NCJ Number
208408
Date Published
2004
Length
79 pages
Annotation
This report provides an overview of juvenile court dispositions in Pennsylvania during 2003 and offers summaries of juvenile court data.
Abstract
The data included in this report were collected from the juvenile probation departments in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and primarily represent data on delinquency dispositions, although information on dependency cases that were referred to juvenile probation departments were also included. During 2003 there were 41,036 delinquency dispositions in Pennsylvania, representing a 4.3 percent increase from 2002. The most frequently reported disposition continued to be probation (21.6 percent), followed by consent decree (14.5 percent), placement (13.9 percent), informal adjustment (12.6 percent), complaint withdrawn (9.5 percent), dismissed/not substantiated (5.6 percent), warned/counseled/case closed (5.0 percent), and fines/costs (4.5 percent). In 64.6 percent of the delinquency proceedings in 2003, public defenders provided legal representation, followed by court appointed attorneys (14.7 percent) and private attorneys (12.8 percent). Legal representation was waived in 7.9 percent of the cases during 2003. Males accounted for 78.7 percent of all juvenile delinquency dispositions in 2003 and were involved in 96.4 percent of the transfers to adult criminal court. White youth were involved in 51.3 percent of juvenile court dispositions in 2003, followed by Black youth (35.1 percent) and Hispanic youth (6.2 percent). Exhibits, tables, appendix