The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

officers seems to be rather high. There are positive statements like: “She understand
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where I’m coming from a lot of the time” and “He listens to me.” On the other hand,
there are some youth that expressed negative feelings. These answers were simply “No.”
All of the black youth feel they have been treated fairly by their probation officers.
Again, in many cases, they have had only contact with one probation officer and only
volunteer information on that specific officer. Quotes from some of the black youth
include:
Yeah.
I think treats me fairly and she treats _________ (a white friend) fairly.
She’s cool. I like her. She’s very nice.
All of the Hispanic youth and Native American youth feel they have been treated
fairly by their probation officers. Each of their responses were brief and to the point. Just
a simple “Yeah.”
When asked about the probation officers treatment of all people, the response was
positive. Again, this feeling is supported with both the open ended interviews and the
closed ended self reports. The question asked was, “Do you feel that probation officers
treat all people alike” The majority of youth in the self reports believe probation officers
do not treat whites better than blacks (80 percent of the whites, 71 percent of the blacks).
Only 2 percent of the whites and 8 percent of the blacks feel probation officers
sometimes treat whites better than blacks. Only a small percentage of youth (2 percent of
the whites, 8 percent of the blacks) felt probation officers never treat whites better than