The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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result of an active policy which calls for the destruction of files and informing youth of
their right to have files sealed two years after the closure of the case. From this total, a
random sample of referrals of delinquent cases identified as white (n= 713 from 2,854)
were selected for the analyses. Black youth were also randomly chosen but oversampled
to create a racial comparison group (n=710 from 1,225). All Hispanic and other minority
groups were collected (n=187). The total sample for this county is 1,423.
Variables
Five stages were identified in Iowa’s juvenile justice system. Each of these stages
were treated as dependent variables. Eleven independent variables were included in the
analyses. The inclusion of these variables was justified by: (1) past research and (2)
preliminary analyses using chi-squares and zero—order correlations.
Dependent Variables: Most studies of juvenile justice decision making typically
fail to treat detention as a stage in the proceedings. This omission has been criticized
because detention status has been found to have a cumulative impact on later decision
making (e.g., Bortner and Reed, 1985). Although this variable is of great importance, it
could not be included a dependent variable in the study due to the small number of
persons who were detained throughout the entire process.
Intake. Decisions at this point in the system are made by juvenile court officers.
Here, a youth may be released, receive