NCJ Number
116364
Journal
Western Journal of Black Studies Volume: 9 Issue: 4 Dated: (1985) Pages: 189-197
Date Published
1985
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This paper critically reviews prior research both supporting and not supporting racial bias in the disposition of black and white juveniles.
Abstract
The large body of research examining police, intake, and judicial dispositions of black and white youth have produced inconsistent findings with regard to class and racial discrimination. An examination of these studies indicates a variety of methodological weaknesses. Early studies often lacked statistical controls and employed a variety of tabular and multivariate techniques, thus making comparative analyses difficult. Comparison among studies is also complicated by the operationalization of offense classes to seriousness hierarchies. A similar problem is found with respect to the operationalization of socioeconomic status. Finally, the dichotimization of dispositions ignores the reality of the wide range of dispositional categories and can lead to misinterpretation. Cohen and Kluegals' (1978) study, often sited as methodologically superior, also has many flaws: the operationalization of class in terms of income ranges, the treatment of race (white, nonwhite) and prior record as dichotomies, loosely constructed offense categories, the arbitrary rating of dispositional severity, and the use of log linear analysis. Finally, multiple regression and partial correlation techniques may prove distorting because of the complex causal networks that exist in real life among variables; and there is an acknowledged relationship between research design and findings. 40 references.