NCJ Number
207423
Date Published
September 2004
Length
20 pages
Annotation
This report provides statistics for West Virginia juvenile courts for the years 2001 to 2003.
Abstract
This report is based on data from the West Virginia Juvenile Probation Database (JPDB). The JPDB is based on reports filed by county probation officers throughout the State. Only youths referred to probation and only those cases reported to the JPDB are included in this report. The report is divided into five sections: 1) population characteristics of youth processed by the juvenile courts in 2003; 2) estimates of delinquency and status offense case referrals; 3) estimates of delinquency and status offense case dispositions; 4) delinquency and status offense case rates by county; and 5) methodology and definitions used in the database. Highlights from the report include: 1) in 2003, 73.5 percent of male youths processed by the WV juvenile courts were charged with a delinquency offense, compared to 56 percent for female youths; 2) non-White juveniles accounted for 11 percent of the juveniles processed by the courts in 2003, yet they comprise only 5.8 percent of the juvenile population in the State; 3) over 90 percent of juveniles processed by the juvenile courts in 2003 had no prior record of arrests or adjudications for a status or delinquency offense; 4) the total number of cases referred to juvenile courts in 2003 decreased by 10.6 percent and 8.5 percent from 2002 and 2001, respectively; 5) only 3.8 percent of the cases referred to the juvenile courts in 2003 were sentenced to a juvenile correctional facility; and 6) in 2003, the total number of person and property offenses disposed by juvenile courts decreased compared to 2001 and 2002 estimates. Data sources, 12 tables and 10 graphs