NCJ Number
69831
Date Published
1977
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This report presents extensive tables on 1977 Pennsylvania court dispositions for juvenile court delinquency and dependency cases originating in juvenile court probation offices.
Abstract
The report also contains data on selected juvenile characteristics and the methods by which the juveniles were handled by each court. Of a total of 41527 juveniles processed in Pennsylvania juvenile courts during 1977, 80 percent of the cases involved acts of delinquency, 10 percent were dependency cases, and over 9 percent were status cases. Excluding Philadelphia court cases, adjudication was used for 46 percent, and consent decrees for 9 percent. About 20 percent of those processed were detained, usually in a juvenile detention home, and about 80 percent of the cases were disposed of with no legal transfer of custody. Dismissals accounted for 42.8 percent of the these cases; probation, 26.4 percent; and informal adjustments, 11 percent. A total of 2,974 juveniles were incarcerated and 1,801 received other court-ordered care or commitment decrees. Due mainly to a classification change, the number of status offenders decreased from 1976 to 1977. The average time lapse from referral to disposition was 58 days; one half of the cases progressed to disposition within 37 days. In the 13,799 cases in which attorneys were represented, 783 used court-appointed attorneys; 2,015, private attorneys; and 5,292, public defenders. The right to an attorney was waived in 5,709 cases. The average time lapse from referral to disposition when the attorney right was waived was 52 days, compared to 76.83 days for cases with private attorneys. Extensive tables present county-by-county data on individual cases, referral reasons, sources of referrals, manner of handling disposition, placement, detention, dependency cases, time lapses, and race/sex indicators.