MENU TITLE: Juvenile Court Statistics 1993: Methods and Glossary.
Series: OJJDP
Published: June 1996
15 pages
36,121 bytes

METHODS

Juvenile Court Statistics (JCS) utilizes data
provided to the National Juvenile Court Data
Archive by State and county agencies responsible
for collecting and/or disseminating information on
the processing of youth in juvenile courts. These
data are not the result of a uniform data
collection effort. They are not derived from a
complete census of juvenile courts or obtained from
a probability sample of courts. The national
estimates presented in this report are developed
using compatible information from all courts that
are able to provide data to the Archive.
 
SOURCES OF DATA

The Archive collects data in two forms: court-level
aggregate statistics and case-level data. Court-
level aggregate statistics are either abstracted
from the annual reports of State and local courts
or are contributed directly to the Archive. Court-
level statistics provide counts of the delinquency
and status offense cases handled by courts in a
defined time period (calendar or fiscal year). 

Case-level data are usually generated by the
automated client-tracking systems or case-reporting
systems managed by juvenile courts or other
juvenile justice agencies. These systems provide
detailed data on the characteristics of each
delinquency and status offense case handled by
courts, generally including the age, sex, and race
of the youth referred; the date and source of
referral; offenses charged; detention; petitioning;
and the date and type of disposition. 

The structure of each case-level data set
contributed to the Archive is unique, having been
designed to meet the informational needs of a
particular jurisdiction. Archive staff study the
structure and content of each data set in order to
design an automated restructuring procedure that
will transform each jurisdiction's data into a
common case-level format. 

The aggregation of these standardized case-level
data files constitutes the Archive's national case-
level data base. The compiled data from
jurisdictions that contribute only court-level
statistics constitutes the national court-level
data base. Together, these two multijurisdictional
data bases are used to generate the Archive's
national estimates of delinquency and status
offense cases. 

Each year, juvenile courts with jurisdiction over
more than 95% of the U.S. juvenile population
contribute either case-level data or court-level
aggregate statistics to the Archive. However, not
all of this information can be used to generate the
national estimates contained in JSC. To be used in
the development of national estimates, the data
must be in a compatible unit of count (i.e., case
disposed), the data source must demonstrate a
pattern of consistent reporting over time (at least
2 years), and the data file contributed to the
Archive must represent a complete count of
delinquency and/or status offense cases disposed in
a jurisdiction during a given year. 

In 1993, case-level data describing 689,505
delinquency cases handled by 1,375 jurisdictions in
26 States met the Archive's criteria for inclusion
in the development of national estimates.
Compatible data were available from Alabama,
Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut,
Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York,
North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia,
West Virginia, and Wisconsin. These courts had
jurisdiction over 49.3% of the Nation's juvenile
population in 1993. An additional 443 jurisdictions
in 5 States (Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Vermont, and
Washington) and the District of Columbia reported
compatible court-level aggregate statistics on an
additional 207,997 delinquency cases. In all, the
Archive received compatible case-level data and
court-level statistics on delinquency cases from
1,818 jurisdictions containing 66.8% of the
Nation's juvenile population in 1993.

Case-level data describing 56,599 formally-handled
status offense cases from 1,459 jurisdictions in 25
States met the estimation criteria for 1993. The
contributing States were Alabama, Arizona,
Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii,
Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri,
Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota,
Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia,
and Wisconsin. These courts had jurisdiction over
48.9% of the juvenile population. An additional 430
jurisdictions in 4 States (Idaho, Illinois,
Indiana, and Washington) and the District of
Columbia reported compatible court-level aggregate
statistics on 11,600 petitioned status offense
cases. Altogether, compatible case-level and court-
level data on petitioned status offense cases were
available from 1,889 jurisdictions containing 66.4%
of the U.S. juvenile population.
 
YOUTH POPULATION AT RISK

The volume and characteristics of juvenile court
caseloads are partly a function of the size and
demographic composition of a jurisdiction's
population. Therefore, a critical element in the
Archive's development of national estimates is the
population of youth that generate the juvenile
court referrals in each jurisdiction -- i.e., the
"youth at risk" or "juvenile" population of every
U.S. county. 

A survey of the Archive's case-level data shows
that very few delinquency or status offense cases
involve youth under the age of 10. Therefore, the
lower age limit of the youth population at risk is
set at 10 years for all jurisdictions. On the other
hand, the upper age limit varies by State. Every
State defines an upper age limit for youth who will
come under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court
if they commit an illegal act. (See "Upper Age of
Jurisdiction" in the Glossary of Terms.) Most
States define this age to be 17 years, although
some States have set the age at 15 or 16 years.
States often enact exceptions to this simple age
criterion (e.g., youthful offender legislation,
concurrent jurisdiction or extended jurisdiction
provisions). In general, however, juvenile courts
have responsibility for all law violations
committed by youth at or below the upper age of
original jurisdiction. 

For the purposes of this report, therefore, the
youth population at risk is defined as the number
of youth living in a jurisdiction who are at least
10 years old but who are not older than the upper
age of original juvenile court jurisdiction. For
example, in New York, where the upper age of
juvenile court jurisdiction is 15, the youth
population at risk is the number of youth residing
in a county who are between the ages of 10 and 15. 

The youth-population-at-risk estimates used in this
report were developed by using data from the 1990
Census of Population and Housing, county-level
intercensal estimates for 1986-1989 and 1991, and
State-level estimates for 1992 and 1993.[1] County-
level estimates for 1993 were developed by using
regression analysis to project each county's 1993
population based on its population during the
period from 1986 to 1992, and then adjusting each
county's estimate proportionally so that the sum of
all counties in a State equaled the 1993 State-
level estimates developed by the U.S. Bureau of the
Census. The resulting estimates, separated into
single-year age groups, contain the number of
whites, blacks, and individuals of other races who
reside in each county in the Nation and who are
between the ages of 10 and the upper age of
original juvenile court jurisdiction.[2] 

ESTIMATION PROCEDURE 

National estimates are developed by using the
national case-level data base, the national court-
level data base, and the Archive's youth-
population-at-risk estimates for every U.S. county.
"County" was selected as the unit of aggregation
because (1) most juvenile court jurisdictions in
the United States are concurrent with county
boundaries, (2) most data contributed by juvenile
courts include the county in which the case was
handled, and (3) youth population estimates can be
developed at the county level.[3]

The Archive's national estimates are generated by
analyzing the data obtained from its nonprobability
sample of juvenile courts and then weighting
(multiplying) those cases to represent the number
of cases handled by juvenile courts nationwide. The
Archive employs an elaborate multivariate weighting
procedure that adjusts for a number of factors
related to juvenile court caseloads -- i.e., the
court's jurisdictional responsibilities (upper
age); the size and demographic composition of the
community; the age, sex, and race profile of the
youth involved in juvenile court cases; and the
offenses charged against the youth. 

The basic assumption underlying the estimation
procedure is that similar legal and demographic
factors shape the volume and characteristics of
cases in reporting and nonreporting counties of
comparable size and features. The estimation
procedure develops independent estimates for the
number of petitioned delinquency cases, the number
of nonpetitioned delinquency cases, and the number
of petitioned status offense cases handled by
juvenile courts nationwide. Identical procedures
are used to develop all case estimates. 

The first step in the estimation procedure is to
place all U.S. counties into one of four strata
based on the population of youth between the ages
of 10 and 17. The lower and upper population limits
of the four strata are defined each year so that
each stratum contains one-quarter of the national
population of youth between the ages of 10 and 17.
In each of the four strata, the Archive determines
the number of at-risk youth in three age groups:
10- through 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds, and 17-
year-olds. The three age groups are further
subdivided into three racial groups -- white,
black, and other. Thus, youth-at-risk population
estimates are developed for nine age-by-race
categories in each stratum of counties. 

The next step is to identify the jurisdictions
within each stratum that contributed case-level
data to the Archive consistent with JCS reporting
requirements. The national case-level data base is
summarized to determine the number of court cases
within each stratum that involved youth in each of
the nine age/race population groups. Case rates
(number of cases per 1,000 youth at risk) are
developed for the nine age/race groups within each
of the four strata. 

For example, in 1993 a total of 2,659,000 white
youth between the ages of 10 and 15 resided in the
Stratum 4 counties that reported 1993 case-level
data to the Archive. The Archive's case-level data
base showed that the juvenile courts in these
counties handled 43,781 petitioned delinquency
cases involving white youth between the ages of 10
and 15. Thus, in Stratum 4 the number of cases per
1,000 white youth ages 10 through 15 in the
population was 16.5, or: 43,781/2,659,000 (1,000) =
16.5.

Comparable analyses established that the 1993
Stratum 4 case rate for black youth between the
ages of 10 and 15 was 50.4 cases per 1,000 youth at
risk and that the case rate for 10- through 15-
year-olds of other races was 7.3 cases per 1,000 at
risk.

Next, information contained in the national court-
level data base is introduced, and case rates are
adjusted accordingly. First, each court-level
statistic is disaggregated into the nine age/race
groups. This separation is accomplished by assuming
that for each jurisdiction, the relationships among
the stratum's nine age/race case rates (developed
using the case-level data) are paralleled in the
aggregate statistic. 

For example, assume that a jurisdiction in Stratum
4 with an upper age of 15 reported processing 600
cases in 1993 and that this jurisdiction had a
population-at-risk of 12,000 white youth, 6,000
black youth, and 2,000 youth of other races. The
Stratum 4 case rates for white, black, and other
race youth between the ages of 10 and 15 would be
multiplied by the corresponding population to
develop estimates of the proportion of the court's
caseload that came from each age/race group. The
jurisdiction's total caseload of 600 would then be
allocated based on these proportions. In this
example, 40.7% of all cases reported in the
jurisdiction's aggregate statistics involved white
youth, 56.3% involved black youth, and the
remaining 3.0% involved youth of other races. When
these proportions are applied to a reported
aggregate statistic of 600 cases, this jurisdiction
is estimated to have handled 244 white youth, 338
black youth, and 18 youth of other races age 15 or
younger. The same method is used to develop case
counts for all nine age/race groups for each
jurisdiction reporting only aggregate court-level
statistics. 

The disaggregated court-level counts are added to
the counts developed from case-level data to
produce an estimate of the number of cases
involving each of the nine age/race groups handled
by reporting courts in each of the four strata. The
population-at-risk figures for the entire sample
are also compiled. Together, the case counts and
the population-at-risk figures are used to generate
a revised set of case rates for each of the nine
age/race groups within the four strata.
 
Stratum estimates for the total number of cases
involving each age/race group are then calculated
by multiplying the revised case rate for each of
the nine age/race groups in a stratum by the
corresponding youth population at risk in all
counties belonging to that stratum (both reporting
and nonreporting). 

Having calculated the national estimate for the
total number of cases in each age/race group in
each stratum, the next step is to generate
estimates of their case characteristics. This
estimate is accomplished by weighting the
individual case-level records stored in the
Archive's national case-level data base. For
example, assume that the Archive generates an
estimate of 30,000 petitioned delinquency cases
involving white 16-year-olds from Stratum 4
juvenile courts. Assume also that the national
case-level data base for that year contained 18,000
petitioned delinquency cases involving white 16-
year-olds from Stratum 4 counties. In the Archive's
national estimation data base, each Stratum 4
petitioned delinquency case that involved a white
16-year-old would be weighted by 1.67, because:
30,000/18,000 = 1.67.

The final step in the estimation procedure is to
impute missing data on individual case records.
Table A-3 indicates the standardized data elements
that were available from each jurisdiction's 1993
data set. The procedures to adjust for missing data
assume that case records with missing data are
similar in structure to those without missing data.
For example, assume that among cases from a
particular stratum detention information was
missing on 100 cases involving 16-year-old white
males who were petitioned to court, adjudicated for
a property offense, and then placed on probation.
If similar cases from the same stratum showed that
20% of these cases involved detention, then it
would be assumed that 20% of the 100 cases missing
detention information also involved detention.
Thus, missing data are imputed within each stratum
by reviewing the characteristics of cases with
similar case attributes (i.e., age, sex, and race
of the youth; offense charged; and the court's
detention, petition, adjudication, and disposition
decisions).  

More detailed information about the Archive's
national estimation methodology is available upon
request from the National Center for Juvenile
Justice. 

-------------------------------

NOTES

1. Sources:

1980-1989 Preliminary Estimates of the Population
of Counties by Age, Sex, and Race. U.S. Bureau of
the Census.

1990 Census of Population and Housing: Modified
Age/Race, Sex and Hispanic Origin (MARS), State and
County File. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the
Census. 1992.

Estimates of the Population of Counties by Age,
Sex, and Race: 1991. Unpublished data, U.S. Bureau
of the Census.

Resident Population of States 1990-1993 by Single
Year of Age and Sex. Unpublished data, U.S. Bureau
of the Census.

2. "Other races" are Asians, Native Americans, and
Pacific Islanders. Most individuals of Hispanic
ancestry are coded as white.

3. The only information used in this report that
cannot be aggregated by county is data contributed
by the Florida Department of Health and
Rehabilitative Services (HRS), which identifies
only the HRS district in which each case is
handled. To utilize the HRS data, the aggregation
criterion is relaxed to include 11 HRS districts.
In 1993, there were 3,141 counties in the United
States. By replacing Florida's 67 counties with 11
HRS districts, the total number of aggregation
units for this report becomes 3,085. Therefore,
while the report uses the term "county" to describe
its aggregation unit, the reader should be aware of
the exception introduced by the use of Florida's
HRS data.

-------------------------------

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

Adjudicated: Judicial determination (judgment) that
a youth is a delinquent or status offender. 

Age: Age at the time of referral to juvenile court.

Case Rate: Number of cases disposed per 1,000 youth
at risk. The population base used to calculate the
case rate varies. For example, the population base
for the male case rate is the total number of male
youth age 10 or older who are under the
jurisdiction of the juvenile courts. (See Youth
Population at Risk.) 

Delinquency: Acts or conduct in violation of
criminal law. (See Reason for Referral.)

Delinquent Act: An act committed by a juvenile
which would require an adult to be prosecuted in a
criminal court. Because the act is committed by a
juvenile, it falls within the jurisdiction of the
juvenile court. Delinquent acts include crimes
against persons, crimes against property, drug
offenses, and crimes against public order.

Dependency Case: Those cases covering neglect or
inadequate care on the part of parents or
guardians, such as abandonment or desertion; abuse
or cruel treatment; improper or inadequate
conditions in the home; and insufficient care or
support resulting from death, absence, or physical
or mental incapacity of the parents.

Detention: The placement of a youth in a
restrictive facility between referral to court and
case disposition. 

Disposition: Definite action taken or treatment
plan decided on regarding a particular case. Case
dispositions are coded into the following
categories: 

o Transfer to Criminal Court -- Cases that were
waived to a criminal court because of a waiver or
transfer hearing in the juvenile court. 

o Placement -- Cases in which youth were placed in
a residential facility for delinquents or status
offenders or cases in which youth were otherwise
removed from their homes and placed elsewhere.

o Probation -- Cases in which youth were placed on
informal/voluntary or formal/court-ordered
supervision. 

o Dismissed -- Cases dismissed (including those
warned, counseled, and released) with no further
disposition anticipated. Among cases handled
informally (see Manner of Handling), some cases may
be dismissed by the juvenile court because the
matter is being handled in criminal court. 

o Other -- Miscellaneous dispositions not included
above. These dispositions include fines,
restitution, community service, referrals outside
the court for services with minimal or no further
court involvement anticipated, and dispositions
coded as "other" in a jurisdiction's original data.

Formal Handling: See Manner of Handling.

Informal Handling: See Manner of Handling.

Intake Decision: The decision made by juvenile
court intake that results in either the case being
handled informally at the intake level or being
petitioned and scheduled for an adjudicatory or
transfer hearing.

Judicial Decision: The decision made in response to
a petition that asks the court to adjudicate or
transfer the youth. This decision is generally made
by a juvenile court judge or referee.

Judicial Disposition: The disposition rendered in a
case after the judicial decision has been made. 

Juvenile: Youth at or below the upper age of
juvenile court jurisdiction. (See Upper Age of
Jurisdiction and Youth Population at Risk.)

Juvenile Court: Any court that has jurisdiction
over matters involving juveniles. 

Manner of Handling: A general classification of
case processing within the court system. Petitioned
(formally handled) cases are those that appear on
the official court calendar in response to the
filing of a petition, complaint, or other legal
instrument requesting the court to adjudicate a
youth as a delinquent, status offender, or
dependent child, or to transfer a youth to adult
court. In nonpetitioned (informally handled) cases,
duly authorized court personnel screen the case
prior to the filing of a formal petition. Such
personnel include judges, referees, probation
officers, other officers of the court, and/or
agencies statutorily designated to conduct petition
screening for the juvenile court. 

Nonpetitioned Case: See Manner of Handling. 

Petition: A document filed in juvenile court
alleging that a juvenile is a delinquent or a
status offender and asking that the court assume
jurisdiction over the juvenile or that an alleged
delinquent be transferred to criminal court for
prosecution as an adult. 

Petitioned Case: See Manner of Handling. 

Race: The race of the youth referred as determined
by the youth or by court personnel. 

o White -- A person having origins in any of the
indigenous peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the
Middle East. (In both the population and court
data, nearly all Hispanics were included in the
white racial category.)

o Black -- A person having origins in any of the
black racial groups of Africa.

o Other -- A person having origins in any of the
indigenous peoples of North America, the Far East,
Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, or the
Pacific Islands.

Reason for Referral: The most serious offense for
which the youth was referred to court intake.
Attempts to commit an offense were included under
that offense, except attempted murder, which was
included in the aggravated assault category.

o Crimes Against Persons -- Includes criminal
homicide, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated
assault, simple assault, and other person offenses
as defined below. 

oo Criminal Homicide -- Causing the death of
another person without legal justification or
excuse. Criminal homicide is a summary category,
not a single codified offense. In law, the term
embraces all homicides in which the perpetrator
intentionally kills someone without legal
justification or accidentally kills someone as a
consequence of reckless or grossly negligent
conduct. It includes all conduct encompassed by the
terms murder, nonnegligent (voluntary)
manslaughter, negligent (involuntary) manslaughter,
and vehicular manslaughter. The term is broader
than the Index Crime category used in the Federal
Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) Uniform Crime
Reports (UCR) in which murder/nonnegligent
manslaughter does not include negligent
manslaughter or vehicular manslaughter.

oo Forcible Rape -- Sexual intercourse or attempted
sexual intercourse with a female against her will
by force or threat of force. The term is used in
the same sense as in the UCR Crime Index. Some
States have enacted gender-neutral rape or sexual
assault statutes that prohibit forced sexual
penetration of either sex. Data reported by such
States do not distinguish between forcible rape of
females as defined above and other sexual assaults.
(Other violent sex offenses are contained in Other
Offenses Against Persons.)

oo Robbery -- Unlawful taking or attempted taking
of property that is in the immediate possession of
another by force or threat of force. The term is
used in the same sense as in the UCR Crime Index
and includes forcible purse snatching.

oo Assault -- Unlawful intentional infliction, or
attempted or threatened infliction, of injury upon
the person of another.

oo Aggravated Assault -- Unlawful intentional
infliction of serious bodily injury or unlawful
threat or attempt to inflict bodily injury or death
by means of a deadly or dangerous weapon with or
without actual infliction of any injury. The term
is used in the same sense as in the UCR Crime
Index. It includes conduct encompassed under the
statutory names aggravated assault and battery,
aggravated battery, assault with intent to kill,
assault with intent to commit murder or
manslaughter, atrocious assault, attempted murder,
felonious assault, and assault with a deadly
weapon.

oo Simple Assault -- Unlawful intentional
infliction or attempted or threatened infliction of
less than serious bodily injury without a deadly or
dangerous weapon. The term is used in the same
sense as in UCR reporting. Simple assault is not
often distinctly named in statutes because it
consists of all assaults not explicitly named and
defined as serious. Unspecified assaults are
contained in Other Offenses Against Persons. 

oo Other Offenses Against Persons -- Includes
kidnaping, violent sex acts other than forcible
rape (e.g., incest, sodomy), custody interference,
unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, reckless
endangerment, harassment, and attempts to commit
any such acts.

o Crimes Against Property -- Includes burglary,
larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson, vandalism,
stolen property offenses, trespassing, and other
property offenses as defined below. 

oo Burglary -- Unlawful entry or attempted entry of
any fixed structure, vehicle, or vessel used for
regular residence, industry, or business, with or
without force, with intent to commit a felony or
larceny. The term is used in the same sense as in
the UCR Crime Index.

oo Larceny -- Unlawful taking or attempted taking
of property (other than a motor vehicle) from the
possession of another by stealth, without force and
without deceit, with intent to permanently deprive
the owner of the property. This term is used in the
same sense as in the UCR Crime Index. It includes
shoplifting and purse snatching without force.

oo Motor Vehicle Theft -- Unlawful taking or
attempted taking of a self-propelled road vehicle
owned by another with the intent to deprive the
owner of it permanently or temporarily. The term is
used in the same sense as in the UCR Crime Index.
It includes joyriding or unauthorized use of a
motor vehicle as well as grand theft auto.

oo Arson -- Intentional damage or destruction by
means of fire or explosion of the property of
another without the owner's consent or of any
property with intent to defraud or attempting the
above acts. The term is used in the same sense as
in the UCR Crime Index.

oo Vandalism -- Destroying, damaging, or attempting
to destroy or damage public property or the
property of another without the owner's consent,
except by burning.

oo Stolen Property Offenses -- Unlawfully and
knowingly receiving, buying, or possessing stolen
property or attempting any of the above. The term
is used in the same sense as the UCR category
"stolen property; buying, receiving, possessing."

oo Trespassing -- Unlawful entry or attempted entry
of the property of another with the intent to
commit a misdemeanor other than larceny or without
intent to commit a crime.

oo Other Property Offenses -- Includes extortion
and all fraud offenses, such as forgery,
counterfeiting, embezzlement, check or credit card
fraud, and attempts to commit any such offenses.

o Drug Law Violations -- Includes unlawful sale,
purchase, distribution, manufacture, cultivation,
transport, possession, or use of a controlled or
prohibited substance or drug or drug paraphernalia
or attempt to commit these acts. Sniffing of glue,
paint, gasoline, and other inhalants is also
included. Hence, the term is broader than the UCR
category "drug abuse violations."

o Offenses Against Public Order -- Includes weapons
offenses; nonviolent sex offenses; liquor law
violations, not status; disorderly conduct;
obstruction of justice; and other offenses against
public order as defined below.

oo Weapons Offenses -- Unlawful sale, distribution,
manufacture, alteration, transportation,
possession, or use of a deadly or dangerous weapon
or accessory or attempt to commit any of these
acts. The term is used in the same sense as the UCR
category "weapons; carrying, possessing, etc."

oo Sex Offenses -- All offenses having a sexual
element not involving violence. The term combines
the meaning of the UCR categories "prostitution and
commercialized vice" and "sex offenses." It
includes offenses such as statutory rape, indecent
exposure, prostitution, solicitation, pimping,
lewdness, fornication, and adultery.

oo Liquor Law Violations, Not Status -- Being in a
public place while intoxicated through consumption
of alcohol or intake of a controlled substance or
drug. It includes public intoxication, drunkenness,
and other liquor law violations. It does not
include driving under the influence. The term is
used in the same sense as the UCR category of the
same name. Some States treat public drunkenness of
juveniles as a status offense rather than
delinquency. Hence, some of these offenses may
appear under the status offense code status liquor
law violations. (When a person who is publicly
intoxicated performs acts that cause a disturbance,
he or she may be charged with disorderly conduct.)

oo Disorderly Conduct -- Unlawful interruption of
the peace, quiet, or order of a community,
including offenses called disturbing the peace,
vagrancy, loitering, unlawful assembly, and riot.

oo Obstruction of Justice -- Intentionally
obstructing court or law enforcement efforts in the
administration of justice, acting in a way
calculated to lessen the authority or dignity of
the court, failing to obey the lawful order of a
court, and violating probation or parole, other
than technical violations that do not consist of
committing a crime or are not prosecuted as such.
It includes contempt, perjury, obstruction of
justice, bribery of witnesses, failure to report a
crime, and nonviolent resistance of arrest.

oo Other Offenses Against Public Order -- Other
offenses against government administration or
regulation --  e.g., escape from confinement;
bribery; gambling, fish and game, hitchhiking, and
health violations; false fire alarms; and
immigration violations. 

o Status Offenses -- Includes acts or types of
conduct that are offenses only when committed or
engaged in by a juvenile and that can be
adjudicated only by a juvenile court. Although
State statutes defining status offenses vary and
some States may classify cases involving these
offenses as dependency cases, for the purposes of
this report the following types of offenses were
classified as status offenses:

oo Runaway -- Leaving the custody and home of
parents, guardians, or custodians without
permission and failing to return within a
reasonable length of time in violation of a statute
regulating the conduct of youth.

oo Truancy -- Violation of a compulsory school
attendance law.

oo Ungovernability -- Being beyond the control of
parents, guardians, or custodians or being
disobedient of parental authority. It is referred
to in various juvenile codes as unruly,
unmanageable, and incorrigible.

oo Status Liquor Law Violations -- Violation of
laws regulating the possession, purchase, or
consumption of liquor by minors. Some States treat
consumption of alcohol and public drunkenness of
juveniles as a status offense rather than
delinquency. Hence, some of these offenses may
appear under this status offense code.

oo Miscellaneous Status Offenses -- Numerous status
offenses not included above (e.g., tobacco
violation, curfew violation, and violation of a
court order in a status offense proceeding) and
those offenses coded as "other" in a jurisdiction's
original data.

o Dependency Offenses -- Includes actions that come
to the attention of a juvenile court involving
neglect or inadequate care of minors on the part of
the parents or guardians, such as abandonment or
desertion; abuse or cruel treatment; improper or
inadequate conditions in the home; and insufficient
care or support resulting from death, absence, or
physical or mental incapacity of the parents.

Offenses may also be grouped into categories
commonly used in the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.
These groupings are:

o Crime Index -- Includes all offenses contained
within the Violent Crime and Property Crime
categories defined below.

oo Violent Crime Index -- Includes the offenses of
murder/nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape,
robbery, and aggravated assault.

oo Property Crime Index -- Includes the offenses of
burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and
arson.

Source of Referral: The agency or individual filing
a complaint with intake that initiates court
processing.

o Law Enforcement Agency -- Includes metropolitan
police, State police, park police, sheriffs,
constables, police assigned to the juvenile court
for special duty, and all others performing a
police function, with the exception of probation
officers and officers of the court.

o Other -- Includes the youth's own parents, foster
parents, adoptive parents, stepparents,
grandparents, aunts, uncles, other legal guardians,
counselors, teachers, principals, attendance
officers, social agencies, district attorneys,
probation officers, victims, other private
citizens, and miscellaneous sources of referral
that are often only defined by the code other in
the original data.

Status Offense: Behavior that is considered an
offense only when committed by a juvenile (e.g.,
running away from home). (See Reason for Referral.)

Unit of Count: A case disposed by a court with
juvenile jurisdiction during the calendar year.
Each case represents a youth referred to the
juvenile court for a new referral for one or more
offenses. (See Reason for Referral.) The term
disposed means that during the year some definite
action was taken or some treatment plan was decided
on or initiated. (See Disposition.) Under this
definition, a youth could be involved in more than
one case during a calendar year. 

Upper Age of Jurisdiction: The oldest age at which
a juvenile court has original jurisdiction over an
individual for law-violating behavior. For the time
period covered by this report, the upper age of
jurisdiction was 15 in three States (Connecticut,
New York, and North Carolina), and 16 in eight
States (Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, South Carolina,
and Texas). In the remaining States and the
District of Columbia, the upper age of jurisdiction
was 17. While the upper age of jurisdiction is
commonly recognized in all States, there are
numerous exceptions (e.g., concurrent jurisdiction,
legislative exclusion, continuing jurisdiction). 

Youth Population at Risk: For delinquency and
status offense matters, the youth population at
risk is defined as the number of children between
the ages of 10 and the upper age of jurisdiction.
For dependency matters, it is defined as the number
of children at or below the upper age of
jurisdiction. Thus, when the upper age of
jurisdiction is 17, the delinquency and status
offense youth population at risk is equal to the
number of children between the ages of 10 and 17
living within the geographical area serviced by the
court. (See Upper Age of Jurisdiction.)