Delinquency Case Rate Trends

Drug offense case rates increased for all racial groups during the 1990s, but the increase was greatest for black juveniles.

Delinquency Case Rates for Drug Offenses by Race, 1985-2010

Delinquency Case Rates for Drug Offenses by Race

Note: Rates are cases per 1,000 youth ages 10-upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction.

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The drug offense case rate for black youth increased sharply from 1985 to 1989, leveled off, then increased again to reach a peak in 1996--252% above the rate in 1985. After this peak, the rate declined through 2002 (down 39% from the 1996 peak), rose again through 2007, and then fell 48% by 2010.
Trends in drug offense case rates for white, Asian/NHPI, and American Indian youths followed a similar pattern between 1985 and the early 1990s, during which time rates declined 37% or more for each race group. By 2010, the rate for white juveniles was more than 3 times higher than the rate in 1991, and the rate for American Indian juveniles and Asian/NHPI juveniles were more than twice the rates than their low points.
The black-white disparity in drug offense case rates reached a peak in 1991, when the rate for black youth was 4.8 times the rate for white youth. The decline in the rate for black youth since the mid-1990s, coupled with the growth in the rate for white youth, reduced the black-white disparity to 1.3 in 2010.

Internet Citation: OJJDP Statistical Briefing Book. Online. Available:
http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/court/JCSCR_Display.asp?ID=qa06253. April 17, 2013.

Adapted from Juvenile Court Statistics 2009. Forthcoming. Pittsburgh, PA: National Center for Juvenile Justice.