MENU TITLE: Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts, 1994.
Series: OJJDP
Published: October 1996
7 pages
8,013 bytes

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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention
Shay Bilchik, Administrator

Fact Sheet #47
October 1996

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Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts, 1994
by Jeffrey A. Butts, Ph.D. 

Counts and Trends 

Juvenile courts in the United States processed an
estimated 1,555,200 delinquency cases in 1994.
Delinquency cases involve juveniles charged with
criminal law violations. The number of delinquency
cases handled by juvenile courts increased 41%
between 1985 and 1994. Since 1985, cases involving
offenses against persons increased 93%, while
property offense cases increased 22% and drug law
violation cases increased 62%.

These estimates of the cases handled by U.S.
juvenile courts in 1994 are based on data from more
than 1,800 courts that had jurisdiction over 67% of
the U.S. juvenile population in 1994. (Not all
jurisdictions were able to report comparable data.)
The unit of count in this Fact Sheet is a case
disposed during the calendar year by a court with
juvenile jurisdiction, where each case represents
one youth processed on a new referral regardless of
the number of individual offenses contained in that
referral. 

An individual youth can be involved in more than
one case during the year. For a full description of
the methodology used in the calculation of national
estimates, see Juvenile Court Statistics 1994
(Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention (OJJDP), forthcoming).

Detention 

One of the first decisions made in processing a
juvenile delinquency case is whether the juvenile
should be detained in a secure facility. Juveniles
are sometimes detained to protect the community and
sometimes to protect the juveniles themselves or to
ensure their appearance at court hearings.
Juveniles were securely detained in 21% of
delinquency cases processed in 1994. Detention was
used in 28% of drug law violations, 24% of person
offense cases, and 17% of property offense cases.

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Table 1

Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1994

Note: Percent change calculated on unrounded
estimates.

The following information is listed in this order:
Number of Cases
Percent Changes 1985-94
Percent Changes 1990-94
Percent Changes 1993-94

Total Delinquency
1,555,200
41%
20%
5%

Total Person Offenses
336,100
93%
38%
6%

Criminal Homicide
3,000
144%
19%
6%

Forcible Rape
5,400
25%
21%
-11%

Robbery
37,000
53%
31%
4%

Aggravated Assault
85,300
134%
41%
10%

Simple Assault
177,700
91%
42%
7%

Other Violent Sex Offenses
10,000
65%
34%
-9%

Other Person Offenses
17,800
91%
12%
-8%

Total Property Offenses
803,400
22%
7%
0%

Burglary
141,600
5%
-1%
-5%

Larceny-Theft
356,200
17%
9%
1%

Motor Vehicle Theft
59,300
69%
-16%
-3%

Arson
9,500
37%
35%
18%

Vandalism
118,600
46%
22%
2%

Trespassing
61,200
21%
22%
1%

Stolen Property Offenses
28,600
10%
1%
5%

Other Property Offenses
28,300
57%
-3%
-8%

Drug Law Violations
120,200
62%
69%
35%

Public Order Offenses
295,600
50%
27%
9%

Obstruction of Justice
108,400
59%
26%
13%

Disorderly Conduct
80,700
77%
44%
14%

Weapons Offenses
48,800
156%
63%
4%

Liquor Law Violations
12,700
-34%
-29%
-3%

Nonviolent Sex Offenses
9,600
-24%
-23%
-10%

Other Public Order Offenses
35,500
10%
15%
4%

Violent Crime Index
130,600
98%
37%
7%

Property Crime Index
566,700
17%
4%
-1%

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Intake Decision 

After the details of a case have been reviewed, a
decision is made to dismiss it, handle it
informally, or formally process the case by taking
the matter before a judge. More than one-fifth
(22%) of all delinquency cases in 1994 were
dismissed at intake, often for lack of legal
sufficiency. Another 23% were processed informally,
with the juvenile agreeing to a voluntary
disposition (for example, probation). More than
half (55%) of delinquency cases in 1994 were
processed formally and involved either an
adjudicatory hearing or a hearing to consider
transferring jurisdiction to the criminal (adult)
court.

Transfer to Criminal Court 

During a transfer (or waiver) hearing, a juvenile
court judge is asked to waive jurisdiction over a
matter and transfer the case to criminal court so
that the juvenile may be tried as an adult.
Transfer decisions are based on a number of
factors, including the seriousness of the offense,
the juvenile's prior record, and amenability to
treatment. In 1994 juvenile court judges
transferred 12,300 delinquency cases. Transfers
increased 71% between 1985 and 1994. Of the cases
transferred in 1994, 44% involved a person offense
as the most serious charge, 37% involved a property
offense, and 11% involved a drug law violation.
Thus person offense cases, which made up 2.7% of
all formally processed cases, were most likely to
be transferred.

Adjudication and Disposition 

Adjudicatory hearings are used to establish
responsibility for an alleged delinquent act
(analogous to determining guilt or innocence) and
to decide whether to place a juvenile under court
supervision. In 1994 juveniles were adjudicated in
more than half (58%) of the 855,200 cases brought
before a judge. Once adjudicated, juveniles in the
majority of cases (53%) were placed on formal
probation, while in 29% of the cases the juvenile
was placed out of the home in a residential
facility. Fifteen percent resulted in other
dispositions, such as referral to an outside
agency, community service, or restitution. Between
1985 and 1994, the number of cases in which the
court ordered an adjudicated delinquent to be
placed in a residential facility increased 51%,
while the number of formal probation cases
increased 41%.

Gender 

Nearly four of every five (79%) delinquency cases
involved a male juvenile in 1994, which was
slightly less than in 1985 (81%). Males accounted
for 77% of person offense cases, 79% of property
offense cases, and 86% of drug law violations in
1994.

Age 

Sixty-one percent of the juvenile delinquency cases
processed in 1994 involved a juvenile under 16
years of age, compared with 60% in 1985. In 1994
juveniles under age 16 were responsible for 64% of
all person offense cases, 64% of all property
offense cases, and 42% of drug law violation cases.

Race 

In 1994 approximately 80% of the juvenile
population was white and 15% was black. Black
juveniles, however, were involved in 32% of the
delinquency cases handled by U.S. juvenile courts.
White juveniles were involved in 64%, and youth of
other races accounted for 4% of all cases. Black
juveniles were involved in 40% of person offense
cases, 28% of property offenses, and 37% of drug
law violation cases.

For More Information

This Fact Sheet is based on the forthcoming report,
Juvenile Court Statistics 1994. Copies of the
report will be available from OJJDP's Juvenile
Justice Clearinghouse by calling 800-638-8736.
OJJDP also supports the distribution of a
PC-compatible software version of the data files in
Juvenile Court Statistics. The easy-to-use software
can supplement educational and research programs.
For a copy of the software, Easy Access to Juvenile
Court Statistics 1990-1994, write to the National
Juvenile Court Data Archive project at the Center
for Juvenile Justice, 710 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh,
PA 15219, or call 412-227-6950.

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Jeffrey Butts is Project Manager of the National
Juvenile Court Data Archive. The work was supported
by an OJJDP grant. Joseph Moone, Social Science
Program Specialist in OJJDP's Research and Program
Development Division, served as the Program
Manager.

FS-9647