The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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Black Hawk County: At the stage of intake, blacks with more current charges
where more likely than whites who were similarly situated to be referred on to petition.
The second race finding was evident at the judicial disposition stage where black youth
who dropped out of school were more likely than whites who dropped out of school and
other youth to receive an outcome of a change of placement. The research from the first
phase of the study also yielded a gender effect. Females were more likely than males to
receive a disposition of a change of placement, controlling for all relevant legal and
extralegal factors.
Woodbury County: At the stage of intake, an interaction existed between race and age.
Younger blacks were released while older blacks were recommended to the stage of
petition. Two additional effects were also present at intake. Native American Indians
under court authority and Native American Indians charged with a more serious crime
were released more often than other similarly situated youth. At petition, both blacks and
Native American Indians were less likely to be petitioned than whites.
Polk County: No race effects were evident in this county. However, detention
appears to be a very significant factor in determining case processing and case outcomes.
Preliminary analyses also suggest that an indirect effect may exist between race and
detention. That is, black youth seem to be subjected to detention more often than white
youth and in turn, detention thereafter impacts with the likelihood of receiving a more
severe outcome. Contrary to the finding in Black Hawk county, females are more likely
than males to receive an outcome of community—based treatment rather than a change of
placement at judicial disposition.