NCJ Number
239114
Date Published
July 2012
Length
152 pages
Annotation
This report from the National Center for Juvenile Justice presents data on juvenile delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts in 2009.
Abstract
Highlights from the findings in this report on the number of juvenile delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts in 2009 include the following: during the year, juvenile jurisdictions handled 1,504,100 delinquency cases, an increase of 30 percent since 1985; between 1997 and 2009, the delinquency caseload declined by 20 percent, with the largest decreases seen in drug law violation cases, person offense cases, and property offense cases; in 2009, juvenile courts handled 35 percent more robbery cases compared to 2000; and between 2000 and 2009, offenses with the largest percentage decrease in caseloads included motor vehicle theft, stolen property offenses, and arson. The report also contains data on court cases involving offenses included in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) Violent Crime Index2. The data show that the volume of juvenile court cases involving these types of crime declined by 5 percent while the number of arrests of persons younger than 18 for these types of crimes decreased by 4 percent. Data are also presented on the demographics of the 31 million youth under juvenile court jurisdiction in 2009. The data in the report is presented in three sections: National Estimates of Delinquency Cases, National Estimates of Delinquency Case Processing, and National Estimates of Petitioned Status Offense Cases. Tables, figures, and appendixes