Violent Offenders in the Juvenile Court, 1984

• NCJ Number: 119472
• Author(s): H N Snyder
• Date Published: 1988
• Length: 7 pages
• Corporate Author: National Ctr for Juvenile Justice
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Technical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: To be published in OJJDP's Update on Research series

Annotation

Data from 340,254 case records in the National Juvenile Court Data Archive formed the basis of an analysis of the extent and dispositions of cases involving juvenile violence.

Abstract

The research used data from 12 States: Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, and Virginia. The analysis showed that 6 percent of the youths referred to juvenile courts for crimes were charged with a violent crime. These crimes included criminal homicide, violent sex offenses, robbery, or aggravated assault. Seventy-seven percent of these cases were handled formally. The court ordered 5 percent transferred to adult court, 22 percent placed in a residential facility, 29 percent placed on formal probation, 16 percent released, and the other 5 percent either referred to another agency, ordered to pay restitution, or fined. Violent offenses were more common in large urban counties. The rate of male referrals for violence was seven times the rate of female referrals. In addition, nonwhite referral rates for violence were four times that for whites. Tables.