The Disproportionate Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in ...

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parent and they don’t have a phone or they have a single parent and the
mom can’t say that she going to be able to watch him for 24 hours and that
she will report if he violates because she is going to have to be at work.
So, what you have, is a lot of black kids in detention because they can’t
get out using the same exit devices that the middle class white kids can or
even the poor white kids because they at least usually have a phone and
poor black kids usually don’t.
Overall, a large majority of the decision makers do not feel that the race of a
delinquent influences the likelihood of referral (Tables 10, 11). A split, however, exists as
to whether black youth are treated differently than white youth. Only a small minority of
the decision makers believed race differences exist at any of the specific stages in the
proceedings.
Race Findings Specific to Study
Decision makers were asked for their input or feelings concerning the findings
from the first phase of the research. That phase involved the recording of information
from case files on case processing and case outcomes for black youth and white youth in
Black Hawk County.
Blacks/#Current Charges Referred to Petition
The first race finding was evident at the stage of intake, where an interaction
existed between being black and the number of current charges and the likelihood of
receiving a recommendation to the stage of petition (controlling for other legal and
extralegal factors). Blacks with more current charges where more likely than whites with
more current charges to be