The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

47
certainly believe that it occurs in their interactions with these kids.
In the past yes. But, I think there has been an improvement and I think part
of it is with the current administration. The current administration has said
that we will not be racist but I think that sometimes you still get that in
some officers. Every once and a while you get the feel for a case and it is
unspoken, but it is there and sometimes not.
Access to Counsel
Two questions were asked in the interview of the decision makers concerning
access to counsel, “Are juvenile justice decisions affected by the youth’s access to certain
resources, such as retained counsel” and “Do whites get less severe sentences and more
favorable plea bargains because they are able to retain private counsel” Answers to these
questions were about the same. The majority believed that counsel was not important and
private counsel does not provide for better treatment for whites than blacks.
Yes blacks have a greater tendency to not be able to get their own counsel,
but I don’t think that affects the outcome because the public defenders we
have probably deal with more of those cases and have a better perception
of the juvenile system.
There were a few officers who felt that the type of counsel did impact the case outcome.
They, however, did not believe differences were evident for blacks in contrast to whites.
Absolutely, and it isn’t necessarily because they defer to an affluent
child’s socially prominent position but an affluent family could afford to
put a kid into an expensive and elaborate treatment program that didn’t
necessarily require the involvement of the