Delinquency 1980

• NCJ Number: 139255
• Author(s): H N Snyder; T A Finnegan; J L Hutzler
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 119 pages
• Grant Number(s): 78-JN-AX-0027; 79-JN-AX-0027
• Sponsoring Agency: US Securities and Exchange Cmssn
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for Juvenile Justice
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report describes the volume and characteristics of juvenile delinquency and status offense cases disposed by courts with juvenile jurisdiction in 955 of the nation's 3,137 counties in 1980, using information from available court information systems.

Abstract

Twenty states and six large individual jurisdictions supplied detailed case-by-case data to the National Juvenile Court Data Archive. A total of 1,345,000 cases were disposed, representing a 3-percent increase over 1979. The delinquency case rate increased to 47.2 delinquency cases per 1,000 children at risk, a 4.2-percent increase in rate over the average of the previous 5 years. In 1980, an estimated 11.5 percent of the cases involved crimes against persons, 49 percent crimes against property, 5.6 percent drug law violations, 15.2 percent crimes against public order, and 18.8 percent status offenses. Most referrals came from law enforcement agencies. The use of secure detention has declined over the past 6 years. Males accounted for slightly over three-quarters of all juvenile court cases. Tables, figures, glossary, and appended tables and methodological information