The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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decision makers have little exposure to this kind of learning experience. It is important to
note, however, that cultural sensitivity sessions would be meaningless if juvenile court
decision makers do not accept that there is a need for such sessions.
Recommendation: Use of Cultural and Gender Sensitivity
Training Sessions
As juvenile court personnel indicated in Woodbury county, there is a need to
provide internships to minorities and females attending high school or college. The
results from this study indicate that minority youth, for the most part, are distrustful of
the criminal and juvenile justice systems and generally, not interested in this kind of
occupation as a career. Thus, the use of interns and/or volunteers could be an effective
means to combat these two factors, as well as, provide diversity among the juvenile court
staff. Interns and volunteers with the proper training could also be on call to aid in
finding alternative methods for dealing with youth, short of detention facilities. These
people could help in providing transportation for those who lack such means. Interns and
volunteers could be also used with little financial cost to the juvenile court office.
Recommendation: Utilize Internships and Volunteers
The creation of a job line for a liaison worker would be also extremely beneficial
for diversification. In addition, a major theme and finding from the present research is
that minority families are perceived to be of the system which often entails a failure to
attend scheduled meetings and/or hold their children accountable for their behavior.
Many of the youth (both minorities and whites) also indicated that they often did not