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Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services
Juvenile Justice System Demographics
2005 Data Coming Soon
For information, contact Dr. Aura Hanna
JJDP Act Requirements | Juvenile Justice System Demographics Database
Database Tables | Links for More Information About
Minority Overrepresentation | Contact Persons
In the ten-year period from the 1990 to the 2000 census, the Virginia population increased by about 865,000 people. The juvenile population, aged 0-17, increased by over 200,000 from 1,519,127 in 1990 to 1,738,262 in 2000, representing an increase of 14.4%. More interesting is the change in the population demographics, depicted graphically below. The top graph depicts minority population changes. It shows racial distribution by percentage for the total minority population for 1990 and 2000 and for the juvenile minority population for 2000. The bottom graph provides the same information for the majority white population.
Although the majority white population has increased in the decade, it has increased by only about 245,000 people whereas the total population has increased by 865,000. This change in the demographics is reflected in increases in percentages of minority populations in the top graph and decreases in the percentage majority white population, shown in the bottom graph.
Among the minority populations, the most notable change is in the Hispanic population, shown in the top graph. The percentage of persons who identify themselves as Hispanic has almost doubled. Of the juvenile population, Hispanics now represent almost 6%.
For the first time in the 2000 census, individuals could identify themselves as being of more than one race. Such multiracial individuals represent almost 3% of the juvenile population.
Information on this web page is designed to enable representatives from localities, grantees, and other interested persons to learn more about minority representation and overrepresentation in the Virginia juvenile justice system and the national requirements for monitoring disproportionate minority confinement. Ready access to state and local population, intake, and confinement data by race is also provided, along with instructions about how to compute indices comparing juveniles in the justice system, by race, with their racial percentages in the juvenile population.
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Requirements
To receive formula grant funding under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (JJDP) Act, all states are required to comply with four core requirements of the Act: address disproportionate minority confinement in secure facilities, deinstitutionalization of status offenders, removal of juveniles from adult jails and lockups, and sight and sound separation of juveniles from adults in secure institutions. For each of these four requirements, twenty-five percent of the State's formula grants allocation is contingent upon compliance. For more information, visit the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Disproportionate Minority Confinement web page, http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/dmc/index.html.
Juvenile Justice System Demographics Database
Database Content
The database
contains information, both numbers and percentages, about the juvenile population,
aged 0 to 17, by race, in each Virginia locality, and for the State. Note that
the data include the entire juvenile population, not the "at risk" population,
aged 10-17. The information was extracted from tables for Population, Race,
Hispanic or Latino, and Age (QT) which provide totals and adult population at
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet. Juvenile population and all percentages were computed by Juvenile Services Section, DCJS. For information on confidentiality protection, nonsampling error, and definitions, see
http://factfinder.census.gov/home/en/datanotes/expplu.html.
The database also contains information by locality and race for juveniles at various stages of the juvenile justice system - at intake, in secure detention facilities, and in juvenile correctional centers. That information was provided by the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice. Intake data do not include Fairfax County. Percentages for all categories were computed by DCJS, Juvenile Services Section.
Racial categories provided about juveniles at stages in the juvenile justice system do not match exactly those included in the census.
Intake data contain the following categories:
- White
- Black
- Hispanic
- Asian/Pacific Islander
- American Indian/Alaskan Native
- Other
Detention Home and Juvenile Correctional facility data contain the following categories:
- White
- Black
- Hispanic
- Other
To enable comparisons, subtotals have been computed and provided in the juvenile population data taken from the census. Those categories now include:
- White
- Black
- Hispanic/Latino
- Asian
- Pacific Islander
- Total Asian/PI (Total of 4 and 5)
- American Indian/Alaskan Native
- Other Race
- Total Other (Total of 6,7,8)
- More than 1 Race
How to compute indices
To compute
indices to determine whether minority juveniles are over-represented at various
stages in the juvenile justice system, the percentage of a racial group at that
stage is divided by the percentage in the juvenile population. Thus the formula
is:
Percentage racial representation at a stage in the juvenile justice system
divided by
Percentage racial representation in the juvenile population.
This provides an index that will be 1.0 if juveniles in the justice system are represented exactly as they are in the population. If the index is above 1.0, they are over-represented; if it is under 1.0, they are underrepresented.
When the indices have been obtained, minority and majority indices can be compared. Changes can be examined, particularly increments for minorities as juveniles move more deeply into the system, from intake through secure detention to correctional centers. Once data have been gathered for several years, temporal trends can be examined to measure progress.
Examples
As an
example, consider a small locality, juvenile population 3,767. The population
percentages, by race, for that locality are:
| White: | 34.3 |
| Black: | 64.0 |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 1.4 |
| American Indian/Alaskan Native: | 0.1 |
| Asian: | 0.3 |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.0 |
| Total Asian/PI: | 0.3 |
| Other Race: | 0.1 |
| Total, Other: | 0.5 |
Of those categories, White, Black, and Hispanic/Latino represent more than 1% of their juvenile population.
To obtain data about representation in the juvenile justice system, go to the tables below and extract the percentages for those three categories in each of the tables.
Here is the formula again, the computations, and the resulting indices.
Percentage racial representation at a stage in the juvenile justice system
divided by
Percentage racial representation in the juvenile population.
Here are the computations and the resulting indices:
| White | Black | Hispanic/Latino | |
| Intake, status offense cases | 50.0/34.3 = 1.46 | 50/63=0.79 | 0/1.4=0 |
| Intake, status offense cases, petitioned | 66.7/34.3 = 1.94 | 33.3/63 = 0.52 | 0/1.4 = 0 |
| Intake, delinquent cases | 20.3/34.3 = 0.59 | 78.0/63 = 1.24 | 1.7/1.4 = 1.21 |
| Intake, delinquent cases, petitioned | 20.3/34.3 = 0.59 | 78.0/63 = 1.24 | 1.7/1.4 = 1.21 |
| Detention home admissions | 0/34.3 = 0 | 92.3/63 = 1.47 | 7.7/1.4 = 5.5 |
| Juvenile correctional center commitments | 0/34/3 = 0 | 100/63 = 1.59 | 0/1.4 = 0 |
As well as examining the indices themselves, it is instructive to examine the pattern as juveniles move more deeply into the juvenile justice system. In this locality, we see that the index for black juveniles increases from intake, status offense cases, to juvenile correctional center commitments.
Because the locality has a relatively small juvenile population and the numbers represented in the system are small, the indices are less reliable indicators than for a larger locality. In this example, the juvenile correctional center commitments for black juveniles refer to 1 child.
Consider the data for a larger locality, juvenile population 56,352. The population percentages, by race, for that locality are:
| White: | 34.7 |
| Black: | 54.4 |
| Hispanic/Latino: | 4.3 |
| American Indian/Alaskan Native: | 0.3 |
| Asian: | 2.1 |
| Pacific Islander: | 0.1 |
| Total Asian/PI: | 2.2 |
| Other Race: | 0.4 |
| Total, Other: | 2.9 |
Of those categories, White, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian represent more than 1% of their juvenile population. Because Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) intake data do not separate Asian from Pacific Islander, we will also need the Asian/PI percentage for the intake indices. For secure detention and juvenile correctional center indices, Asian/PI is included under "other" in the DJJ data.
Here is the formula again, the computations, and the resulting indices.
Percentage racial representation at a stage in the juvenile justice system
divided by
Percentage racial representation in the juvenile population.
Here are the computations and the resulting indices:
| White | Black | Hispanic/Latino | Asian/PI | Other | |
| Intake, status offense cases | 22.7/34.7 = 0.65 | 74.8/54.4 = 1.38 | 1.3/4.3 = 0.30 | 0.3/2.1 = 0.14 | |
| Intake, status offense cases, petitioned | 24.2/34.7 = 0.70 | 73.1/54.4 = 1.34 | 1.2/4.3 = 0.28 | 0.4/2.1 = 0.18 | |
| Intake, delinquent cases | 17.6/34.7 = 0.50 | 80.0/54.4 = 1.47 | 0.7/4.3 = 0.16 | 0.8/2.1 = 0.36 | |
| Intake, delinquent cases, petitioned | 15.9/34.7 = 0.46 | 81.8/54.4 = 1.50 | 0.6/4.3 = 0.14 | 0.7/2.1 = 0.32 | |
| Detention home admissions | 16.3/34.7 = 0.47 | 81.4/54.4 = 1.50 | 0.9/4.3 = 0.21 | 1.4/2.9 = 0.48 | |
| Juvenile correctional center commitments | 7.7/34.7 = 0.22 | 91.2/54.4 = 1.68 | 1.1/4.3 = 0.26 | 0/2.9 = 0 |
Database Tables
Choose a Locality or Virginia State
- Juvenile
Population by Race per 2000 Census
|
Fiscal Year 2002 Choose a Stage in the Juvenile Justice System
|
|
Fiscal Year 2000 Choose a Stage in the Juvenile Justice System
|
Links for More Information about Minority Overrepresentation
- Building Blocks for Youth, Resources for Disproportionate Minority Confinement, Overrepresentation of Youth of Color, available at http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/issues/dmc/
- The W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice Fairness and Equity available at at http://www.burnsinstitute.org/home.html
- Virginia Dept. of Criminal Justice Services, Three-Year Plan Update, 2004, Section 4 (click on Section 4 and scroll down to Plan for Reducing Disproportionate Minority Contact), available at http://www.dcjs.virginia.gov/juvenile/resources/threeYearPlanUpdate/index.cfm
- Unequal Justice: African Americans in the Virginia Criminal Justice System: Report of the Virginia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, available at http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/sac/va0400/main.htm
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Disproportionate Minority Confinement web page, available at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org/dmc/index.html
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Race and Social Policy Research Center, available at http://www.cpap.vt.edu/rsp
Contact Persons
- For information about disproportionate minority confinement, contact Curtis Stevens, Compliance Monitor, via email or by telephone at 804.786.0051.
- For information about technical assistance, see the Department of Justice web pages at http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/dmc/resources/train.html or http://ojjdp.ncjrs.org/dmc/resources/other.html and contact Virginia's DMC coordinator, Curtis Stevens, via email or by telephone at 804.786.0051.
- For information about the data, contact Dr. Aura Hanna, Juvenile Services Research Analyst, via email or by telephone at 804.692.0977.
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