NCJ Number
146875
Date Published
1993
Length
308 pages
Annotation
This study examines the extent of the overrepresentation and overconfinement of minorities in the Ohio juvenile justice system and the factors contributing to this overrepresentation.
Abstract
This study expands on research that has shown that minority youths are represented in the criminal justice and correctional systems in far greater proportions than their representation in the total youth population. Previous studies also found that at each stage of processing, minorities are subjected to more severe outcomes. One of the objectives of this study was to develop an offender-based transaction approach for assessing differences in juvenile justice case processing and outcomes for white and minority offenders. It also sought to evaluate the effect of demographics, social environment, social process, legal and case history characteristics on differential decisionmaking during the various stages of the criminal justice process. The study analyzed event histories of juveniles in the court system to determine if there factors involved during the early stages of intervention that later led to more severe outcomes in terms of rearrest, re-referral or probation violation. Another objective was to simulate how decisions about arrest, referral, intake, detention, charging, adjudication, disposition and commitments would be made if the race of the offender were unknown to the juvenile justice decisionmakers. A summary of the study findings is presented along with suggestions for policy discussions aimed at the reform of the juvenile justice system. tables, appendixes