Overview:

In 1975, OJJDP first funded the National Juvenile Court Data Archive, which collects and analyzes data contributions from juvenile courts across the nation. (The Archive dates back to 1926 under the purview of different federal agencies.) It collects, verifies, preserves, and processes the automated records of cases that U.S. courts with juvenile jurisdiction handle and generates national estimates regarding the handling of delinquency and status offense cases.

OJJDP released the most recent competitive solicitation for the National Juvenile Court Data Archive in fiscal year 2018.

Goals and Objectives:

The National Center for Juvenile Justice of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges manages the Archive operations. The goals of the Archive are to maintain and expand the current program and to continue to provide detailed information on juvenile court case processing of delinquency and status offense cases. This analysis is designed to inform juvenile justice research and policymaking efforts.

The objectives of the Archive include:

• Collect and process juvenile court case data, which entails developing and maintaining strong relationships with the data suppliers who voluntarily contribute case-level data and court-level aggregate statistics to the Archive.
• Use and disseminate juvenile court data to assist researchers, policymakers, and the general public in their understanding of U.S. juvenile court processing and youth whose cases these courts handle.
• Provide technical assistance and training to jurisdictions to improve the quality of juvenile court case data. This effort supports the generation of more accurate national estimates on cases handled in the nation's juvenile courts.
• Improve data collection and analysis of Hispanic/Latino youth involved in the juvenile justice system.
• Improve data analysis for girls involved in the juvenile justice system.

Milestones:

The National Juvenile Court Data Archive includes national estimates of delinquency and status offense case processing through 2016.

Related Publications and Products:

The Archive issued the most recent Juvenile Court Statistics report in October 2018, which provides in-depth analysis of the delinquency and status offense cases along with OJJDP Fact Sheets and Bulletins.

The National Juvenile Court Data Archive website includes an overview of the project and related publications. It also includes a listing of available data sets and instructions for researchers on the steps required to request data files.

The Archive also prepares and transfers data for use in OJJDP's Statistical Briefing Book.

Contact Information:

Barbara Tatem Kelley, Social Science Analyst
Barbara.Kelley@usdoj.gov | 202-616-9517

Melissa Sickmund, Project Director
msickmund@ncjfcj.org | 412-246-0824
National Center for Juvenile Justice, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges