Title: Detention in Delinquency Cases, 1990-1999 Series: Fact Sheet Author: Paul Harms Published: September 2003 Subject: Juvenile corrections 3 pages 5,366 bytes ---------------------------- Graphics are not included in this ASCII plain-text file. To view this document in its entirety, download the Adobe Acrobat graphic file available from this Web site. ---------------------------- Detention in Delinquency Cases, 1990-1999 by Paul Harms Detention caseloads increased 11% between 1990 and 1999 The increase in the delinquency caseload that juvenile courts handle drives the growth in the number of juveniles in the detention system. In 1990, juvenile courts handled 1.3 million delinquency cases. By 1999, this number had risen 27%, to nearly 1.7 million. The growth in the volume of cases entering the juvenile justice system resulted in an 11% increase in the number of delinquency cases involving detention at some point between referral and case disposition. In 1999, 33,400 more delinquency cases were detained than in 1990. As a result, the demand for juvenile detention bedspace has increased nationwide. The most dramatic change in the detention population was the influx of female juveniles charged with person offenses In general, the proportion of delinquency cases ordered to detention remained relatively steady between 1990 and 1999. Juveniles were detained in 23% of the cases processed in 1990, compared with 20% of the cases processed in 1999. However, the profile of the national detention population shifted during this period, with a greater proportion of youth charged with person and drug offenses and a greater proportion of females in the detention population by 1999. During the 1990-99 period, there was a surge in the number of female delinquency cases entering detention (a 50% increase, compared with 4% for males). The large increase was tied to the growth in the number of delinquency cases involving females charged with person offenses (102%). Detention caseloads increased more for white juveniles than black juveniles Between 1990 and 1999, the number of cases involving detention increased more for white juveniles (17%, from 173,900 to 203,500) than for black juveniles (3%, from 116,200 to 119,900), in part because the use of detention in cases involving person and drug offenses increased more for whites than blacks.1 The increase in detention for juveniles charged with person offenses was 8 times greater for whites than blacks (57% versus 7%), and the increase for drug offenses was 6 times greater for whites than blacks (124% versus 21%). In spite of this trend, black juveniles were more likely to be detained than white juveniles during every year between 1990 and 1999. This was true for all offense categories. With the exception of drug offense cases, the use of detention remained relatively constant Beginning in the late 1980s, the war on drugs coincided with a high rate of detention for drug offense cases. Since that time, however, the proportion of drug offense cases involving detention has declined. For example, the number of drug offense cases handled by juvenile courts increased 169% between 1990 and 1999, while the proportion of drug offense cases involving detention declined 15 percentage points (from 38% to 23%) during this period. The steady growth in the number of offenders and the limited number of available detention beds are factors that likely influenced decisions made by the courts regarding the use of detention. For most age groups, the use of detention decreased slightly between 1990 and 1999 The number of cases handled by juvenile courts increased for all juveniles ages 12 through 17 between 1990 and 1999. Although the number of cases ordered to detention during this period increased slightly for these juveniles, the proportion of cases involving detention decreased for all ages except 17-year-olds. Delinquency cases involving juveniles under age 12 decreased slightly between 1990 and 1999 (1%), while the number of cases involving detention decreased substantially (22%). For further information This Fact Sheet is based on the forthcoming Report Juvenile Court Statistics 1999, which will be available on the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's (OJJDP's) Web site (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ojjdp). To learn more about juvenile court cases, visit OJJDP's Statistical Briefing Book (ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/index.html) and click on "Juveniles in Court." OJJDP also supports Easy Access to Juvenile Court Statistics, a Web-based application that analyzes the data files used for the Juvenile Court Statistics Report. This application is available from the Statistical Briefing Book. 1 Juveniles of Hispanic ethnicity can be of any race, but most are included in the white racial category. Paul Harms, Ph.D., is a Research Associate with the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, which is supported by an OJJDP grant. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.