Data Sources:

• Columbus Division of Police, Annual Reports, 1995-2004 (juvenile arrests)
• U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 1999-2004 (population under age 18)
• Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, Division of Domestic Relations and Juvenile Branch, 2000-2008 Annual Reports (delinquent and unruly cases)
• Am. Sub. S. B. 181, 123rd General Assembly (definitions of delinquent and unruly child)

For more information about sources

Definitions:

• Juvenile Arrests: Arrests of individuals under 18 years of age for felonies and misdemeanors
• Delinquent Child: The Ohio Revised Code defines a “delinquent child” as any child who (1) violates any law that would be a crime if committed by an adult, except if the child is a juvenile traffic offender; (2) violates any lawful order of a court; (3) purchases or attempts to purchase a firearm illegally; (4) illegally obtains or attempts to obtain a tattooing service, body piercing service, or ear piercing service under certain prohibited conditions; or (5) is an “habitual truant” and who previously has been adjudicated an unruly child for being an habitual truant, and any child who is a “chronic truant.”
• Unruly Child: The Ohio Revised Code defines an “unruly child” as any child who (1) does not subject the child's self to the reasonable control of the child's parents, teachers, guardian, or custodian, by reason of being wayward or habitually disobedient; (2) is persistently truant from home or school; (3) so deports the child's self as to injure or endanger the child's own health or morals or the health or morals of others; (4) attempts to enter the marriage relation without legal authority; (5) is found in a disreputable place, visits or patronizes a place prohibited by law, or associates with vagrant, vicious, criminal, notorious, or immoral persons; (6) engages in an occupation prohibited by law or is in a situation dangerous to life or limb or injurious to the child’s own health or morals or to the health or morals of others; (7) violates a law, other than the law against the purchase or attempt to purchase a firearm that is applicable only to a child; or (8) is an “habitual truant” from school and who previously has not been adjudicated an unruly child for being an habitual truant.