This study sought to determine whether a cluster analysis of juvenile offender cases, based on the judgments of juvenile court professionals, would produce a typology similar to Quay's. The data consisted of juvenile court professionals' descriptions of 1,423 juvenile cases on 93 variables. A cluster analytic method and statistical stopping rules created three well-separated clusters of juvenile offenders, differing on demographic and offense variables. A number of hypotheses are offered for research aimed at better understanding how juvenile court professionals process case information and classify juvenile offenders.
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