Roundtable: How to Access and Use Juvenile Court Data for Research and More

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

The National Juvenile Court Data Archive (Archive) annually receives detailed, case-level data voluntarily reported by more than 30 states and restructures the data into a standard, analyzable format. Supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Archive has been housed at the National Center for Juvenile Justice for nearly 50 years with the primary goal of developing national estimates of juvenile court workloads, detailed by demographic, offense, and case processing outcomes. However, the Archive also facilitates the use of this vast collection of data by policymakers, justice-serving agencies and researchers seeking to answer national or jurisdiction-specific questions.

This roundtable will provide background information about the Archive and the various ways the data can be accessed for secondary analysis. The roundtable will highlight how the data housed at the Archive have been used by researchers in academic scholarship, in the classroom to frame discussion of policy, and by juvenile justice-system practitioners to inform decision making.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Chair

• Charles Puzzanchera, National Center for Juvenile Justice

Discussants

• Sarah Hockenberry, National Center for Juvenile Justice

• Steven Zane, Florida State University

• Kaitlyn Sill, National Institute of Justice