The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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. . . level of supervision and administration could be better
...provide some assistance to officers.
Frustration with the state was more prominent of a theme than with the supervision of
their own office. Most officers seemed to be content with their job and role as a juvenile
justice decision maker.
Race Differences in General
Crime
Juvenile justice decision makers were asked if they believed blacks commit
different crimes and more crime in contrast to whites. Responses to these closed ended
questions and others are presented in Tables six and seven. A large percentage of the
personnel did not agree with the statement that blacks commit different crimes than
whites (76 percent strongly disagreed/disagreed) or more crime (58 percent strongly
disagreed/disagreed). Twenty-four percent, however, agreed with the latter statement.
The dominant theme from the interviews is that black youth do not commit more crime
and/or more serious crime. There are some officers, however, who believe that minorities
commit different kinds of crimes.
Actually, I would say that what I have seen here, it would seem that the
minorities are involved in more of the petty charges, the theft, the
shoplifting, the property crimes, whereas what I see...the typical white kid
will be here on a car theft or a car stereo theft which is more of a higher
value of a crime ... white delinquents ... are more serious.