The number of petitions filed in each
county can be found in the data tables section in Appendix H.
The court may request investigations that may inform the judge and court staff of a youth’s
background and prior history. The number of juvenile/social investigation reports conducted
by a county’s probation department is also included in the data tables section in Appendix H.
The most common type of petition filed is a delinquency petition. Delinquency petitions are
filed when a youth is alleged to be delinquent; that is, the youth allegedly violated or attempted
to violate a state or federal statute, or a municipal or county ordinance. Once a delinquency
petition is filed, a number of possible scenarios may follow. New information may come to light
that results in the state’s attorney dismissing the petition against the youth, entering into a plea
agreement, or referring the youth to a diversionary program.
If none of these scenarios occur, an adjudicatory hearing, or trial, is held to determine whether
the allegations against the youth are supported by evidence beyond a reasonable doubt. If the
youth is adjudicated delinquent, a dispositional hearing or sentencing hearing is held. After the
Juvenile Justice Reform Provisions of 1998 were enacted, the terms “adjudicatory hearing” and
“dispositional hearing” were changed to “trial” and “sentencing hearing,” respectively, to reflect
the terms used in criminal court.
Court activity information is collected by the Administrative Office of Illinois Courts (AOIC).
These data are collected aggregately by county from each circuit court and presented in their
annual reports. No information is made available by AOIC about the youth included in the data
such as gender, race or ethnicity, age, or type of offense.
While it is not possible to determine the ages of youth included in AOIC juvenile court data, it is
assumed that they are between the ages of 10 and 16, as these are the ages youth are under the
juvenile court jurisdiction (until January 1, 2010, when youth 17 years of age charged with
misdemeanor offenses will remain under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court). For this reason,
all rates are calculated using the juvenile population ages 10 to 16. It is possible, for youth under
age 10 and over age 16 to be under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court.
Data summary
Delinquency petitions
There was a steady decrease in the number of delinquency petitions filed statewide over the
period studied. From 1997 to 2007, the number of new delinquency petitions filed in Illinois
decreased by 29 percent. This decline was affected in part by a 48 percent decline in new
delinquency petitions filed in Cook County between 1997 and 2007. The decline in Cook County
petitions is possibly due to expansions in juvenile
diversion programming. Figure 15 depicts the
rate of new delinquency petitions filed by region from 1997 to 2007.
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