This fact sheet from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), presents estimates for the number of delinquency cases judicially waived to criminal court for the period 1985 through 2007.
Major findings from the data include: between 1985 and 1994, the number of waived person offense cases increased 128 percent, then declined 47 percent between 1994 and 2001, and then increased 40 percent from 2001 through 2007; during the same time period, waived property, public order offense, and drug offense cases saw considerable declines, 52 percent, 23 percent, and 38 percent, respectively. Other findings include: drug offense cases were more likely to be waived to criminal court than any other offense category; fewer than half of waived cases involved person offense; cases involving males were more likely to be waived to criminal court than those involving females; racial differences in case waivers stemmed primarily from differences in person and drug offense cases; and for Black youth, the likelihood of judicial waiver for petitioned delinquency cases was greater than it was for white youth, regardless of the offense category. Data for the estimates presented in this fact sheet came from the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, maintained by the National Center for Juvenile Justice. A brief discussion is included on the three board categories for judicial waiver: discretionary, presumptive, and mandatory. Graphs and table