About this study

About this Study

This data dashboard summarizes the important empirical findings of the full report on Nonjudicial Adjustments Juvenile Financial Sanctions: A Guide for Policy and Reform for Pretrial Diversion in Utah’s Juvenile Justice System. The selected findings and trends from the full report are organized in the following order from the dropdown menu:

Each section includes a brief tab summarizing the findings under Analysis.

Executive Summary

Executive Summary

This study, Nonjudicial Adjustments Juvenile Financial Sanctions: A Guide for Policy and Reform for Pretrial Diversion in Utah’s Juvenile Justice System, is designed to be a resource for the Utah Juvenile Court (UJC) and Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee (JJOC) to support ongoing and future policy decision making for youth and their communities in Utah. Given the goal of promoting the best possible outcomes for youth, families, and communities—this study aims to equip UJC and JJOC with a range of policy options based on the greater literature of theories, practices, and empirical findings of financial sanctions (i.e., fines, fees, and restitution) that support equitable and effective juvenile justice nationwide.

Overall, we find that NJAs serve a positive role for mitigating contact with the justice system. However, the extent to which economic sanctions serve the goal of rehabilitation within the NJA process is mixed. These empirical findings highlighted nationwide and within Utah is intended to serve as an informative guide to best discern which policy options would be most suitable for Utah’s youth, families, and communities.

Map 1: Juvenile Incident Count by County

Map 2: Juvenile Incident Rate by County

Figure 1: Share of Cases by Race & Ethnicity

Analysis

The data used for this section contains demographic information on nearly 20,000 nonjudicial adjustment cases between 2018 and 2020. The trends found in this data closely mirror trends found in other areas and adult populations in Utah and nationwide.

• Map 1 & 2: Map 1 illustrates an unsurprising trend of the maximum number of incidents located in Salt Lake County (11,764) and Utah County (7,666) and the minimum number of incidents in more rural counties such as San Juan County (119). However, when the incident rate variable is created by dividing the total incident count by the juvenile population (under age 18 population, Census 2019) in each county the trend is drastically reversed. While Map 1 illustrates a high incident bias in more populous counties, Map 2 illustrates that there is a higher rate of incidents per juvenile population in more Rural/Non-Metropolitan counties across Utah. Carbon (9.6%), Millard (9.6%), and Uintah (9.3%) County have the highest incident rates reaching over 9 percent which is a stark contrast to the lowest incident rates at under 4 percent for Salt Lake (3.8%), Utah (3.7%), and San Juan County (2.6%). The data trends of Map 2 illustrate a unique urban/rural disparity for the juvenile incident rates across Utah.

• Figure 1: All race/ethnicity categories except White and Asian youth between the ages of 5-19 are disproportionately more likely to be given an NJA. While White youth represented more than 93% of all Utahans, just 67.2% of cases involved a White offender. Similarly, Asian youth, who make up over 2% of Utah’s population, were involved in less than 1% of cases. Utah’s Black/African American youth in Utah between the ages of 5-19 were over 2.8 times more likely to be given an NJA than their White counterparts. Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islanders were nearly 2.4 times more likely to receive an NJA than White youth.

Figure 3: Number of Cases by Severity

Figure 4: Case Severity Rate by Race & Ethnicity

Figure 5: Case Severity Rate by Gender

Analysis

• The most common offense under the Case Severity definition is a Misdemeanor, followed by Status Offenses and Infractions. While it is technically possible for youth with felony offenses to receive an NJA, these cases are extremely rare and excluded from the analysis. Similar to other states, the recorded severity level for cases varied demographically. Youth who are Black/African American and Native Hawaii/Pacific Islander were significantly more likely than other youth to face misdemeanors when they receive an NJA. Figure 4 illustrates the percentage of cases for the three most common types of offenses, Misdemeanor being the most serious.

Map 3: Average Fines by County

Map 4: Average adjusted Fines by County

Data Table

Analysis

• Figure 6: This figure illustrates the mean fine amount across all cases broken down by race/ethnicity. Under the sliding scale system, White and Asian youth tend to receive the largest fines. Conversely, the smallest fines were given to American Indian/Alaska Native, Native Hawaii/Pacific Islander and Latino/Hispanic youth. This may suggest that the sliding scale system has been effective in not exacerbating socio-economic and racial disparities where previously families of color have been disproportionately liable for juvenile fees (Campos-Bui 2017).**

• Figure 7: Male youth tended to receive higher fines. A possible reason for this may be that male youth on average have 2.08 incidents associated with each case, compared to 1.83 for female youth. If each of these incidents is sometimes associated with more than one episode, then youth may be given sanctions for each episode, as per the current NJA guidelines. This may ultimately result in the higher financial sanction amounts seen for male youth.

• Map 3 and 4: This map illustrates the average NJA fines for each county’s total case counts spanning across 2018-2020. While each juvenile case could be associated with multiple sanctions that were applied at different times, the total amounts are aggregated for each case number. Map 4 illustrates the average NJA fines for each county after they were adjusted for the relevant cases. Map 3 illustrates a varying range of average fines across Utah as the top highest average fines are found in Emery County with $207, Utah County of $181, and Davis County of $177. The lowest average fines are found in Kane County with $103, San Juan County with $102, and Beaver County with $82. This means on average a juvenile case faces a fee amount of $207 in Emery County while a juvenile case faces a fee amount of $82 in Beaver County which is less than half the amount faced in Emery County. Map 4 shows similar trends as Map 3 even after adjustments were made for NJ fines.

Map 5: Average Community Service Hours by County

Data Table

Analysis

• For cases where community service is required, the mean amount of community service assessed is 65 hours.

• Current guidance for probation officers allocates the number of required hours by the severity of an offense. That being said, except for cases where a youth is below the poverty line, probation officers have discretion to assess fines or community service based on what they believe would be more appropriate. As such, we expected to see lower income groups being given more community service hours relative to other groups.

• Figure 8: This figure shows the average number of hours assessed in cases where community service is required by race and ethnicity. Interestingly, American Indian/Alaska Native, White, and Latino/Hispanic youth have the largest number of community hours ordered on average. Cases where community service is required are relatively rare for most groups. All groups except for Latino/Hispanic and White youth had less than 100 such cases. The number of cases where Asian youths were required to complete community service was just 15.

• Map 5: This map illustrates varying trends in the amounts of community service hours ordered particularly in Sevier, Cache, and Kane County at 120.4, 107.5, and 96 hours respectively representing the highest average number of hours. Whereas the lowest average number of hours is located in Beaver, Salt Lake, and Emery County at 23.3, 42.9, and 44.8 hours respectively. The trends of Map 5 mirrors different but also similar varying trends from the previously outlined maps for Incidents and Fines.
  
  Interestingly, while the highest average fine amount is found in Emery County, this county also has one of the lowest average number of community service hours ordered for juvenile cases. This may suggest that counties with higher average fine amounts may tend to order less community service hours for juvenile cases and vice versa. But this may also vary due to case severity, age, and other demographic factors unique to juvenile cases in each county.

Map 6: Success Rate by County

Map 7: Failure Rate by County

Data Table

Analysis

• The vast majority of NJA agreements (89%) between 2018-2020 were recorded as a success. This is likely both because youth tend to complete the terms of their agreement and that probation officers are able to adjust the terms of an NJA as an incentive or if the circumstances of the youth change.

• Figure 11 shows success rates by race and ethnicity. Youth who are Black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, or Native Hawaii/Pacific Islander tend to have the lowest success rates. Asian youth had the highest percentage of successful cases.

• Figure 12 shows there was only a small difference in the success rates of male and female juvenile youth.

• Map 6 illustrates the Incident Success rate by county and Map 7 illustrates the Incident Failure rate by county. These rates were created by coding each case where any one of the incidents were marked as “unsuccessful” then the entire case is coded as unsuccessful. Each incident had its own associated outcome. The lowest Incident Success Rate is found in Wasatch, Emery, and Kane County, which is mirrored in the highest Incident Failure Rate in these counties at 26 (Wasatch), 17.2 (Emery), and 17.1 (Kane) percent.

Map 8: Recidivism Rate by County

Data Table

Analysis

• Figure 13: Asian and White youth have the lowest rates of recidivism. Black/African American youth and American Indian/Alaskan Native youth had the the highest rates of recidivism at 18%. Additionally, Latino/Hispanic youth had a recidivism rate of 1.6%. Paired with with lower case success rates for youth who are Black/African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Latino/Hispanic, or Native Hawaii/Pacific Islanders, high recidivism may suggest that racial and ethnic minority youth have less access to resources and opportunities to successfully meet their NJA requirements.

• Figure 14: This figure illustrates a substantial gap in recidivism for male and female youth. Over 65% of all NJAs involved a male youth, but male youth were a part of nearly 78% of all cases where recidivism was identified.

• Map 8: This map illustrates the Recidivism rate by county. This map illustrates a wide range of values in the Recidivism rate as the highest rates are found in Duchesne (34%), Sanpete (30.8%), Carbon (29.8%) and Emery (24%) county. The lowest rate of recidivism is found in Grand (10%), Summit (11.2%), and San Juan (11.3%) county. Salt Lake County on the other hand takes an approximate median value of 17.4%.

Figure 15: Median Sanction Amount by Case Outcome

Figure 16: Median Sanction Amount by Recidivism

Analysis

• An important question regarding these sanctions is whether or not there are any clear differences between the outcomes of youth and the sanctions they received. Two primary outcomes of interest are whether a youth successfully completed their NJA and recidivism. Figures 15 and 16 plot recidivism and outcome against the amounts assessed for fines, restitution, and community service.

• On a descriptive level, little difference between groups is seen between the sanctions assessed for youth who did not successfully complete their NJA or who were identified as having recidivated. While national evidence shows mixed findings on fines/fees, some suggest that they can be harmful on recidivism outcomes. Hence, their merit in Utah should be further evaluated.