NCJ Number
85101
Journal
Sociological Quarterly Volume: 23 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1982) Pages: 267-279
Date Published
1982
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This research tests three hypotheses implicit in the societal reaction perspective, with data on approximately 3,300 juvenile court dispositions involving the members of a birth cohort of 1,100 violent juveniles.
Abstract
The results indicate, contrary to the implications of the labelling perspective, that defendants' social attributes play little role in this court's decisions. Two findings, however, provide some support for labellers' contentions. First, offense information predicts outcomes only moderately well. The discriminant analysis performed on the data indicates that the variables used in this and other models predict the imposition of extremely severe outcomes much better than they predict outcomes of lesser severity. Second, this court's previous responses to a youth play an important role in any subsequent disposition decisions. The importance of prior court responses in later decisions supports labellers' characterizations of courts as vortices. (Author abstract)