- Easy Access to Juvenile Populations
- Easy Access to the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports
- Easy Access to NIBRS Victims
- Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics
- Easy Access to State and County Juvenile Court Case Counts
- Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement
- Juvenile Residential Facility Census Databook
Youth in Court
This section quantifies the processing of cases through juvenile court. It documents the nature of, and trends in, cases referred to juvenile court and the court's response, including the use of detention prior to disposition, cases judicially waived to criminal court, and cases ordered to residential placement. The case processing information is based on data collected through OJJDP’s National Juvenile Court Data Archive project.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) provide the latest answers to the most commonly asked questions about youth in juvenile court. Here you will learn about trends in the volume of delinquency and petitioned status offense cases handled by the nation’s juvenile courts, and case processing characteristics.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020, may have impacted the policies, procedures, and data collection activities regarding referrals to and processing of youth by juvenile courts for an indeterminate period of time. Additionally, stay-at-home orders and school closures likely impacted the volume and type of law-violating behavior by youth referred to juvenile court.
- How many delinquency cases are handled by juvenile courts? [Answer]
- What are the characteristics of delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts? [Answer]
- What proportion of delinquency cases are referred to juvenile court by law enforcement agencies? [Answer]
- How has the delinquency caseload changed since the 1960s? [Answer]
- Does the trend in delinquency cases vary across offenses? [Answer]
- Do delinquency case rates vary by age and offense? [Answer]
- What are the delinquency case rate trends for certain offenses? [Answer]
- Has the juvenile courts' use of detention in delinquency cases changed? [Answer]
- Do trends in the number of detained cases vary by offense? [Answer]
- Do trends in the use of detention vary by offense? [Answer]
- Have trends in the number of detained cases varied by race? [Answer]
- Has the juvenile courts' formal delinquency caseload grown? [Answer]
- Has the juvenile courts' handling of delinquency cases changed? [Answer]
- Has there been an increase in the number of delinquency cases ordered to formal probation or residential placement? [Answer]
- Have there been increases in the number of cases judicially waived to criminal court? [Answer]
- How does the juvenile court process a typical delinquency case? [Answer]
Petitioned Status Offense Cases
- How many petitioned status offense cases are handled by juvenile courts? [Answer]
- Do the trends in the petitioned status offense cases vary by offense? [Answer]
- What are the characteristics of petitioned status offense cases handled by juvenile courts? [Answer]
- What proportion of petitioned status cases are referred to juvenile court by law enforcement? [Answer]
- What are the case rate trends for petitioned status offenses? [Answer]
Data Analysis Tools
With support from OJJDP, the National Center for Juvenile Justice has developed a family of data analysis and dissemination tools that give users quick and easy access to detailed statistics on a variety of juvenile justice topics. Two such applications provide access to juvenile court data:
- Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics lets users access data on juvenile court processing of millions of delinquency cases, including information on the age, sex, and race of youth involved, the use of detention, adjudication and disposition. This data analysis tool also includes pre-formatted tables describing the demographic characteristics of youth involved in the juvenile justice system and how juvenile courts process these cases.
- Easy Access to State and County Juvenile Court Case Counts gives users quick access to State and county juvenile court case counts for delinquency, status offense, and dependency cases.
The National Juvenile Court Data Archive houses the automated records of cases handled by courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The Archive was established by OJJDP to promote access to automated juvenile court data sets for juvenile justice research and policymaking efforts. The National Juvenile Court Data Archive Web site was developed to inform researchers about the available data sets and the procedures for use and access.