The juvenile court system differs significantly from the adult criminal court system, although the differences are shrinking. In this section of the course, we will examine the characteristics of juvenile court processing and consider the origins of the juvenile court. The flowchart included on the course web page outlines the basic processes involved in the juvenile court system. In this assignment, you will follow delinquency cases through the system in four different years.

All these steps take less time than it may appear from the following instructions.

1. Open Easy Access at this address: http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/ojstatbb/ezajcs/ You will want to refer back to the glossary on this page for defintions of the various categories included in your analysis.
2. Click on <Delinquency Cases>
3. <Year of Dispostion> should already be selected as the row variable in the box on the upper left of the screeen. If it is not, use the drop-down menu to select it.
4. Restrict your analysis to 1985, 1990, 1995 and 2000, by checking the appropriate boxes.
5. Restrict your analysis to one of the referral offenses by checking the appropriate box .
6. Using the flowchart as a guide and the glossary included on the Easy Access home page, follow the referral offense sequentially through the juvenile justice process in each year. (This analysis will not be perfect, because the categories overlap to some degree. A case would be waived to adult court prior to an adjudication hearing by the juvenile court. However, <waived> is a disposition category in this data set and is combined with outcomes of adjudication. Similarly, a case may be dismissed at any point in the process, but <released> is also included as a disposition category.) Follow the referral offense by crosstabulating <Year of Disposition> as the row variable and a variable representing a stage in the process as the column variable. For example, first produce the following table by selecting <Detention> as your column variable. After making this selectin click on <Show Table> and then click on <Row Percent>. The result will be a table that has the following format. (After you record the row percentages from a table, click on <Selection Page> to create a new table.)

Year of Disposition	Detained	Not Detained
1985	Row Percent	Row Percent
1990	Row Percent	Row Percent
1995	Row Percent	Row Percent
2000	Row Percent	Row Percent



7. Create a table for each stage in the in juvenile justice process recording the data as you go through. Then create a single table from the several tables you produce to represent the flow of these cases through the juvenile court process in the three different years for this offense. Any variable with only two categories will require only one column for that variable. (Please do not print out each table--this will use too much paper. Record the information by hand as you go and then create your single table to attach to your paper.)
8. Repeat this process for a different referral offense. Create one table to show your results.
9. Next look at the flow of cases in 2000 for one your first referral offenses for two different age groups. You will have repeat the process twice, once for each age group. Leave <Year of Dispostion> as the row variable. Select the appropriate referral offense. Select those 15 and under by checking the appropriate boxes. Then produce tables for each variable of the juvenile court process. (There will be only one row in each table—for 2000.) Next select those over 15 by clicking the appropriate boxes and produce the same tables. Create one table to represent the flow of cases for the two age groups for this one referral offense.
10. Repeat Step Nine for your other referral offense.

1. Focus first on 2000, the last row on you first two tables. Characterize or describe the flow of the two referral offenses through the juvenile court process. Do they differ in the manner and outcome of juvenile court processing? If they do differ, in what ways do they differ and how large are the differences, in absolute and relative terms. (Differences of less than 5% essentially represent no difference, unless the percentages are very small to begin with.)
2. Focusing on the four years, have there been changes in the characteristics of juvenile court processing over time for these two offenses? If so, in what ways have they changed, and how large are the changes.
3. Now consider the third and fourth tables you constructed, the table comparing a referal offense by age. Are there differences in juvenile court processing by age for the two referral offenses? If so, what are the differences and how large are they?

Report the results of your analysis in an efficient and thorough summary, (absolutely no more than 2 pages, double-spaced, 12 point font and one inch margins). Turn in your tables with your summary.