NCJ Number
69999
Date Published
1978
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This statistical summary provides an overview of the juvenile court operations in Pennsylvania for 1978.
Abstract
It is limited to juvenile court delinquency and dependency cases originating in county juvenile probation offices, although the majority of dependency cases originate in the county child welfare agencies. For the State as a whole, disposition summaries, referral and placement data, time-lapse data, and information on attorney representation are presented. County tables include information on total cases processed, cases processed by reason of referral, by source of referral, by manner of handling, and by disposition; placement, detention, and median time-lapse data; and information on the juveniles' age, race, and sex. In summary, the juvenile courts processed 40,529 juveniles. Of these, 91.2 percent were involved in acts of delinquency, while the remainder were involved in dependency proceedings. Fifty-four percent of the juveniles were handled by adjudication hearings, 32 percent by informal means, and 14 percent by consent decrees. No legal transfers of custody occurred in 87.7 percent of the dispositions; 3,017 juveniles were placed in public or private institutions for delinquents, and 1,978 juveniles received other court-ordered care or commitment. Comparison data are provided for State referrals for 1975 through 1978.