Adult Outcomes of Justice Involved Indigenous Youth

Abstract

Juvenile arrest serves as a critical turning point in the life-course that disrupts the successful transition to adulthood and carries numerous consequences including diminished socioeconomic status. Despite their disproportionately high rates of contact with the criminal justice system (CJS), Indigenous people’s experiences remain largely invisible in extant research. Further, colonization has left them in an extremely marginalized position in terms of social, economic, and political power, which is compounded by CJS involvement. In the current study, we apply propensity score matching to investigate whether being arrested in adolescence impacts early adult socioeconomic outcomes (i.e., education, employment, and income). Data come from the Healing Pathways project, a longitudinal, community-based participatory study of North American Indigenous young people that includes eight waves of data in adolescence and three waves in early adulthood. We find that being arrested at least once in adolescence is associated with higher rates of unemployment, not completing high school, and low income, and lower rates of full-time employment and post-secondary education in young adulthood (mean age = 26.2 years). Criminal justice system involvement widens existing socioeconomic disparities, and remedying these consequences requires changes in how CJS policies are enacted as well as larger structural changes to address significant inequities in income, education, and employment for Indigenous people.

Profiles of juveniles with sex offense charges referred for competence evaluations

“…Another particularly important finding is that youth of Indigenous descent are at increased risk of being opined incompetent among JSOs. Although Indigenous youth are incredibly underrepresented in the juvenile justice literature and further study on this population is needed [48], this finding aligns with a previous study that found Indigenous youth in New Zealand were more likely than youth of other backgrounds to be opined incompetent [49].…”

“…Available evidence suggests that Indigenous youth may experience differential treatment and outcomes as a result of juvenile justice involvement [48], and this may include measurement bias in assessment/evaluation procedures [50]. Previous research among adults referred for adjudicative competence evaluations has found that assessment items related to appreciation of charges and potential outcomes are more subjective and favorably biased toward White respondents, compared with respondents of color [51].…”

“…Another particularly important finding is that youth of Indigenous descent are at increased risk of being opined incompetent among JSOs. Although Indigenous youth are incredibly underrepresented in the juvenile justice literature and further study on this population is needed [48], this finding aligns with a previous study that found Indigenous youth in New Zealand were more likely than youth of other backgrounds to be opined incompetent [49]. Available evidence suggests that Indigenous youth may experience differential treatment and outcomes as a result of juvenile justice involvement [48], and this may include measurement bias in assessment/evaluation procedures [50].…”

“…Although Indigenous youth are incredibly underrepresented in the juvenile justice literature and further study on this population is needed [48], this finding aligns with a previous study that found Indigenous youth in New Zealand were more likely than youth of other backgrounds to be opined incompetent [49]. Available evidence suggests that Indigenous youth may experience differential treatment and outcomes as a result of juvenile justice involvement [48], and this may include measurement bias in assessment/evaluation procedures [50]. Previous research among adults referred for adjudicative competence evaluations has found that assessment items related to appreciation of charges and potential outcomes are more subjective and favorably biased toward White respondents, compared with respondents of color [51].…”

Disproportionately Punished, Yet Still Neglected: Variation in Official Police Responses to American Indian/Alaska Native Offending and Victimization

“…Although we are only able to examine arrests using these data, clearance patterns can shed important insight on broader police-community interactions (Cook 1979); recent research on the consequences of arrest among AIAN people has also demonstrated that arrest itself contributes to significant socioeconomic inequalities. Sittner and Estes (2020), for example, found that arrest of Indigenous youth was associated with higher rates of unemployment, lower income, and lower educational attainment, regardless of later criminal justice outcomes. But the decision to arrest a suspect is also hugely consequential in predicting other punishment outcomes (Shermer and Johnson 2010).…”