The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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One white male who felt he was treated unfairly said his probation officer was
really not helping him. “After I got out, he threatened to set me in here, cause he was
hoping I’d stay in here longer.” Of the blacks who felt they were treated unfairly by their
probation officer one black male said, “ I thought training school was enough but they
sent me here.”
The youth were asked if they felt probation officers treat all people alike. Ninetythree
percent of both the whites and the blacks replied sometimes or most of the time to
always. These results contrast those from the interviews.
In the interviews, the black youth split: half feeling probation officer’s treat
everyone alike and the other half feeling probation officer’s treated youth differently.
Similar to the self reports, the interviews indicated that the majority of whites believed
that probation officers treated all people alike.
A black female indicated that a probation officer will treat a youth in the same
way that the she treats the probation officer. “Yeah, the person when they first meet them
and stuff they are nice to them at first and it seems like they are open and truthful about
what they are saying but when there is a person who is kind of mean and rude and doesn’t
talk about something they might not let them off as easy.”
Because of his experience with the system a black male believed that the
probation officers treated people fairly. “I think they treat them the same, like when I
came here I see a majority of whites being locked up, and maybe a month I’m in here