The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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of our diversion programs as quickly because we may not have parents
that are supportive out there. That are saying ‘your’re picking on my child.
Leave me alone’.
...Having a single parent in itself doesn’t mean anything but it does
translate into a lesser ability to supervise the child due to simply the time
and energy that’s available to a single parent... In some of the minority
families we see a lack of male modeling. . . at the same time, I think they
seem to de—emphasize education as being a value.
Other decision makers stated that they did not believe in the statistics that
minorities are disproportionately overrepresented in secure facilities. Some also argued
that blacks adhere to racist attitudes and because of the kind of music they listen to are
likely to espouse values indicative of violence. Here, the underlying theme of the failure
of minority youth to abide in general, to the white middle—class norms of society again
emerges.
Blacks I don’t agree with. I don’t feel that they are disproportionately
represented. I’ve only seen two to three blacks in the six months that I’ve
been here. I’ve never had a black female, and I see very few blacks come
through our office. So I have a hard time with that one. The Mexican
community, I think a lot of it has to do with their cultural sensitivity. This
was explained to me by one of the mothers. The Mexican male is
supposed to be very macho. They have to prove themselves. They are
taught that way by their parents, hence the gangs. Gangs encourage these
kids to commit the crimes, they get into drugs, and we start seeing a lot of
them. We’ve also had a high influx of the Hispanic community into this
area because of IBP and John Morrell. A lot of these people come into this
country and come right up here. They don’t have a chance to get used to
the United States or understand how we work.
Q. I wasn’t referring to what’s going on just in Sioux City. The
disproportionate