The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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decision making from a broad perspective. The rationale for utilizing this approach was
to possibly get a clearer understanding of the values and views of the decision makers.
This in turn, was believed to allow for some insights into possible unintentional or
indirect forms of biases in decision making.
Thus, my purpose was not to identify or label persons or agencies as racist. My
goal was to arrive at some conclusions as to why blacks and other minorities receive
different treatment relative to whites. These conclusions could be based on legal and
extralegal factors and/or the presence of indirect forms of race or class biases.
Research Methods
Sampling and Distributions
All of the probation officers working at Black Hawk, Woodbury, Polk, and Scott
counties participated in this phase of the research. Supervisors and the Chief Juvenile
Court Officers at each of the four counties were also interviewed. Efforts were made to
include public defenders, prosecutors, referees, and judges, though not all of these
individuals agreed to participate in the study. Those that did participate, responded first to
a series of questions where they chose from a set of answers. Next, the decision makers
were interviewed and allowed to provide as much information as they wanted to on a
variety of topics. These open ended interviews were taped and later transcribed.