The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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Overall, most of the decision makers believed the findings from phase one of the
study did not accurately portray decision making in Woodbury county. Despite the
negative attitudes toward the research and findings, all of the staff were extremely helpful
in allowing the second phase of the project to be conducted. The quotes provided below
illustrate some of the decision makers’ views on Phase One of the study.
I don’t think that referrals to programs were coded in the right way
because most white kids get referred to ADAPT and to HANDS OFF.
Most of the white kids have big high school parties and when they get
busted there will be twenty to thirty kids at a time. Most white kids are
minor thefts and they will get referred
Q. So the programs being coded as informals would misrepresent the
number of white kids who were actually offered informals compared to
the black kids.
A. I think basically what you £aid...There is a definition of an informal
adjustment in the code and a diversion program is not what that
is. So I don’t think that that would define what happened to any of the kids
who went through a diversion program. If you start with inaccurate
statistics then whatever you would find would be inaccurate. I think the
people who did the study were poorly trained and did a lot of guessing in
the coding if they couldn’t find a definite answer.
I question the validity of the findings, the high turn over of workers, their
lack of training, and I estimate that approximately 20 percent of the data
was coded in error.
...didn’t like the study, it was a waste of the state’s money.
Those people from last years study looked at the cards and it’s right on the
back of the cards, and a lot of that stuff wouldn’t fit into what they were
trying to study. Because they were asking us, well where does this fit in
They just put it in someplace. And also, there was also a lady who worked
down there last year… the ... lady was black, and she