Administration
The branch of government vested with day-to-day responsibility for the delivery of a delinquency service is characterized as the administering entity in the State Profiles. The essence of administering authority is management, not funding. Future versions of the profiles will clarify funding streams for delinquency services. For each state, we classify the administration of delinquency services as either an executive or a judicial function; the legislative branch does not administer delinquency services in any state.

Aftercare
The status of a juvenile conditionally released from a treatment or confinement facility and placed under supervision in the community.

Aftercare Supervision
A delinquency service that entails the supervision, guidance, or regulation by an aftercare officer of a juvenile released from a state institution or private residential facility. A profile may contain information regarding aftercare supervision of juveniles from both types of placement. However, the organization and administration classification of state aftercare services applies only to those entities that handle supervision of juveniles released from state custody.

Centralized States
These states are characterized by a state executive agency having across-the-board state control of delinquency services, including state-run juvenile probation services, institutional commitments, aftercare, and sometimes detention.

Certification
State certification is designed to increase professionalism in the field. In general, it involves setting and enforcing professional standards, similar to the process of certifying teachers. Often a test is administered to beginning probation officers. Certification is usually for an initial time period, such as a year. Thereafter, renewal generally requires additional training.

Combination States
The organization of basic delinquency services in these states features a mix of state-controlled and locally operated delinquency services. For instance, they may have largely state-run systems--but with significant local control in the more populous, urban areas. Another possible scenario is that, although the state operates most delinquency services for youth, responsibility is divided between the executive and judicial branches.

Commitment
A commitment is a juvenile court disposition ordering an adjudicated delinquent be held, for a definite or indefinite period of time, by the state's delinquency agency, typically in a training school or other secure institution. This section of the profile describes decision-making in connection with a juvenile's placement and length of stay.

Contacts
This section of the State Profiles contains contact information for state and local juvenile justice practitioners, membership associations, advocacy organizations, legislative committees, commissions, agencies, and departments.

Court(s) with Delinquency Jurisdiction
The court(s) having original jurisdiction over delinquency matters.

Crime Victim Compensation Program
Every state has a crime victim compensation program that provides financial assistance to victims to cover expenses related to victimization. Expenses may include uninsured medical and dental costs, mental health counseling, and lost income. Fees and fines that offenders pay and tax dollars help fund these programs. For more information, please visit the federal Office for Victims of Crime's National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Board web site.

Criminal Blended Sentencing
Criminal blended sentencing schemes allow criminal courts, in sentencing transferred
juveniles, to impose sanctions that would ordinarily be available only to juvenile courts.
In states allowing blended sentencing at the criminal court level, details regarding qualifications and procedures are also provided.

Decentralized States
The organization of basic delinquency services in these states is characterized, at a minimum, by local control of ordinary probation services. Often, local authorities run detention centers as well. Some also share responsibility for the provision of aftercare services with state agencies.

Delinquency Jurisdiction
State statutes define the upper age limit for the jurisdiction of the juvenile court in delinquency matters. Several states also define the lower age for juvenile court jurisdiction in delinquency matters. Many states also define an age beyond the upper age over which the juvenile court may retain jurisdiction for dispositional purposes, often referred to as the "extended age" of juvenile court jurisdiction.

Delinquency Services
Each state profile contains information about delinquency services. At a minimum, states mandate that several basic services be provided to juveniles who have been arrested for a delinquent offense and referred to court by law enforcement officials. These services include: Detention, Probation (Intake, Investigation, Supervision), State Delinquency Institution, and Aftercare.

For each service, the profile describes the nature of the service in a particular state, pinpointing the governmental entity(ies) responsible for the day-to-day provision or administration of the service. The service classification section characterizes each delinquency service in terms of its administration and its organization.

Detention
The temporary custody of juveniles who are accused of a delinquent offense and require a restricted or secure environment for their own or the community's protection while awaiting a final court disposition. States may also use detention facilities as a sanction for probation violations or as a disposition option.

Determinate
Under this disposition model, the court sets a period of time in advance.

Direct File
A provision that allows prosecutors, in certain kinds of cases, to choose between filing a petition in juvenile court and proceeding against the juvenile in criminal court.

Direct Placement
This occurs when a judge places a juvenile directly in a public or private residential facility without committing the juvenile to the state.

Discretionary Waiver
A provision that gives juvenile court judges discretion to waive jurisdiction over individual cases involving minors and allow them to be prosecuted in adult criminal courts.

Diversion
The practice of officially stopping or suspending a case prior to court adjudication and referring the juvenile to a community education, treatment, or work program in lieu of adjudication or incarceration. Successful completion of a diversion program results in the dismissal or withdrawal of formal charges. Offenders who fail to comply with the diversion terms and conditions are subject to formal prosecution.

Executive Branch
The branch of government that carries out and enforces the law. In the service classification, "executive" at the local level refers to the county, parish, or municipal government and could include the county executive, commissioner, council, board, or mayor. At the state level, "executive" refers to the governor's office or an office, department, or agency within the governor's cabinet. We have attempted to further classify an executive branch agency's primary focus as being one of four types: The types are: Juvenile Corrections, Adult Corrections, Welfare/Social Services, and Children and Youth (protective services and juvenile corrections). The FAQs present summary information using these designations.

Extended Age of Delinquency Jurisdiction
Oldest age over which the juvenile court may retain jurisdiction for disposition purposes in delinquency matters.

Highlights
The Highlights section discusses interesting programs, recent initiatives, or juvenile justice legislation in the state.

Indeterminate
Under this disposition model, juveniles are always committed for an indefinite period of time, regardless of the offenses for which juveniles are adjudicated. This period of time could potentially last until they reach the age of majority (or, in some states, the upper age to which the juvenile court's jurisdiction has been extended for dispositional purposes). Length of stay in these states is left solely to the releasing authority's judgment.

Intake
"Intake" is a term that is defined variously from state to state. In general, it refers to a decision-making process for determining how a case will be handled. The intake process typically involves screening the police complaint for legal sufficiency and making an initial determination regarding how it should be handled: formally or informally. If a case is handled formally, a petition, complaint, or other legal instrument will be filed with the juvenile court and a hearing will be scheduled. If the case is handled informally, the probation department may supervise the juvenile for a period of time or the case may be diverted to some alternative tribunal, such as a teen court or community panel. Prosecutors and/or intake officers make intake decisions and draft petitions.

Investigation
"Investigation" is another term without common meaning from state to state. It refers generally to the process of preparing/developing a case for adjudication and disposition hearings. Typically, law enforcement officers (either police or prosecutors) prepare the case for an adjudication hearing by handling the evidence, interviewing witnesses/victims, and preparing motions. If the judge finds the juvenile delinquent at the adjudicatory hearing, the probation department makes its own investigations, preparing a social history or pre-disposition report with recommendations for the judge to consider in making a disposition.

Judicial
In the classification, "judicial" at the local level refers to the juvenile or family court judge. At the state level, it refers to the administrative office of the state court system.

Juvenile Blended Sentencing
Juvenile blended sentencing schemes empower juvenile courts to impose adult criminal sanctions on certain categories of serious juvenile offenders. In states that allow their juvenile courts to impose blended sentences, detailed descriptions of procedures, standards, burdens of proof, and threshold offense and minimum age requirements are provided.

Juvenile Corrections Continuum
Every state vests an agency in the executive branch of state government with the responsibility for administering a range of institutions, including secure, for delinquents. The secure institutions are frequently referred to as training schools. If the judge believes that a secure placement is required, the judge typically commits the delinquent offender, for a determinate or indeterminate period of time, to the care and custody of the state agency that runs the state delinquency institution.

Local
In the classification, "local" refers to the level of government that has the authority for the delivery of services and is distinguished from "state." Local government can be municipal, county, or parish.

Lower Age
The minimum age below which the juvenile courts have no jurisdiction for delinquency matters.

Mandatory Waiver
A provision that requires juvenile courts to waive cases under certain circumstances. In a mandatory waiver situation, the juvenile court must receive the case initially, conduct some sort of preliminary hearing to ensure that the mandatory waiver statute applies, and issue an order transferring the case to criminal court. By contrast, when an offense has been excluded by law from juvenile court jurisdiction, the case originates in criminal court, and the juvenile court ordinarily has no involvement.

Once an Adult/Always
If the state has a special provision that permanently terminates the juvenile court's jurisdiction over juveniles who have once been prosecuted as adults, the provision is described in detail.

Organization
The level of government, either state or local, at which responsibility for the delivery of a delinquency service resides is said to be the level at which the service is "organized." Future versions of the State Profiles will clarify the extent to which states are involved in locally administered services through state subsidies, standards, regulations, certification, and training.

Presumptive Waiver
A law that designates a category of cases involving juveniles in which transfer to criminal court is rebuttably presumed to be appropriate.

Probation
The conditional freedom granted by a judge to a juvenile offender, as long as the person meets certain conditions of behavior.

Probation Supervision
Guidance, treatment or regulation by a probation agency of the behavior of a juvenile delinquent, resulting from a formal court order.

Purpose Clause
A statutory provision in which a state declares the overall purpose or vision of its juvenile justice system.

Release
A release occurs when the juvenile is allowed to leave the institution and return to the community, whether supervised or unsupervised, and whether or not terms are imposed as a condition of release.

Reverse Waiver
Provisions that permit a juvenile who is being prosecuted as an adult in criminal court to petition to have the case transferred to juvenile court for adjudication or disposition are described under this heading.

Service Classification
In the service classification section of the State Profiles, NCJJ has attempted to provide a quick, relatively easy characterization of how each delinquency service is organized and administered in a state in terms of the day-to-day responsibility for the provision of the service. The classification is an attempt to conceptualize a structure for discussing and comparing the provision of services in the states. For every state, the services of probation supervision, detention, state delinquent institution, and aftercare supervision are individually classified according to the structure of their organization (local or state) and their administration (judicial or executive). There are five classification possibilities: Local/Judicial; Local/Executive; State/Judicial; State/Executive; and Combination.

In many states, a particular service is administered by only one entity or one kind of entity. However, in some states a particular service is administered by two different entities or kinds of entities, requiring an either/or classification. A "combination" classification is used in situations involving more than two entities or kinds of entities.

Although classifications facilitate cross-state comparisons, they are not exact or without problems. Some states and some services fit the conceptual framework better than others. The matter of who funds a service confounds a classification scheme that is based on who is responsible for the day-to-day administration of services. For example, in many states, counties fund probation services, but judges administer the probation department. Such a scenario would receive a Local/Judicial classification, not a Local/Executive one. Likewise, local vs. state organization of probation services is particularly difficult to ascertain in states with unified court systems because the level from which the authority for the service emanates is not clearly defined. Often the state pays the salaries of juvenile probation officers and may even set minimum practice standards, but the local juvenile court judge "runs" the operation. Such scenarios would receive a "Local/Judicial" classification rather than a "State/Judicial" one. And a few states appear to defy accurate organizational classification. Therefore, we urge reliance on the Profiles to better understand the dynamics of our classification decisions.

State
In the classification, "state" refers to the level of government that has the authority for the delivery of services and is distinguished from "local."

State Laws
The state laws section of the State Profiles contains the actual language from state codes governing delinquency matters (e.g., purpose clauses), a snapshot of a provision (e.g., delinquency jurisdiction), or an analysis of provisions (e.g., transfer laws).

Statutory Exclusion
A statutory provision that excludes any category of cases from juvenile court jurisdiction.

Transfer Provisions
This section of the State Profiles summarizes transfer laws based on an analysis of statutory provisions authorizing or requiring adult criminal prosecution of juveniles for serious and violent crimes, as amended through the 2002 legislative session in every state. All states allow juveniles under certain conditions to be tried as if they were adults in criminal court by way of one or more transfer mechanisms.

Upper Age
The age beyond which the juvenile courts of that state have no original jurisdiction over individual offenders.

Citation: National Center for Juvenile Justice. 2006. "Glossary." State Juvenile Justice Profiles. Pittsburgh, PA: NCJJ. Online. Available: http://www.ncjj.org/stateprofiles/.