The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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I don’t, I really don’t know what to say. The first thing that I think of
would be that people in the system are afraid to, that prejudice will, some
people are afraid to strap a black youth, because they’re fearful of the
prejudice thing. They won’t reprimand a black child or an Indian child of a
Hispanic child for fear that there is racial bias. That they’re doing it just
‘cause he’s black. Sometimes they’re more lenient because he is a
minority. That would be the only reason I could think of.. .He has that
record that’s accumulating and before, and I think that’s a fault of the
system, instead of trying to deal with that particular child, even though
there’s a lack of communication and cultural differences and
misunderstandings, instead of dealing with him at that level it’s a lot easier
not to. . . take that kid out of here, take him home. That type of behavior is
done in our office all the time. They’re given an informal. Just the lack of
communication between the race...
Maybe they theorize that older blacks are involved in more gang activity
than whites. I don’t know that, I’m just throwing that out as a speculation.
Q. So you’re speculating that because of the concern about older black
kids and gangs, that might be a factor
A. It might be, particularly if the charge has anything to do with weapons.
The gang thing could be a possibility...
The only thing I can think of is that a lot 0 of the black kids hang around
in the same group. I wouldn’t call it a gang but it’s like if you know so and
so then you’ll probably be coming to court. A lot of the white kids are in a
lot of the diversion programs.
Q. Do you mean to say that if a kid is in a gang that he is probably more
likely to be brought in
A. Well, I think that would come into the interviewer’s mind and I think
that the kid would have to come up with some pretty positive things to
offset the gang membership. That’s the only thing I can think of...
The only factor I could really see there would be whether or not, again,
that the family may