National Juvenile Court Data Archive

This project contains a research and/or development component, as defined in applicable law. This program furthers the Department’s mission to promote public safety by collecting and analyzing the United States’ only national information about juvenile court case processing of delinquency and status offenses.

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 are based on data from more than 2,400 courts with jurisdiction over 86 percent of the juvenile population. Over the course of the 3-year project 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 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 publishing the Juvenile Court Statistics reports and other publications, preparing data for OJJDP's online Statistical Briefing Book, maintaining the Archive's website that facilitates researchers' use of the Archive files, and responding to information requests. Juvenile court 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.

CA/NCF