Annual Report to Congress on the Evaluation of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services Program for Children and Their Families

Juvenile Justice Status

Caregivers reported the following juvenile justice information about their children:

Contacts with Youth Authorities

Approximately 29 percent of the children had experienced some contact with law enforcement during the 12 months before they entered systems of care (see Figure ES-22).

Adjudicated Convictions

Eleven percent of the sample had one or more adjudicated misdemeanors, 5 percent reported an adjudicated felony, and 23 percent had one or more arrests that led to convictions (see Figure ES-22). These data were reported for the 12 months before the children entered systems of care.

According to OJJDP’s statistical briefing book, in 1997 law enforcement agencies made an estimated 2.8 million arrests of persons under the age of 18, of whom 32 percent were under the age of 15. There was also a 14 percent increase in total number of juvenile arrests from 1993 to 1997. The overall arrest rate for youth in 1997 was 9,200 per 100,000, or approximately 9 percent (OJJDP, 1998). As expected, the numbers of law enforcement contacts and arrests are higher for children entering systems of care than for the general population.

Grantees Funded Through the Comprehensive Community Health Mental Health Services for Children and Their Families Program (Table ES-4)

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