This fact sheet presents an overview of the data gathered on delinquency cases in juvenile court for 2005.
Highlights of the fact sheet include: (1) an estimated 1.7 million delinquency cases were handled in juvenile courts nationwide in 2005; (2) from 1997 through 2005, the delinquency caseload dropped 9 percent; (3) juvenile courts handled 464,700 cases involving females in 2005, more than twice the 1985 number; (4) the rate at which African-American youth were referred to juvenile court for a delinquency offense was about 140 percent greater than the rate for white youth; (5) juveniles younger than age 16 at the time of referral to court accounted for 57 percent of all delinquency cases handled in 2005; (6) in 2005, 18 percent of all delinquency cases were dismissed at intake, generally due to lack of legal sufficiency; (7) the proportion of delinquency cases petitioned for formal handling rose from 46 percent in 1985 to 58 percent in the late 1990s, and then declined slightly to 56 percent in 2005; (8) in 2005, juvenile court judges waived jurisdiction over an estimated 6,900 delinquency cases, sending them to criminal court; and (9) in 2005, juveniles were adjudicated delinquent in 66 percent of petitioned cases, an 85 percent increase from 1985. This fact was based on the report Juvenile Court Statistics 2005 and presents data on delinquency cases in juvenile court for 2005. Tables and figures