Juvenile Court Statistics 2005. - Office of Juvenile Justice and ...

Appendix B: Glossary of Terms■Among cases handled informally(see “manner of handling”), somecases may be dismissed by the juvenilecourt because the matter isbeing handled in another court oragency.Other—Miscellaneous dispositionsnot included above. Thesedispositions include fines, restitution,community service, referralsoutside the court for services ortreatment programs with minimalor no further court involvementanticipated, and dispositionscoded as “other” in a jurisdiction’soriginal data.Formal handling: See “intake decision.”Informal handling: See “intake decision.”Intake decision: The decision madeby juvenile court intake that resultsin the case either being handled informallyat the intake level or being petitionedand scheduled for an adjudicatoryor judicial waiver hearing.■Nonpetitioned (informally handled)—Casesin which duly authorizedcourt personnel, havingscreened the case, decide not tofile a formal petition. Such personnelinclude judges, referees, probationofficers, other officers ofthe court, and/or agencies statutorilydesignated to conduct petitionscreening for the juvenile court.■ Petitioned (formally handled)—Cases that appear on the officialcourt calendar in response to thefiling of a petition, complaint, orother legal instrument requestingthe court to adjudicate a youth asa delinquent, status offender, ordependent child or to waive jurisdictionand transfer a youth tocriminal court for processing as acriminal offender.Judicial decision: The decision madein response to a petition that asks thecourt to adjudicate or judicially waivethe youth to criminal court for presecutionas an adult. This decision isgenerally made by a juvenile courtjudge or referee.Judicial disposition: The dispositionrendered in a case after the judicialdecision has been made.Juvenile: Youth at or below the upperage of original juvenile court jurisdiction.(See “juvenile population”and “upper age of jurisdiction.”)Juvenile court: Any court that hasjurisdiction over matters involvingjuveniles.Juvenile population: For delinquencyand status offense matters, the juvenilepopulation is defined as the numberof children between the age of 10and the upper age of jurisdiction. Fordependency matters, it is defined asthe number of children at or belowthe upper age of jurisdiction. In allStates, the upper age of jurisdiction isdefined by statute. Thus, when theupper age of jurisdiction is 17, the delinquencyand status offense juvenilepopulation is equal to the number ofchildren ages 10 through 17 livingwithin the geographical area servicedby the court. (See “upper age ofjurisdiction.”)Nonpetitioned case: See “intakedecision.”Petition: A document filed in juvenilecourt alleging that a juvenile is a delinquentor a status offender and askingthat the court assume jurisdictionover the juvenile or that an allegeddelinquent be judicially waived tocriminal court for prosecution as anadult.Petitioned case: See “intakedecision.”Race: The race of the youth referred,as determined by the youth or bycourt personnel.■■■White—A person having origins inany of the indigenous peoples ofEurope, North Africa, or the MiddleEast. (In both the populationand court data, nearly all youth ofHispanic ethnicity were includedin the white racial category.)Black—A person having origins inany of the black racial groups ofAfrica.American Indian—A person havingorigins in any of theindigenous peoples of NorthAmerica, including AlaskanNatives.■ Asian—A person having origins inany of the original peoples of theFar East, Southeast Asia, the IndianSubcontinent, Hawaii, or any ofthe other Pacific Islands.Reason for referral: The most seriousoffense for which the youth is referredto court intake. Attempts tocommit an offense are included underthat offense, except attempted murder,which is included in the aggravatedassault category.■Crimes against persons—Includescriminal homicide, forcible rape,robbery, aggravated assault, simpleassault, and other person offensesas defined below.◆Criminal homicide—Causingthe death of another personwithout legal justification orexcuse. Criminal homicide is asummary category, not a singlecodified offense. In law, theterm embraces all homicides inwhich the perpetrator intentionallykills someone withoutlegal justification or accidentallykills someone as a consequenceof reckless or grosslynegligent conduct. It includesall conduct encompassed bythe terms murder, nonnegligent(voluntary) manslaughter,negligent (involuntary) manslaughter,and vehicularmanslaughter. The term isbroader than the Crime Index102Juvenile Court Statistics 2005