MENU TITLE: Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases, 1985-1994.

Series: OJJDP
Published: March 1997
2 pages
3,638 bytes

Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases, 
1985-1994

by Jeffrey A. Butts, Ph.D.

More than half of the delinquency cases processed
by U.S. juvenile courts in 1994 were handled
formally

In 1994 U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction
handled an estimated 1,555,200 cases involving
delinquency charges. More than half (55%) of these
cases were processed formally, either by filing a
delinquency petition in the juvenile court or
transferring the case to criminal court. This Fact
Sheet presents national data on delinquency cases
processed by juvenile courts from 1985 through
1994. National estimates were generated using
information from the National Juvenile Court Data
Archive. More than 1,800 jurisdictions containing
67% of the U.S. juvenile population contributed
data for these national estimates. 

Formal delinquency cases grew 69% since 1985 

Between 1985 and 1994, the total delinquency
caseload of U.S. juvenile courts increased 41%. The
number of formally handled cases grew 69%, from
505,400 to 855,200 cases annually. In contrast, the
number of cases handled informally (i.e., without a
petition or court hearing) increased just 17% since
1985. The formal delinquency caseload in 1994 was
22% larger than the total informal caseload. As
recently as 1988, informal delinquency cases
outnumbered formal cases.

Formal handling up sharply for some offenses 

The likelihood of formal processing for delinquency
cases in general increased from 46% to 55% between
1985 and 1994. The largest relative changes were in
drug offense cases (61% formal in 1994, compared
with 43% in 1985) and weapon cases (62% formal in
1994 versus 45% in 1985). The likelihood of formal
handling did not change substantially in cases
involving charges such as robbery, aggravated
assault, and arson. 

One in three delinquency cases results in juvenile
court adjudication or waiver to criminal court 

A youth may be adjudicated delinquent because he or
she admits to the charges in a case or the court
finds sufficient evidence to judge the youth a
delinquent. The most severe court actions in
delinquency cases are considered to be adjudication
in juvenile court or waiver to criminal court,
although fewer than 1 in 70 such cases were
transferred to criminal court. The increased use of
formal handling between 1985 and 1994 did not
result in an equivalent increase in the proportion
of delinquency cases that were either adjudicated
or waived to criminal court. Adjudications and
waivers represented between 30% and 33% of all
delinquency cases in each year from 1985 to 1994.
In recent years drug offense cases have been most
likely to result in adjudication or waiver (37% in
1994).

For further information

This Fact Sheet is based on the report Juvenile
Court Statistics 1994. Copies are available from
the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention's (OJJDP's) Juvenile Justice
Clearinghouse, 800-638-8736. OJJDP also supports
distribution of a PC-compatible software version of
the data analyzed in Juvenile Court Statistics. For
a free copy of the software, Easy Access to
Juvenile Court Statistics, call the National
Juvenile Court Data Archive at the National Center
for Juvenile Justice, 412-227-6950. This software
can also be downloaded from OJJDP's home page:
http://www.ncjrs.org/ojjhome.htm.

Jeffrey A. Butts is Project Manager of the National
Juvenile Court Data Archive, which is supported by
an OJJDP grant.