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YOUTH IN CARE -- ANNUAL REPORTS: 1991 AND 1992

NCJ Number
144433
Date Published
1993
Length
94 pages
Annotation
This report provides a narrative overview of youths placed by the courts in the custody of New York State's Division for Youth (DFY) between 1988 and 1992 and reflects the benefits of DFY's classification system and reconfigured youth database implemented in 1989.
Abstract
Little change occurred in the number of admissions to DFY custody over the 1991-1992 period, but a 14-percent increase in admissions was observed between 1988 and 1992, from 2,030 to 2,323. White youths comprised 32 percent of all custody admissions in 1988, but this figure decreased to 19 percent in 1992. Admissions of black and Hispanic youth increased from 52 to 57 percent and 15 to 22 percent, respectively, over the same period. Between 1988 and 1992, the number of youths adjudicated as juvenile offenders increased by 158 percent. The largest increase occurred between 1990 and 1991, when such admissions grew by 74 percent. The number of youths admitted for a person crime as their most serious offense increased 45 percent between 1988 and 1992, from 506 to 732. Conversely, the number of admissions where the most serious offense was a property crime decreased from 46 percent in 1988 to 38 percent in 1992. Compared with other offenses, more youths were admitted with robbery as their most serious offense in 1991 and 1992. The number of youths admitted with homicide as their most serious offense increased by 111 percent between 1988 and 1992. Of approximately 2,000 youths who had intake assignments in 1992, 14 percent were anticipated to be in need of surrogate housing following residential care. Almost four out of five youths entering custody in 1992, who were screened at intake, had at least one special service need; two out of five had between two and six such needs. The median length of residential stay for youths in custody was about 1.5 months shorter in 1992 than in 1988. In 1992, DFY provided either additional residential treatment or postresidential treatment to 66 percent of youths who left cooperating voluntary agencies and to 22 percent of those who left replacement voluntary agencies. The end-of-year custody population was 5 percent greater in 1992 (3,441) than in 1988 (3,275). Tables and figures