A discrepancy exists between the high prevalence of mental disorders at the juvenile court and the rare application of psychiatric measures. This raises questions on how the juvenile judges decide whether they should apply a psychiatric measure for minors with mental disorders or not. Since the minors in contact with the juvenile court have a right on a motivated decision, the motivations are analyzed. It is examined whether a difference exists in the use of standard wording, the frequency and the interpretation of decision factors between motivations concerning non-psychiatric and psychiatric measures. The analysis shows that standard wording was more frequently used when applying non-psychiatric measures. The interpretation was also more diverse and different in the motivations of non-psychiatric measures. It is concluded that the measure applied influence which decision factors are mentioned in the motivations.