Juvenile | Research and Statistics

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The Research and Statistics Unit of the Dallas County Juvenile Department (DCJD) falls under the authority of the Deputy Director of Executive and Administrative Services.

The mission of the Research and Statistics Unit is to support the mission of the Dallas County Juvenile Department through effective and efficient data management, reporting, and analysis of all operations affecting youth outcomes. To this end, the DCJD Research and Statistics Unit is responsible for all data reporting and quantitative analysis including the production of a research agenda, program evaluation, data reporting, and fulfilling approved external research requests. Beginning in 2021, the Unit will also produce and publish an annual report which will summarize the Department’s operations. The Research and Statistics Unit does NOT process public information requests.

The Research and Statistics Unit will report and publish relevant, aggregate data within the pages of this site during timely intervals which will typically elaborate on Annual Report statistics. The Unit will generally use graphics of various kinds, including figures, graphs, and tables to disseminate the information and said graphics should be appropriately referenced, credited, and cited if they are reproduced, adapted, and/or used for any purpose.

Professors and researchers who have or wish to make a research proposal for primary or secondary research should go here.

All questions regarding the information herein, or in reference to any of the relevant webpages can be directed to dcjd_research@dallascounty.org. Please include the specific information to which you are inquiring, your name and organization, and reason for your inquiry.

NOTE: INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL DATA ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED THROUGH THIS SITE.

Statistics & Data

The Dallas County Juvenile Department believes that data driven decision making improves outcomes for justice involved youth. A skilled research team monitors, analyzes, and reports information regarding juvenile referrals and activity in Dallas County.

Data about juvenile delinquency in Dallas County is reported monthly to the Dallas County Juvenile Board in the Director’s Report. The Director’s Report is found in the juvenile board agenda each month. Data in the Director’s Report includes:

Formal referrals for the calendar year
Racial/ethnic and gender breakdown of formal referrals in the calendar year
Average daily populations in Dallas County Juvenile Department operated facilities and in residential contract placements
Average length of stay in Dallas County Juvenile Department operated facilities.

Additionally, the Dallas County Juvenile Department posts information annually regarding:

Juvenile decline rates in US
Juvenile arrests for violent crime have dropped to a 30-year low, and fewer teens are being locked up than at any time in nearly 20 years.

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Arrest estimates for 1980-2012 developed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics and disseminated through "Arrest Data Analysis Tool." Arrest estimates for 2013 and 2014 developed by the National Center for Juvenile Justice based on data published in the FBI's Crime in the United States reports.

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Decline in Crime Rates in US
Today, murder rates in these areas are barely a third of what they were in the early 1990s—the starkest reflections of a nationwide decline in crime.

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All types of violent crimes experienced decline last year, with rape dropping 6.3 percent, murder and non-negligent manslaughter dropping 4.4 percent and robbery dropping 2.8 percent.

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U.S. violent crimes including murders fell 4.4 percent in 2013 to their lowest number since the 1970s, continuing a decades-long downturn, the FBI said on Monday.

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The decline in violent crime is one of the most striking trends over recent decades; the rate has declined roughly by half since 1993.

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The drop was accompanied by a 4.6 percent drop in property crime, marking the seventh consecutive year that nonviolent crime has dropped.

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Formal juvenile referrals for previous calendar years
This data captures delinquent conduct that causes a youth to be referred to the Dallas County Juvenile Department.

Click here to download the report: Referrals for Calendar Years 2002 to 2012
Click here to download the report: Referrals for Calendar Years 2013 & 2014
Click here to download the report: JDAI Referrals for Calendar Years 2006 to 2016
Click here to download the report: Referrals for Calendar Years 2015 to 2017
Youth Incarceration In the United States
A sea change is underway in our nation’s approach to dealing with young people who get in trouble with the law. Although we still lead the industrialized world in the rate at which we lock up young people, the youth confinement rate in the United States is rapidly declining.

Click here to download the report.
Certified youth in Dallas County for the previous 10 calendar years
This data reflects the juveniles that were certified to stand trial as adults for the year. In order to be certified as an adult, a child must have been accused of a Felony 1 offense at age 14 or above or accused of a Felony 2 offense at age 15 or above.

Click here to download the report.
Dallas County youth commitments to Texas Juvenile Justice Department
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) is the state juvenile correction agency. Juveniles that are committed to TJJD by court may have committed serious felony offenses that warrant removal from home and require specialized treatment, or have a chronic delinquent referral history and have been adjudicated for a felony offense that have exhausted resources available at the county’s juvenile department. In 2007, the number of new commitments to TJJD was reduced by limiting the commitments to only juveniles adjudicated for felony offenses after reform measures were placed.

Click here to download the report.
Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 data regarding sexual abuse allegations and the outcomes.
The Dallas County Juvenile Department collects accurate, uniform data for every allegation of sexual abuse at its operated facilities using a standardized instrument and set of definitions and aggregates the data at least once per year. The department maintains, reviews, and collects data as needed from all available incident-based documents, including reports, investigation files, and sexual abuse incident reviews.

The incident-based data collection instrument is developed to include the data necessary to answer all questions from the most recent version of the Survey of Sexual Violence conducted by the Department of Justice.

The department also obtains incident-based and aggregated data from each facility operating under contract with the department. This data, with all personal identifiers removed, is made readily available to the public at least annually.

Dallas County Juvenile Department Institution’s Summary of Sexual Allegation 2013
Dallas County Juvenile Department Institution’s Summary of Sexual Allegation 2014
Dallas County Juvenile Department Institution’s Summary of Sexual Allegation 2015