Juveniles age 15 or younger at the time of court referral accounted for 55% of formally processed status offense cases disposed by courts in 1997, compared with 56% in 1988 (table 64). Juveniles age 15 or younger were involved in 74% of truancy cases, 71% of ungovernability cases, 62% of runaway cases, and 27% of status liquor law violation cases. The differing offense profiles of younger and older juveniles reflect age-related differences in behavior (table 65).

Truancy was a more common charge among younger juveniles, accounting for 34% of cases, compared with 15% for older juveniles; liquor law violations were more common among older juveniles, accounting for 42% of cases, compared with 12% for younger juveniles.

Petitioned status offense case rates increased continuously with the age of juveniles (figure 21). In 1997, juvenile courts processed 3.7 petitioned status offense cases involving 13-year-old juveniles for every 1,000 13-year-olds in the juvenile population. The case rate for 15-year-olds (9.7) was more than double the rate for 13-year-olds, while the rate for 17-year-olds (12.2) was more than three times that for 13-year-olds. Between 1988 and 1997, petitioned status offense case rates increased in all age categories (table 66). The largest increases in case rates were seen in 16-year-olds (97%), 10-year-olds (95%), and 11-year-olds (93%).

Age-specific case rate patterns differed among the individual offense categories (figure 22). Truancy and ungovernability case rates peaked at age 15 and runaway case rates peaked at age 16. In contrast, status liquor law violation case rates increased continuously with age: from 1.8 at age 15 to 6.3 at age 17.