National Juvenile Court Data Archive

The National Juvenile Court Data Archive’s goal is to maintain and expand the current program and continue providing detailed information on juvenile court case processing of delinquency and status offense cases to assist research and policymaking efforts. The most recent national estimates of juvenile court caseloads are based on data from more than 2,500 courts with jurisdiction over 87% of the juvenile population. This proposal requests funds for a 3-year grant period. The Archive will continue to pursue three general objectives: juvenile court data collection and processing, juvenile court data use and dissemination, and juvenile court case data quality improvement and technical assistance. Juvenile court data collection and processing involves extracting research data files from administrative data sets, creating standardized data files, producing national estimates, and documenting and preserving data. Juvenile court data use and dissemination are achieved through the Juvenile Court Statistics reports and other publications, preparing data for OJJDP’s Statistical Briefing Book, the Archive’s website that facilitates researchers’ use of Archive files, and responding to information requests. Juvenile court case data quality improvement and technical assistance are addressed through efforts to expand the sample of reporting courts, monitor data quality, provide technical assistance to state and local agencies to help them expand/improve their information systems and information sharing capabilities, and improve the national estimates.