This fact sheet presents national estimates of delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts in 2019 and analyzes caseload trends since 2005. In 2019, U.S. juvenile courts handled 722,600 delinquency cases involving youth charged with criminal law violations, 2 percent fewer than in 2018.
From 2005 through 2019, the number of delinquency cases declined 56 percent, with decreases in all four offense categories: property offense cases (down 65 percent), public order offense cases (down 59 percent), drug law violation cases (down 47 percent), and person offense cases (down 45 percent). In 2019, person offense cases accounted for the largest proportion (33 percent) of the delinquency caseload, followed by property offense cases (30 percent), public order offense cases (24 percent), and drug offense cases (13 percent). Estimates are based on data from nearly 2,500 courts with jurisdiction over 87 percent of the nation's juvenile population in 2019.