White youth accounted for 66% of the delinquency cases disposed by juvenile courts in 1997 (table 40).⁵ White youth accounted for 60% of person offense cases, 70% of property offense cases, 66% of drug law violation cases, and 64% of public order cases. Black youth accounted for 31% of all delinquency cases, 37% of person offense cases, 26% of property cases, 32% of drug cases, and 33% of public order cases. Juveniles of other races accounted for 3% of all delinquency cases in 1997 and comparable proportions of each of the four major offense categories.

For all racial groups, a property offense was the most common charge involved in delinquency cases disposed in 1997 (table 41). Property offenses accounted for 51% of all cases involving white youth, 41% of those involving black youth, and 57% of cases involving youth of other races. In 27% of cases involving blacks, the youth was charged with a person offense, compared with 20% of cases involving white youth and 18% of cases involving youth of other races. The proportion of cases involving drug law violations was somewhat larger for black youth (11%) and white youth (10%) than for youth of other races (7%).

The number of cases involving white youth increased 43% between 1988 and 1997, while cases involving black youth and youth of other races increased 57% (table 42). Trends differed somewhat across racial groups. For all three groups, the smallest percent increase was in property cases. For black juveniles, public order cases showed the largest percent increase (112%); for white juveniles and for youth of other races, drug cases showed the largest percent increase (144% and 137%, respectively).

Delinquency case rates differed substantially by race. The total case rate for black juveniles in 1997 (123.7) was more than twice the rate for white juveniles (50.8) and more than three times the rate for youth of other races (37.7). The person offense case rate for black youth was more than three times greater than the corresponding rate for white youth and nearly five times that for youth of other races. The drug law violation case rate for black juveniles (13.4) was more than twice the rate for white juveniles (5.3) and more than five times the rate for youth of other races (2.5). In all offense categories, the case rates for black juveniles and for white juveniles were higher than the corresponding rate for other races.

Overall, delinquency case rates increased with age in all racial groups. Among youth of other races, however, the rate at age 17 was slightly lower than the rate for 16-year-olds, and for white youth, the rate for 16-year-olds was equal to the rate for 17-year-olds (figure 12). Age-related increases in delinquency case rates occurred within each of the four offense categories for each racial group, although there were variations across the 12 offense-race combinations (figure 13). For example, among white youth, the person offense case rate increased from 9.1 cases per 1,000 13-year-olds to 18.6 cases per 1,000 16-year-olds. For black juveniles, the person offense case rate grew from 32.0 at age 13 to 59.1 at age 16.