This dataset represents the total number of delinquency dispositions processed by Pennsylvania juvenile courts in 2018. A disposition is defined as an allegation of delinquency disposed of by the juvenile probation department and/or the court.
This dataset is contained within the Juvenile Court Judges' Commission’s Calendar Year (CY) 2018 Juvenile Court Annual Report; this report provides an overview of Pennsylvania juvenile court statistics, during 2018, to measure and quantify work across the state by juvenile justice professionals. In Pennsylvania, juvenile court jurisdiction extends over individuals who have been alleged to have committed a delinquent act, as defined by 42.
Pa. C. S. § 6301 et seq., on or after their tenth birthday and prior to reaching eighteen years of age. Juvenile court supervision can extend until the individual is twenty-one years of age if the individual is currently under supervision. Age for purposes of this section was calculated from the juvenile’s date of birth to the date of the offense in the written allegation. Any one youth may be involved in a number of dispositions within a calendar year containing multiple allegations.
There were 22,023 delinquency dispositions in Pennsylvania during 2018. This represents a 1.3% decrease from 2017 and a 13.4% decrease since 2014. Allegheny County reported a decrease of 17.0% from 2017 to 2018, and Philadelphia County reported a 5.9% decrease for this time period. One-third of the total dispositions occurred in the four jurisdictions reporting more than 1,000 dispositions; these jurisdictions include Philadelphia, Allegheny, York, and Delaware.
