The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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tend to be drawn to gang activities more than whites.
A couple of decision makers, however, did indicate the focus by police on blacks
and the inner cities may be a central factor.
When I first started here I noticed the disproportionate number of blacks in
the system and I kind of compared the percentage of the population to
what I saw come through here and I didn’t see a difference here. I have
heard those same statistics about other parts of the country and perhaps
that is changing here also. But, I think that may have to do primarily with
the fact that the inner city areas are mostly minorities and because of the
conditions in those areas; economic, family structure, school. I think that
the police focus more on those areas and I also think that there is a real
difference between those kinds of crime blacks commit, violent crimes,
and the white collar crimes that a lot of the white youth are committing.
There is a high proportion of minorities in the inner city. They are more
visible and they are targeted, but it is not because they are black. It is
because of where they live.
Overall, a majority (61 percent) of the decision makers do not feel that the race of
a delinquent influences the likelihood of referral (Table 10, 11). Fifty percent said almost
never to never are blacks treated differently than whites. The other 50 percent, however,
said always, most of the time or sometimes blacks are treated differently. Only a very
small minority of the decision makers believed race differences exist at any of the
specific stages in the proceedings.
During the interview, the decision makers were asked if they saw race bias in the
system. Some thought that bias does occur and that this is reflected by either harsher or
different treatment of blacks. There were a couple of people, however, who