Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1995

• NCJ Number: 167885
• Author(s): Melissa Sickmund Ph.D.
• Date Published: December 1997
• Length: 12 pages
• Grant Number(s): 95-JN-FX-0008
• Agencies: OJJDP
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

This report summarizes findings from the "Juvenile Court Statistics, 1995," which provides data on delinquency cases and formally processed status offense cases in the Nation's juvenile courts.

Abstract

Juvenile courts in the United States processed more than 1.7 million delinquency cases in 1995, a 7-percent increase over the 1994 caseload and a 45-percent increase over the number of cases handled in 1986. The number of criminal homicide cases processed dropped 6 percent from the previous year. In 22 percent of delinquency cases processed in 1995, the most serious charge was a person offense. Person offenses accounted for 16 percent of all cases in 1986. The number of cases that involved drug offenses in 1995 was 145 percent greater than the number of cases in 1991. Although property offense cases still accounted for the greatest proportion of delinquency cases in 1995 (51 percent), the proportion was smaller than in 1986 (60 percent). The number of delinquency cases involving female juveniles increased 68 percent between 1986 and 1995, while cases involving males increased 40 percent. Juveniles were held in secure detention facilities at some point between referral and disposition in 19 percent of all delinquency cases disposed in 1995, compared with 21 percent in 1986. Delinquency cases were more likely to be processed formally with the filing of a petition in 1995 than in 1986 (55 percent compared with 47 percent). 18 tables and 5 figures