Youth involvement in the juvenile justice system is complex and varies over time and across communities. Access to localized data on youth referrals is crucial for understanding factors that drive system involvement and for making informed decisions that support thoughtful and effective policies and practices in our communities.
With funding from the FISA Foundation, this dashboard promotes transparency and informed learning. We invite you to explore the Juvenile Justice Offenses Dashboard to understand patterns in youth referrals across Allegheny County.
Dashboard Content
The Juvenile Justice Offenses Dashboard has four main sections:
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- Home introduces the dashboard by presenting the scope of the data and highlighting the primary measures available for users to explore.
- Data and Definitions provides the foundational context needed to interpret the visualizations by defining key terms, describing the data sources, outlining the date range and noting the privacy protections applied to the dashboard. .
- Summary is an interactive tab where users can explore the distribution of referred youth by demographics (race, sex, age) and offense types. This section also offers filters to compare groups and identify shifts over time.
- Neighborhood is an interactive tab that displays number of referrals by neighborhood or municipality and offers the distribution of referrals across offense types. This tab enables users to explore geographic patterns and filter data by key measures to see how patterns in youth referrals vary across the County.
These data describe trends in youth referrals and are indicators of system involvement—not prevalence of all youth behavior.
How the County Uses this Information
The county uses this information to:
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- Monitor trends in alleged youth offenses and spot emerging patterns in youth referrals.
- Shape programming and target support for communities and youth with the greatest needs.
- Make data-informed decisions that guide planning, funding and improvement efforts that best meet public needs.
- Promote transparency and build shared understanding around juvenile justice referrals in Allegheny County.
For the best experience, we encourage exploring the dashboard on it’s full site. You can view it directly here.
Questions or Feedback?
We welcome your questions and suggestions. To share feedback, you can reach us at DHSResearch@alleghenycounty.us. If you’d like to stay informed, consider signing up for our newsletter. To learn how to use DHS data in your research, please visit our Requesting Data page. Thank you for your time and interest. Your engagement helps shape and improve how we share data that matters.