U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Juvenile Court Statistics, 1950-52

NCJ Number
123452
Author(s)
I R Perlamn
Date Published
1954
Length
20 pages
Annotation
Juvenile court statistics for 1950-52 cover numbers of cases processed by type, delinquency trends, offender sex and age, detention, and disposition; similar data are provided for dependency-and-neglect cases.
Abstract
In 1951, 458 juvenile courts provided complete reports; 586 reported in 1952. Trend data are based on information supplied by approximately 200 comparable courts. Approximately 385,000 juveniles (approximately 2 percent of all children in the United States aged 10-17) were processed by juvenile courts in delinquency cases in 1952. More than half of all juvenile court cases were handled unofficially, i.e., without filing a petition for a formal judicial hearing. For 1952, the boys in delinquency cases outnumbered the girls 5 to 1. Most juveniles brought before the courts in 1951 were 14 years old or older. One-third of the delinquent children in 1951 were detained overnight or longer pending a court hearing; 1 in 4 of those detained were held in jails or police stations. In 1951 most unofficial cases were "dismissed" or "adjusted." The most frequent disposition for official delinquency was probation. In 1951, dependency-and-neglect cases increased for the first time since 1947, and they were much younger than those in delinquency cases, having a median age of 6 1/2 years. Data on various types of juvenile court cases are provided by State and the larger counties. 12 tables.