The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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outcomes is as follows: adjudicated delinquent=O; case dismissed or adjudication
withheld=1. Juveniles awaiting adult waiver hearings were not included in the analysis at
this stage.
Judicial Disposition. As noted by Bishop and Frazier (1988:248) next to the
death penalty, transfer to the adult court is the most severe sanction a youth can receive in
the juvenile justice system. Therefore, cases that resulted in either a change of placement
(e.g., training school, residential facility, group home) or transfer to adult court are coded
0. Referrals that involved a sentence of probation and/or treatment within the community
are coded 1.
Independent Variables
The independent variables include extralegal or social characteristics and
information pertaining to prior and current offenses and involvement with the juvenile
justice system. The analysis was limited to whites, blacks, and when appropriate,
American Native Indians. Other social characteristics are age (interval), gender (male=0,
female=1), school status (attending=O, attending but academic or behavioral problems=1,
and dropout=2), and family structure (two parent members present=0, one parent member
present=1). Both race/ethnicity and school status were treated as dummy variables in the
analyses, with whites and attending school the reference groups, respectively.