The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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I think some of them have to prove themselves in their own little
community; they see who is the toughest and the meanest and I think it is
just for show, status among themselves.
Distrust of the System
The decision makers in Scott County generally felt that attitude played an
important role in the arrests of minorities. However, not all believe black youth are less
cooperative or respectful toward the authorities. Half of the personnel believe that blacks
sometimes have a poorer attitude than whites. But 42 percent believe that there is just as
much trouble with white youth as minorities. Meanwhile, a majority of decision makers
think that black youth are less likely to admit guilt (57 percent responded sometimes
while 36 percent answered almost never). It is believed that this is due to the way blacks
were raised and their overall distrust of the system (79 percent responded that blacks
were more distrustful of the system always or most of the time, while the remaining 21
percent responded sometimes)(Table 6,7). This lack of respect and cooperation is
perceived to increase the chances of an arrest and/or reduce efforts at rehabilitation.
I think they have a lack of respect for the system because they think it is
discriminatory. And the purpose of the juvenile court system is to
rehabilitate the people that come before it and if you don’t get cooperation
with the rehabilitation efforts, you are likely to get recidivism.
I think it goes back to the distrust of the system. Every time a police car
goes through the neighborhood and people yell stuff at them it doesn’t
give children any respect for law enforcement. But then again, in my
opinion, there are a lot of law enforcers who don’t have respect for these
people. And people treat you how you treat them.
A lot of the black minority youth are more suspicious of anybody in the
system, have much less respect for any type of authority, and they’re very,
very verbal about what they say.