Status offenses are acts that are illegal only because the person committing them is of juvenile status. In other words, adults cannot be arrested for status offenses. The four major status offense categories used in this Report are running away, truancy, ungovernability (also known as incorrigibility or being beyond the control of one’s parents), and underage liquor law violations (e.g., a minor in possession of alcohol, underage drinking). A number of other behaviors may be considered status offenses (e.g., curfew violations, tobacco offenses), but they are not discussed in this Report.

Juvenile courts may divert some juveniles charged with status offenses away from the formal justice system to other agencies for service or may decide to process juveniles formally with the filing of a petition. The analyses in this Report are limited to petitioned cases.

Juvenile courts may adjudicate these petitioned status offense cases and may order sanctions such as probation or out-of-home placement. While their cases are being processed, juveniles charged with status offenses are sometimes held in secure detention. (Note that the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act discourages secure detention of status offenders. States holding status offenders in secure detention risk losing a significant portion of their juvenile justice block grant awards.)

Agencies other than juvenile courts are responsible for processing status offense cases in many jurisdictions. In some communities, for example, family crisis units, county attorneys, and social service agencies have assumed this responsibility. Because of variations in data collection and storage, the available data cannot support national estimates of the trends and volume of petitioned status offense cases. Therefore, this chapter presents a sample-based profile of cases disposed between 1990 and 1999, including demographic characteristics of the juveniles involved (age, gender, and race), types of offenses charged, and the flow of cases as they move through juvenile court processing.

Age

Police referred few truancy, ungovernability, or runaway cases to juvenile court

Law enforcement agencies referred 4 in 10 runaway cases formally handled in juvenile court between 1990 and 1999 and just 1 in 10 truancy and ungovernability cases. Law enforcement agencies were more likely to be the referral source for liquor law violations than other status offense cases.

Percentage referred by law enforcement:

The volume of petitioned truancy, runaway, and ungovernability cases peaked at age 15

Data Table Age Runaway Truancy Ungovernability Liquor 10    0%    1%    1%    0% 11 1 3 3 0 12 4 6 6 1 13 11 14 14 2 14 22 23 22 7 15 28 30 25 16 16 25 16 20 33 17 10 7 9 42 Total    100%    100%    100%    100% Note: Detail may not total 100% because of rounding.

• For liquor law violation cases, however, the proportion of cases increased substantially throughout the juvenile years. Nearly three-fourths of liquor offense cases involved youth age 16 or older.

• Youth age 15 or younger comprised two-thirds of all runaway cases.

Gender and Race

The proportion of females was greater in petitioned status offense cases than in delinquency cases

• Females accounted for 61% of petitioned runaway cases. In no other offense category (status or delinquency) was the female share of cases greater than the male share.

Note: See pages 12–14 for delinquency case data by gender.

White juveniles accounted for the majority of petitioned status offense cases

Note: Detail may not total 100% because of rounding.

Gender and race representation in status offense cases did not always mirror representation in the general population

• The male and female proportions of petitioned truancy and ungovernability cases were similar to their representation in the general population.

• Petitioned liquor law violation cases were disproportionately male and runaway cases were disproportionately female.

• Compared with their representation in the general population, white juveniles were overrepresented in petitioned liquor law violation cases and under-represented in the other three status offense categories.

Detention

Few youth involved in petitioned status offense cases were held in detention

Youth involved in truancy cases were the least likely to be detained at some point between referral and case disposition. Youth involved in runaway cases were the most likely to be detained.

Percentage of petitioned status offense cases detained:

Older teens and younger juveniles were equally likely to be detained

Percentage of petitioned status offense cases detained, 1990–1999:

Paralleling the general caseload, youth age 15 or younger accounted for a high proportion of status offense cases involving detention

• Liquor law violations were the exception. Cases involving youth age 16 or older accounted for nearly three-fourths (74%) of all liquor offense cases involving detention.

Status offense cases involving detention had greater proportions of males than females

As in the general caseload, the proportion of white youth among status offense cases involving detention was greater than the proportions of black youth and youth of other races

Note: Detail may not total 100% because of rounding.

For all status offense categories, males were more likely to be detained than females

Percentage of petitioned status offense cases detained, 1990–1999:

Youth in all racial groups were more likely to be detained for runaway cases than other case types

Percentage of petitioned status offense cases detained, 1990–1999:

Adjudication

In most petitioned status offense cases, the youth was adjudicated

Percentage of petitioned status offense cases adjudicated:

Age

• Across offenses, petitioned status offense cases involving younger juveniles were more likely than those involving older juveniles to result in adjudication.

• For both age groups, petitioned runaway cases were least likely to result in adjudication.

Gender

• With the exception of liquor law violation cases, the likelihood of adjudication was about the same for males and females. In liquor offense cases, adjudication was more likely for males than females.

Race

• Petitioned runaway cases involving black youth were less likely to result in adjudication than cases involving white youth or youth of other races.

• For three of the four offense categories (runaway, ungovernability, and liquor law), adjudication was more likely for petitioned cases involving youth of other races than for cases involving white youth and black youth. For truancy cases, however, the likelihood of adjudication was similar for all racial groups.

Disposition

Age

• With the exception of runaway cases, adjudicated status offense cases involving younger juveniles were more likely to result in out-of-home placement than were cases involving older juveniles. For runaway cases, out-of-home placement was equally likely for the two age groups.

• For both age groups, placement was more likely for adjudicated runaway and ungovernability cases than for truancy and liquor offense cases.

Gender

• With the exception of ungovernability cases, adjudicated status offense cases involving males were more likely to result in out-of-home placement than were cases involving females. Conversely, these types of cases were more likely to result in probation for females than they were for males.

• For both males and females, out-of-home placement was more likely for adjudicated runaway and ungovernability cases than for truancy or liquor law cases.

Race

• Across racial groups, truancy cases were most likely to result in probation.

• Adjudicated runaway cases involving black youth were more likely to result in placement than were cases involving white youth or youth of other races.

Probation was the most common disposition for adjudicated status offense cases

Percentage of adjudicated status offense cases, 1990–1999:

Note: In addition to out-of-home placement and probation, possible dispositions for adjudicated status offense cases include other sanctions (e.g., fines) and release.

Case Processing

Runaway Cases

• For every 1,000 petitioned runaway cases, 255 resulted in formal probation following adjudication.

• Among petitioned runaway cases, youth were not adjudicated in 546 of a typical 1,000 cases. Of these 546 cases, most were dismissed (368).

Truancy Cases

• Of a typical 1,000 formal truancy cases, 470 resulted in formal probation.

• Use of informal sanctions was relatively uncommon in petitioned truancy cases.

Ungovernability Cases

• Juvenile courts were more likely to order youth to out-of-home placement in petitioned ungovernability cases (151 of 1,000 cases) than in other types of status offense cases, but formal probation was the most likely outcome (401 of 1,000).

Liquor Law Violation Cases

• Among petitioned liquor law violation cases, the most likely outcome was formal probation (338 of 1,000), although the court often ordered formal sanctions (e.g., fines) other than residential placement or probation (188 of 1,000).

Note: Cases are categorized by their most severe or restrictive sanction. Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.