Examining the Relationship Between Race and Juvenile Court Decision-Making: A Counterfactual Approach

Abstract

Prior research has found that disproportionate minority contact (DMC) is a problem at various decision-making points in the juvenile justice system. This study addresses two limitations often found in prior DMC research: (1) a focus on a single court and/or a single stage of the juvenile court process and (2) methodological problems in comparing youth of different races who are otherwise similarly situated. Nearest neighbor matching is used to examine the relationship between race and five juvenile court outcomes-pre-adjudication detention, case dismissal, adjudication, secure confinement, and waiver to criminal court-in a sample of over 50,000 youth referred to seven juvenile courts. After matching youth on multiple legal and extralegal variables, results indicate that non-White youth were significantly more likely than White youth to be detained prior to adjudication, placed in a secure confinement facility postadjudication, and waived to criminal court. Keywords race, juvenile court decision-making, counterfactual methods, disproportionate minority contact One of the most often documented aspects of the juvenile justice system over the past 100 years has been the pronounced disproportionality in the processing of White and non-White juveniles (Bishop, 2005). Research consistently finds that minority youth-primarily African Americans and Hispanics-are overrepresented at every stage in the juvenile court process. Specifically, minority youth tend to be disproportionately petitioned to juvenile court (

Understanding the Subgroup Complexities of Transfer: The Impact of Juvenile Race and Gender on Waiver Decisions

“…3 Of this research, the individual effect of race on transfer decisions has resulted in conflicting findings (Puzzanchera & Hockenberry, 2015). Some studies reported that a juvenile’s race predicts waiver (Bishop & Frazier, 1996; Brown & Sorensen, 2013; Cheesman et al, 2010; Gann, 2018; Mears & Field, 2000), while other studies suggest no relationship (Cauffman et al, 2007; Leiber & Mack, 2003; Mears et al, 2014; Poulos & Orchowsky, 1994).…”

How Universal Is Disproportionate Minority Contact? An Examination of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Processing across Four States

“…Although there have been hundreds of studies of racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system (see Spinney et al, 2018), studies that focus on multiple states are not as common. In addition, despite a recent increase in studies that examine multiple jurisdictions (see, e.g., Gann, 2019), no studies to date have examined differences in DMC across them. This gap is notable given the mixed evidence of racial and ethnic disparities across multiple stages of juvenile justice processing (see Bishop & Leiber, 2012;Bishop, Leiber, & Johnson, 2010).…”

Disproportionate Minority Contact: An Expanded Examination of how Threat of Violent and Sexual Offending Impacts Court Outcomes

“…Secure confinement can be considered the most severe outcome in the juvenile justice system, given its lifelong consequences noted above. Disproportionate confinement is also evident postadjudication (Gann, 2019), though perhaps less so than at the preadjudication stage (Spinney et al, 2018). Only 5 of 13 reviewed disproportionate minority contact studies found overrepresentation or mixed findings for Latinx adolescents, and 10 of 20 studies noted Black adolescents were overrepresented or demonstrated mixed findings in use of postadjudication secure confinement (Spinney et al, 2018).…”

“…Black and Latinx adolescents are overrepresented among youth in preadjudication detention (Chappell, 2019; Gann, 2019; Guevara et al, 2006; Lowery & Smith, 2020). Preadjudication detention is significantly associated with decreased likelihood of more favorable outcomes in later court processing, such as probation versus secure confinement (Cochran & Mears, 2015; Guevara et al, 2018).…”