5/9/06 -- In 2005, several states significantly changed their delivery of juvenile delinquency services: California reorganized its correctional agency, and the District of Columbia and Illinois elevated their juvenile correctional agencies to cabinet level. The recently completed update of the State Juvenile Justice Profiles website identifies these changes and more.

NCJFCJ's research division, the National Center for Juvenile Justice (NCJJ), first documented how states organize and administer their delinquency services in 1987. Funding from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) allowed NCJJ to transform this work into a website in 2000 and continues to support its maintenance and expansion.

The website's main component is its detailed “profiles” of state juvenile justice systems. Each state profile contains information ranging from who can refer a juvenile to court to who decides to release a juvenile from a correctional facility.

The “national overviews” place the individual state profiles into context by summarizing information across states. 

NCJJ updates this site about once a year by analyzing state statutes, contacting state juvenile justice practitioners, and reviewing documents and web sites. The 2006 update focused on significant graduated sanctions initiatives and the activities of NCJFCJ's Juvenile Sanctions Division demonstration sites.