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Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Court, 2002 |
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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: The number of delinquency cases handled by juvenile courts has increased 41% since 1985. However, between 1997 and 2002, the nation's juvenile court delinquency caseload decreased 11%. During this time, the number of person offense cases decreased 2%, property offense cases decreased 27%, drug law violation cases increased 1%, and public order offense cases increased 7%. Between 1985 and 2002, the growth in cases involving females outpaced the growth in cases involving males in all offense categories. In the public order offense category, the greatest increase for males was in cases involving obstruction of justice (169%); for females, it was disorderly conduct (241%). Fifty-eight percent of the delinquency cases processed in 2002 involved a juvenile younger than 16 at referral, compared with 60% in 1990. In 2002, juveniles younger than 16 were responsible for 64% (249,800) of person offense cases, 60% (376,200) of property offense cases, 41% (80,100) of drug law violation cases, 0 These estimates are based on data from more than 2,100 courts with jurisdiction over more than 75% of the U.S. juvenile and 55% (224,300) of public order offense cases. In this Fact Sheet, each case represents one youth processed by a juvenile court on a new referral, regardless of the Race number of individual offenses contained in that referral.
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