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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

PrefaceThe Office of Juvenile Justice andDelinquency Prevention (OJJDP) becameresponsible for Juvenile CourtStatistics following the passage of theJuvenile Justice and Delinquency PreventionAct of 1974. In 1975, OJJDPawarded the National Center for JuvenileJustice (NCJJ) a grant to continuethe report series. Although NCJJagreed to use procedures establishedby HEW to ensure reporting continuity,NCJJ also began to investigatemethods of improving the quality anddetail of national statistics. A criticalinnovation was made possible by theproliferation of computers during the1970s. As NCJJ asked agencies acrossthe country to complete the annualjuvenile court statistics form, someagencies began offering to send thedetailed, automated case-level datacollected by their management informationsystems. NCJJ learned to combinethese automated records to producea detailed national portrait ofjuvenile court activity—returning tothe original objective of the JuvenileCourt Statistics series.The project's transition from usingannual case counts to analyzing automatedcase-level data was completedwith the production of Juvenile CourtStatistics 1984. For the first time sincethe 1930s, Juvenile Court Statisticscontained detailed case-level descriptionsof the delinquency and statusoffense cases handled by U.S. juvenilecourts. This case-level detail continuesto be the emphasis of the reportingseries.xJuvenile Court Statistics 2005
Chapter 1IntroductionThis Report describes delinquencycases handled between 1985 and2005 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdictionand status offense caseshandled between 1995 and 2005.Courts with juvenile jurisdiction mayhandle a variety of matters, includingchild maltreatment, traffic violations,child support, and adoptions. ThisReport focuses on cases involving juvenilescharged with law violations(delinquency or status offenses).Unit of CountIn measuring the activity of juvenilecourts, one could count the numberof offenses referred; the number ofcases referred; the actual filings of offenses,cases, or petitions; the numberof disposition hearings; or thenumber of juveniles handled. Each“unit of count” has its own meritsand disadvantages. The unit of countused in Juvenile Court Statistics (JCS)is the number of “cases disposed.”A “case” represents a juvenile processedby a juvenile court on a newreferral, regardless of the number oflaw violations contained in the referral.A juvenile charged with four burglariesin a single referral would representa single case. A juvenilereferred for three burglaries and referredagain the following week onanother burglary charge would representtwo cases, even if the courteventually merged the two referralsfor more efficient processing.The fact that a case is “disposed”means that a definite action was takenas the result of the referral—i.e., aplan of treatment was selected or initiated.It does not necessarily meanthat a case was closed or terminatedin the sense that all contact betweenthe court and the juvenile ceased. Forexample, a case is considered to bedisposed when the court orders probation,not when a term of probationsupervision is completed.CoverageA basic question for this reporting seriesis what constitutes a referral tojuvenile court. The answer dependspartly on how each jurisdiction organizesits case-screening function. Inmany communities, an intake unitwithin the juvenile court first screensall juvenile matters. The intake unitdetermines whether the mattershould be handled informally (i.e., diverted)or petitioned for formal handling.In data files from communitiesusing this type of system, a delinquencyor status offense case is definedas a court referral at the pointof initial screening, regardless ofwhether it is handled formally or informally.Juvenile Court Statistics 2005 1
Page 3 and 4: Juvenile CourtStatistics 2005Report
Page 10 and 11: Appendix A: Methods ...............
Page 14 and 15: Chapter 1: IntroductionIn other com
Page 16 and 17: Chapter 1: Introductionconsult appe
Page 18 and 19: Chapter 2: National Estimates of De
Page 41 and 42: Chapter 3National Estimates ofDelin
Page 49: Chapter 3: National Estimates of De
Page 62 and 63:
Chapter 3: National Estimates of De
Page 64 and 65:
Page 66 and 67:
Page 68 and 69:
Page 70 and 71:
Page 72 and 73:
Page 74 and 75:
Page 76 and 77:
Page 78 and 79:
Page 80 and 81:
Page 83 and 84:
Chapter 4National Estimates ofPetit
Page 85 and 86:
Chapter 4: National Estimates of Pe
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
Page 91 and 92:
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103:
Page 106 and 107:
Appendix A: MethodsCountof ies Numb
Page 108 and 109:
Appendix A: MethodsJuvenile Populat
Page 110 and 111:
Appendix A: Methodspotential donor
Page 113 and 114:
Appendix BGlossary of TermsAdjudica
Page 115 and 116:
Appendix B: Glossary of Terms◆◆
Page 117:
Appendix B: Glossary of Termsfrom d
Page 120 and 121:
Appendix C: Reported Juvenile Court
Page 122 and 123:
Page 124 and 125:
Page 126 and 127:
Page 128 and 129:
Page 130 and 131:
Page 132 and 133:
Page 134 and 135:
Page 136 and 137:
Page 138 and 139:
Page 140 and 141:
Page 142 and 143:
Page 144 and 145:
Page 146 and 147:
Page 148 and 149:
Page 150 and 151:
IndexProbation, 89Trends, 76-78Offe
show all

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

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?