Juveniles

Juveniles Overrepresentation of minorities in the juvenile justice system is well established. On a national level, minority youths are arrested in numbers greatly disproportionate to their numbers in the general population. While black youths comprise approximately 15% of the ten to seventeen year old populations at risk for delinquency, recent figures indicate that they constitute approximately 28% of youths arrested (Engen; et al.). Further, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's "Children in Custody" census, minority overrepresentation increases dramatically as one moves beyond arrest to later stages in processing. For example, minorities constitute approximately 62% of youths held in short-term detention facilities, and approximately 60% of those committed to "deep end" long-term institutional programs (Engen; et al.). Quite apart from issues related either to the extent or causes of differential minority involvement in crime, a number of researchers have expressed concern about whether the juvenile justice system operates with a selection bias that differentially disadvantages minority youths. Race Effects in Juvenile Justice Decision-Making: Findings of a Statewide Analysis This study was divided into two parts. In Part I, the researchers reported the findings of quantitative analyses conducted using official records of cases juvenile, justice, race, african, youths, minority, system, youth, status, racial, processing, frazier, bishop, mental, likely, court, health, white, americans, american, whites, intake, family, mack, leiber, findings, et, al, social, service, referred, officials, gender, feld, compared