The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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concerning the presence or absence of parents in the household. This variable, however,
fails to give any indication of the quality of supervision and/or support that may or may
not be present in the household. The attitude and the willingness of the child and parents
to cooperate were also not controlled for in the analyses. Each of these factors could play
a very significant role in deciding what is in the best interests of the youth.
An additional weakness of the research design of the first phase of the study is the
absence of input from decision makers and youth concerning a number of factors that
may impact case processing and case outcomes. For example, no attempt was made to
ask the decision makers for their views on the findings or what the youth themselves may
have to say about the police or the juvenile court.
Concomitantly, the findings from the first phase of the research could reflect what
it really going on in terms of decision making. That is, decision makers may be treating
youth differently on the basis of their race.
Most individuals do not see themselves as racist or treating someone differently
because of their skin color, ethnicity or culture. Yet, most individuals to varying degrees
are influenced by people who are different from themselves. Our failure to recognize this,
in part, stems from how we as a society generally define racism. All too often most
individuals perceive the terms “racism” or “racist” in “black and white” terms without
considerations of degrees. Thus, racism is generally viewed in a