The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

denied that any race bias whatsoever exists in the system. There were a number of
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officers also who did not answer the question.
I think that society tends to deal with their minority youth much more
harshly for the same crimes as non-minority persons and that is evident by
the number of minorities in prison. Society has chosen to deal with, and
this is just my personal opinion, minorities and the problems they have
and run into by locking them up.
I think that there is still, in our society, a perpetuation of the racist
philosophy and the gender thing, the old values of society... that males and
females are treated differently and that blacks and whites are treated
differently. I think those persist.
I don’t see any race bias in the system. We are professionals, trained and
selected among several candidates. We are selected to look at the facts of
the case and make that decision based on the individual and the facts of
the case. If we weren’t doing our job properly we wouldn’t be employed
very long.
When an individual is detained, at no point and time is there information
given as to his race. He is detained on the basis of the crime he has
committed.
Specific Findings
Decision makers were asked for their input or feelings concerning findings from
the first phase of the research.. That phase involved the recording of information from
case files on case processing and case outcomes for black youth and white youth in Polk
county. For the most part, the results for Polk county were not very controversial and
therefore most officers agreed with all of the findings. A few did have interesting
comments or explanations for the observed effects.