Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (EZACJRP)

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Methods Glossary About EZACJRP

One-day counts versus population flow data

CJRP provides 1-day population counts of youth in residential placement facilities. One-day counts give a picture of the standing population in facilities. One-day counts are substantially different from annual admission and release data, which give a measure of facility population flow.

Youth may be committed to a facility as part of a court-ordered disposition or may be detained prior to adjudication or after adjudication while awaiting disposition or placement elsewhere. In addition, a small proportion of youth may be voluntarily admitted in lieu of adjudication as part of a diversion.

Because detention stays tend to be short compared with commitment placements, detained youth represent a much larger share of population flow data than of 1-day count data.

State placement counts and tables

The information presented in the "U.S. & State Profiles" and "State Comparisons" sections is based on the state in which the offense was committed, but the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (CJRP) supports two ways to present state-level information: state of offense and state of facility. The first represents where the offense occurred, the latter refers to the state where the facility holding the youth is located. More often than not, these two values are the same. Nationally, in 2023 more than 90% of all youth were in residential placement in the same state in which they committed their offense.

There are instances, however, where state of offense is unknown for some youth in a facility or not reported for any youth in a facility. The proportion of youth for whom state of offense is unknown reached a high of 9.7% in 2017; as shown in the table below, the state of offense was unknown for 4.7% of all youth held in residential placement in 2023 (but the proportion varies by state). Data tables organized by "state of offense" - such as those in the "U.S. & State Profiles" and "State Comparison" sections - cannot properly account for these youth as there is no way to determine where they committed their offense. Specifically, the state-level data presented in these sections attenuates counts/rates for certain states, i.e., those states with a relatively high number of youth for whom state of offense is not reported. As these instances are not evenly distributed across states, users should exercise caution when examining state-level trends or comparing states.

It is worth noting that, across years, all youth for whom state of offense was unknown were held in private facilities, and most of these youth were being held as the result of a court-ordered commitment. For example, in 2023, more than 80% of youth in private facilities for whom state of offense was unknown were held as a result of a court-ordered commitment.

State variations in upper age of juvenile court jurisdiction influence placement rates

Although State residential placement rate statistics control for upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction, comparisons made among States with different upper ages are problematic. While 16- and 17-year-olds constitute approximately 25% of the youth population ages 10-17, they account for more than 50% of youth in residential placement. If all other factors were equal, one would expect higher residential placement rates in States where older youth are under juvenile court jurisdiction. In addition to upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction, differences in age limits of extended jurisdiction influence placement rates. States differ in how long they may keep youth in placement beyond the upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction. Variations in provisions for transferring youth to criminal court also have an impact on residential placement rates. If all other factors were equal, States with broad transfer provisions would be expected to have lower residential placement rates than other States. (See the Juvenile Justice System Structure and Process section of OJJDP's Statistical Briefing Book for state upper age, extended age, and transfer provision information.) Demographic variations should also be considered when making jurisdictional comparisons. The urbanicity and economics of an area are thought to be related to crime and placement rates. Available bed space also influences placement rates. Bed space is particularly relevant to detention in rural areas.

Confidentiality protections

By statute and regulation, OJJDP must protect the privacy of individuals included in its surveys. In the case of CJRP, OJJDP must assure that no youth can be identified from publicly available data, either tabular or electronic. To comply with this requirement, OJJDP has adopted a policy that requires all published table cells involving state-level data be rounded to the nearest multiple of three. The table cells are rounded after the table has been produced from the underlying data. Each cell is rounded independently, without consideration to row or column totals. As a result, in many tables the internal cells will not add to the marginal totals. Rates and percentages presented from CJRP are based on rounded totals as well. More detail on OJJDP's privacy protection policy is available in "Disclosure Control in the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement" prepared by Joseph Moone, OJJDP Program Manager.

Population estimates

The youth population data for 1997 and 1999 are derived from the National Center for Health Statistics' Bridged-race intercensal estimates of the July 1, 1990-July 1, 1999 United States resident population by county, single-year of age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin. [Released 7/26/2004; Retrieved 9/15/2004]. Prepared by the U.S. Census Bureau with support from the National Cancer Institute. Available online from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/index.htm.

Youth population data for 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2007 are derived from the National Center for Health Statistics' Intercensal estimates of the resident population of the United States for July 1, 2000-July 1, 2009, by year, county, single-year of age (0, 1, 2, .., 85 years and over), bridged race, Hispanic origin, and sex. [Released 10/26/2012; Retrieved 10/26/2012]. Prepared under a collaborative arrangement with the U.S. Census Bureau. Available online from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/bridged_race.htm.

Youth population data for 2010, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019 are derived from Annual Resident Population Estimates for 6 Race Groups (5 Race Alone Groups and Two or More Races) by Age, Sex, and Hispanic Origin for States and the District of Columbia: April 1, 2010 to July 2019; April 1, 2020, and July 1, 2020 [SC-EST2020-ALLDATA6] downloaded from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2010-2020/state/asrh/.

Youth population data for 2021 and 2023 are derived from Annual State Resident Population Estimates for 6 Race Groups (5 Race Alone Groups and Two or More Races) by Age, Sex, and Hispanic Origin: April 1, 2020 to July 2023 [SC-EST2023-ALLDTA6] downloaded from https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/popest/datasets/2020-2023/state/asrh/.

Placement rates are calculated per 100,000 youth ages 10 through the upper age of original juvenile court jurisdiction in each State. Although in most States, juvenile courts have jurisdiction over the law-violating behavior of children younger than age 10, the number of youth younger than 10 in residential placement is not large enough to warrant the inclusion of younger age groups in the denominator of placement rate calculations.

Other cautions/limitations about CJRP data

Youth held in adult facilities. CJRP does not capture data on youth held in adult prisons or jails; therefore, in the CJRP data, youth placed in juvenile facilities by criminal courts represent an unknown proportion of youth incarcerated by criminal courts.

Youth held in drug treatment or mental health facilities. CJRP does not include facilities exclusively intended for drug or mental health treatment even though such facilities may house some youth charged with committing an offense. There may, however, be numerous youth in residential placement captured by CJRP that were receiving such treatment.

Data revisions

Every effort is made to present the best, most accurate data in this application. From time to time this will result in changes to the data displayed for back years. For example, the rate statistics would change when revised population data are used in the rate calculations. When data were processed prior to the inclusion of 2003 data, errors were discovered in the 1997 and 1999 data files. In order to make the data compatible across all years, 1997 and 1999 data were revised. The revisions did not have an equal impact on all States, but the result was a drop of about 1% in the total count of youth held in residential placement nationwide. Users who have printed or downloaded tables with 1997 or 1999 data prior to 2005 may wish to capture that information with the revised data.

December 2011

With the release of the 2010 Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement data, counts of youth held in tribal facilities are not included in Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement. As a result, U.S. totals across all years only include data from publicly and privately operated juvenile facilities and, thus, are reduced by the small number of youth in tribal facilities. There have been approximately 150 youth in tribal facilities on average.

Tribal facility data are not included for several reasons:

• It has become evident that the data were not reported by a complete census of tribal facilities.
• Issues were uncovered that raised concern about the application of imputation procedures to tribal facilities. Applying the "hot deck" approach used in the CJRP imputation procedures to tribal facilities is problematic because each tribal facility is unique and there is not an adequate donor pool.
• U.S. totals should represent a census (with imputation and non-response adjustments).

Thus, the U.S. totals for all years have been restored to include data only from publicly and privately operated facilities.

Additionally it should be noted that for the first time in 2010 CJRP data were also reported by facilities in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The Territory data present many of the same issues that tribal facility data present. And for these reasons we have chosen not to include them in this release. We appreciate the participation of tribal and Territory facilities and applaud their efforts. We plan to provide both data reported by tribal facilities and facilities in the Territories in the future when we have a better understanding of the data and can present them in a meaningful way.

May 2011

With this release of the 2007 Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement data, Easy Access to the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement (EZACJRP) and the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook have been merged into one data analysis tool. Going forward, the merged application will continue as "Easy Access to Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement," and it will include the ability to perform custom crosstabs along with the pre-defined tabular displays previously available from the Census of Juveniles in Residential Placement Databook. Use the tabs labeled "US & State Profiles" and "State Comparisons" to view the data tables previously available from the CJRP Databook.

Census reference dates and data collection forms

The CJRP reference date is generally the fourth Wednesday in October. However, the 2005 and 2009 mailouts were unable to take place in October. The census date for these collections took place in the following February. The census reference dates are listed below:

• October 29, 1997 - 1997 Form
• October 27, 1999 - 1999 Form
• October 24, 2001 - 2001 Form
• October 22, 2003 - 2003 Form
• February 22, 2006 - 2006 Form
• October 24, 2007 - 2007 Form
• February 24, 2010 - 2010 Form
• October 26, 2011 - 2011 Form
• October 23, 2013 - 2013 Form
• October 28, 2015 - 2015 Form
• October 25, 2017 - 2017 Form
• October 23, 2019 - 2019 Form
• October 27, 2021 - 2021 Form
• October 25, 2023 - 2023 Form