The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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(They are) unable to secure a job at a young age or having no jobs
available for them with their lack of skills, then they fill that void in any
way they possibly can. I think that that’s probably one of the biggest
reasons that we have a lot of what we have go on in juvenile court. The
kids are taking care of needs that aren’t being taken care of by parents.
The fact of the matter is that while there is crime throughout our city, the
high crime rates tend to be in certain geographic parts of the city where
there are either large hispanic populations or large black population. But
even though that is where our black and hispanic populations live, they
aren’t the major group in those neighborhoods. So, it isn’t like it is all
black or anything. The police patrol there in high concentrations because
that is where the high crime rates are. That is where there are more
burglaries, more assaults, more car thefts, more vandalism. . . and with
increased supervision by the police there are going to be more arrests.
Some of it is due to economics, if that is true. The attitudes of any persons
in the system could affect the treatment of a child differently because of
their race.
I think it is economics and somewhat disillusionment with the system
because of discrimination. I don’t think that black people or minorities feel
that they can get an even break in society and sometimes they use that as
an excuse to commit crimes. But, primarily, I think it is an economic
question. I think that society discriminates against minorities in relation to
the availability of work and promotion, therefore they tend to have less
economic opportunity than whites do. I don’t necessarily think that it is
intentional in every case, but I think that there is a certain amount of
subconscious discrimination to what goes on.