The Impact of Concentrated Affluence and Disadvantage on the Pre-Adjudication Detention Decision: A Status Characteristics Approach

Abstract

Studies of racial disparities in juvenile justice are primarily organized around four theoretical frameworks: focal concerns, racial threat, symbolic threat, and attribution theory. Moreover, juvenile justice research sometimes neglects to pay close attention to the front-end outcome of pre-adjudication detention. Therefore, the present study contends that status characteristics theory may broaden our understanding of how and why disparities in pre-adjudication detention arise. Moreover, the present study seeks to find how juvenile justice disparities in pre-adjudication detention emerge across races, among other social, legal, and community factors. Therefore, the present study focuses on the pre-adjudication detention decisions of judges and probation officers, utilizing quantitative data from the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice and merged with American Community Survey data.

What Context Matters and at What Level? A Test of Racial/Ethnic Threat, Symbolic Threat, and Structural Inequality Perspectives in Juvenile Court Decision-Making

“…Taking a mixed-methods approach, Rodriguez (2013) locates micro-level attributions in court records containing probation officers’ statements about a youth’s culpability and social environment and uses these remarks to explain racial/ethnic disparities in secure confinement decisions. Furthermore, Lowery and Smith (2020) introduce Status Characteristics Theory (SAT) to describe how group-based expectations form the foundation of a “ranking system” in a juvenile court context, whereby individuals associated with high-status groups (i.e., the affluent, well-educated, or White collar class) receive far better court outcomes than those tied to low-status groups (i.e., the impoverished, less-well-educated, or underemployed; for original articulations of SAT, see Berger et al, 1972; Unnever & Hembroff, 1988). Implicit bias training offers another opportunity to highlight partialities held among court officials (Levinson et al, 2017).…”

Racial disparities in youth pretrial detention: a retrospective cohort study grounded in critical race theory

“…In the currently available literature, several factors other than race have been shown to be predictors of pretrial detention. Legal predictors, or factors related to the offense or offense history, include variables such as prior offenses, severity of offense, and type of offense (e.g., personal or property) (Armstrong & Rodriguez, 2005;Bishop et al, 2010;Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010). Regarding social characteristics, a few studies have shown that measures of "concentrated disadvantage" or "structural disadvantage" predict pretrial detention (Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010).…”

“…Legal predictors, or factors related to the offense or offense history, include variables such as prior offenses, severity of offense, and type of offense (e.g., personal or property) (Armstrong & Rodriguez, 2005;Bishop et al, 2010;Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010). Regarding social characteristics, a few studies have shown that measures of "concentrated disadvantage" or "structural disadvantage" predict pretrial detention (Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010). Conversely, "concentrated affluence" has been associated with a decreased likelihood of pretrial detention (Lowery & Smith, 2020).…”

“…Regarding social characteristics, a few studies have shown that measures of "concentrated disadvantage" or "structural disadvantage" predict pretrial detention (Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010). Conversely, "concentrated affluence" has been associated with a decreased likelihood of pretrial detention (Lowery & Smith, 2020). Specific social variables shown to predict pretrial detention include youth who were not attending school, youth with lower family incomes, and youth that lived in single-parent households (Armstrong & Rodriguez, 2005;Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010).…”

“…Conversely, "concentrated affluence" has been associated with a decreased likelihood of pretrial detention (Lowery & Smith, 2020). Specific social variables shown to predict pretrial detention include youth who were not attending school, youth with lower family incomes, and youth that lived in single-parent households (Armstrong & Rodriguez, 2005;Lowery & Smith, 2020;Rodriguez, 2010).…”