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West Virginia Juvenile Court Statistics: 2001-2003

NCJ Number
212123
Author(s)
Cynthia A. Hamilton M.S.; Stephen M. Haas Ph.D.; Erica Turley B.S.
Date Published
September 2004
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report presents statistical information from the Juvenile Probation Database (JPDB) on cases referred to and disposed of by West Virginia’s juvenile courts in 2003, with trend analysis provided for the years 2001 through 2003.
Abstract
The report is divided into four main sections. The first section focuses on the population characteristics of all youths referred to and/or receiving dispositions from juvenile courts during 2003. The focus is on demographic and legal characteristics, which indicate that in 2003 approximately 6,819 juveniles were processed by juvenile courts, the majority of whom had no prior history of delinquency or status offenses. The second section focuses on juveniles referred to juvenile courts in West Virginia during 2003, analyzing statistical information from each major decision point within the system, such as case referrals, predispositional detention, adjudication decisions, and dispositional outcomes. During 2003, there were 5,960 new referrals to juvenile courts involving 8,075 new offenses, the majority of which were handled in an informal manner. The third section focuses on delinquency and status offense cases disposed of during 2003. A full 2,703 of the 5,960 juvenile cases referred to court in 2003 were given an informal disposition, one-third of which were referred to diversion. Of the cases that received a formal disposition, 29.3 percent of the juveniles were placed on probation. This section also offers a trend analysis of the nature and volume of juvenile cases disposed between 2001 and 2003, indicating that the total number of juvenile cases referred to courts in 2003 decreased 8.5 percent from 2001. Tables, graphs