Delinquency 1978: United States Estimates of Cases Processed by Courts with Juvenile Jurisdiction

• NCJ Number: 152695
• Author(s): D D Smith; T Finnegan; H N Snyder; N G Feinberg; P McFall
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 170 pages
• Grant Number(s): 78-JN-AX-0027
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for Juvenile Justice
• Sale Source: National Ctr for Juvenile Justice
• Publication Type: Report (Annual/Periodic)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This document presents national estimates concerning young people who were processed by courts with juvenile jurisdiction in 1978 and to provide information about the system that handles law- violating youth.

Abstract

This data collection effort was concerned not only with the number of cases disposed of by juvenile courts, but also with the transactional characteristics of the cases. States and larger jurisdictions with automated data systems that recorded detailed information on juvenile cases were asked to provide these data for analysis. In 1978, 13 States and two large jurisdictions supplied transactional data which were transformed into a standard format, producing a national juvenile court transactional database. This analysis is based on data provided by 1,317 of the 3,143 counties in the U.S., containing 53 percent of the children in the Nation. The results showed that the number of estimated cases handled by the courts decreased each year between 1975 and 1978. Rates of detention also decreased during the study period. However, the rate of delinquency remained constant, and increased significantly with the age of the juveniles. 1 appendix