Contact with Foster Care and the Juvenile Delinquency Court: A Prospective Examination from Birth through Age 18

Research has demonstrated a link between out-of-home foster care and subsequent juvenile justice involvement. Understanding factors that may contribute to dual system involvement for young people who entered foster care is essential for disrupting this relationship. We used population-based linked administrative records to examine the prevalence of juvenile delinquency court petitions among individuals placed in out-of-home foster care in Los Angeles County from birth to age 18. By integrating records from child welfare and probation, this analysis of individuals born between 1998 and 2001 and who lived in the county’s out-of-home foster care system (N = 29,434) showed that 2,554 (8.7