The publication Juvenile Court Statistics 2021 describes delinquency cases and petitioned status offense cases handled between 2005 and 2021 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction.
Juvenile Court Statistics 2021 draws on data from the National Juvenile Court Data Archive to profile 437,300 delinquency cases and 51,500 petitioned status offense cases handled in 2021 by U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction. The report also tracks trends in delinquency and petitioned status cases between 2005 and 2021. The data used in this report were contributed to the Archive by nearly 2,400 courts with jurisdiction over 83% of the juvenile population in 2021. National estimates of juvenile court delinquency caseloads in 2021 were based on analyses of 299,432 automated case records and court-level statistics summarizing an additional 29,369 cases. Estimates of status offense cases formally processed by juvenile courts in 2021 were based on analyses of 32,897 automated case-level records and court-level summary statistics on an additional 2,852 cases. The data used in the analyses were contributed to the National Juvenile Court Data Archive by nearly 2,400 courts with jurisdiction over 83% of the juvenile population in 2021. Courts with juvenile jurisdiction may handle a variety of matters, including child maltreatment, traffic violations, child support, and adoptions. This report focuses on cases involving juveniles charged with law violations (delinquency or status offenses).