The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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According to the Hispanic youth this was not due to race. Hispanic youth simply did not
know any blacks or did not associate with them socially to any degree.
Perceptions of Police
In order to keep the following perceptions of the youth interviewed in perspective,
some background may be helpful. Contact with the police seemed to be more frequent
with the black youth, which would give them a broader base to draw from in their
responses during the interviews. There was only one case in which this was the first
offense for a black youth. The white youth interviewed in Woodbury county, as a whole,
seemed to range from middle class to lower upper class youth. Only a very few of the
youth were chronic offenders; many were first time offenders. All of the black and white
youth claim they have overall respect for the police.
The majority of the interviewed Native American and Hispanic youth of
Woodbury county have had extensive contact with the police. There were only a select
few that were first time offenders and offered responses based on minimal contact with
the police.
Treatment
The treatment youth feel they receive from police officers is the next topic to be
addressed. Results from the self reports show that more whites, than do blacks, felt the
police treat them fairly most of the time (47 percent of the whites, 23 percent of the
blacks). Blacks (53 percent) felt they were treated fair sometimes