MENU TITLE: Delays in Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases.
Series: OJJDP
Published: March 1997
2 pages
4,086 bytes

Delays in Juvenile Court Processing 

by Jeffrey A. Butts, Ph.D.

With the increase in delinquency caseloads
throughout the Nation, juvenile justice experts are
concerned that delays in case processing are
reducing the effectiveness of the juvenile court
process. Compared with criminal court trials, the
juvenile court process may seem expeditious.
However, delays in the juvenile justice system
should be viewed from the perspective of an
adolescent offender. Professional standards suggest
that even the longest case should be processed
within 90 days. Yet, a 90-day process means that a
14-year-old offender will wait the equivalent of a
summer vacation for services or sanctions. In many
of the Nation's juvenile courts, young offenders
wait even longer.

Case processing time

This analysis examines the timing of the juvenile
court process using a large data base of case
records contributed to the National Juvenile Court
Data Archive. The analysis describes nearly 3
million delinquency cases handled between 1985 and
1994 by 267 jurisdictions in 17 States (Alabama,
Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana,
Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, Utah, and Wisconsin). These jurisdictions
were analyzed because (1) they were relatively
large, with populations of at least 20,000; (2)
they contributed detailed case records to the
Archive every year from 1985 through 1994; and (3)
their data files included reliable measures of
court processing time. Together they contain 22% of
the U.S. juvenile population.

Controlling the speed of the juvenile court process

The Federal constitutional right to a speedy trial
has never been extended to juveniles. In some
States (e.g., Illinois and Kansas) juveniles have
been explicitly denied this right. Only six States
(Arkansas, Florida, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New
York, and Washington) have enforced the dismissal
of delinquency charges when court processing time
exceeds statutory limits. Most juvenile courts
continue to rely on voluntary goals and
professional standards to control the timing of
delinquency dispositions.

Several series of juvenile justice standards have
been issued by Federal agencies and national
associations in the past two decades. The National
District Attorneys Association recommended that no
more than 60 days elapse between police referral
and court disposition for juveniles held in secure
detention, and that cases involving nondetained
juveniles be completed in 90 days or less. Other
juvenile justice standards (including those
published by the Office of Juvenile Justice and
Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the American Bar
Association) have called for shorter processing
times.

Nearly half of the formal cases in large
jurisdictions take more than 90 days to reach
disposition -- the maximum time suggested by
professional standards

The combined annual caseload of the 267
jurisdictions mentioned previously increased 57%
between 1985 and 1994, from 237,509 to 372,055
cases per year. In 1985 half of the delinquency
cases handled by these jurisdictions reached final
disposition within 6 weeks (i.e., the median was 43
days). By 1994 the median disposition time for all
delinquency cases had increased 26% to 54 days. In
the largest jurisdictions (more than 400,000 in
population), half of the formally handled cases
involving nondetained juveniles had disposition
times in excess of 82 days.

For further information

This Fact Sheet presents findings from the Delays
in Juvenile Justice Sanctions Project conducted by
the National Center for Juvenile Justice. For a
complete report of the findings, call the National
Center for Juvenile Justice, 412-227-6950.

Jeffrey A. Butts was Director of the Delays in
Juvenile Justice Sanctions Project, which was
supported by an OJJDP grant.