Juvenile Court Processing of Delinquency Cases, 1986-1995

• NCJ Number: 175562
• Date Published: April 1999
• Author(s): Anne L Stahl
• Length: 2 pages
• Agencies: OJJDP
• Publication Type: Statistics

Annotation

This summary of juvenile court processing of delinquency cases during 1986-95 notes that 55 percent of the estimated 1.7 million delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts in 1995 were processed formally either by a juvenile delinquency petition or by waiving the case to criminal court.

Abstract

The number of formally processed delinquency cases increased 69 percent from 554,000 to 938,000 between 1986 and 1995. The youth was adjudicated delinquent or waived to criminal court in 29 to 32 percent of the delinquency cases each year from 1986 to 1995; only 1 percent of formally processed cases were waived to criminal court in 1995. Drug cases were the most likely to result in adjudication or waiver (36 percent) in 1995; property cases were the least likely (30 percent). Figures, tables, and information sources of further statistics