NCJ Number
167990
Date Published
1997
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This report reviews the history of the Juvenile Justice Database (JJDB) in West Virginia and offers recommendations on the continuation of the JJDB.
Abstract
After failed attempts to establish a statewide juvenile justice database by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and the West Virginia Division of Corrections, in November 1988 the Governor's Office of Criminal Justice and Highway Safety requested that the Juvenile Justice Committee (JJC) establish what became known as the West Virginia Juvenile Justice Data Base. The JJDB is a computerized information system designed to capture and disseminate data about juvenile delinquency in the States. The project is sponsored by the JJC and is fiscally administered by the Administrative Office of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (AOC). This report reviews the statutory authority of the JJC and the establishment of the JJDB, the collaborative arrangement between the JJC and the AOC, initial design considerations, and the establishment and work of the JJDB Development Committee. Also profiled are the JJDB software, the project announcement, operational costs, overall output, and the political aspects of the production of delinquency data. Recommendations regarding the continuation of the JJDB in view of the demise of the JJC focus on the independent analysis of data, the protection of the database from political influences, the continuity of delinquency data, and the verification of delinquency data.