The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

139
Where are the cops going to spend their time They’re going to spend
their time where the action is and there is more action in the poor
neighborhoods.
Q. You think it’s based on social class rather than race. It just happens that
minorities typically fall into this class
A. I don’t believe that it just so happens but I don’t believe that it’s the
police force that is causing this to happen. I don’t believe it’s the juvenile
justice system that is causing this to happen...
I don’t know if it’s because of bias, that, I mean the way the police assign
their police officers, they’re going to assign them in the high crime area.
And my assumption is, is that high crime area is a poverty area and that’s
where a lot of your minorities or low income whites are gonna live and so
they are going to be more apt to be caught because police are assigned to
that area based on the crime. Their crime.
Overall, juvenile justice decision makers provided little information to suggest police are
biased towards nonwhites.
Access to Counsel
Two questions were asked in the interview of the decision makers concerning
access to counsel, “Are juvenile justice decisions affected by the youth’s access to certain
resources, such as retained counsel” Do whites get less severe sentences and more
favorable plea bargains because they are able to retain private counsel”. The vast
majority of decision makers felt that the type of counsel a youth does not make a
difference in what would happen to the youth, irrespective of the race or ethnicity of the
youth.
Very few retained counsel involved in our
proceedings. . .our counsel do a fine job.