African-American Youth in The Juvenile Justice System

Working with Police
The OJJDP data over the last 20 years clearly shows arrests have the largest level of
minority overrepresentation, however OJJDP formula grants don't affect police
departments because they are funded through other sources that don't have DMC
components. A local police department doesn't have as much incentive to work on DMC
reduction efforts as other entities that get OJJDP formula grants, experts say.
It's often difficult for states to build relationships and work with police departments to
gain enough trust to allow them to go in and study the issue, said Michael J. Leiber, a
criminology professor at the University of South Florida and the former chair of Iowa’s
DMC Committee. That's why many of the studies of the DMC mandate have not
included police and focus instead on the courts, he added.
"It's up to the police to say I'll let you in," Leiber said. "I'm not defending the police, but
they are jumped on all the time for police brutality and racial profiling. They're sensitive
about people coming in to study them and feel they would be attacked. For a researcher
to get in is very difficult."
OJJDP has recognized that there is a need to focus on the front part of the system,
DMC Coordinator Coleman said. It was only until 2002, when the law was broadened to
disproportionate minority contact, that OJJDP was able to legally address arrests, she
added. Prior to that their efforts were focused on correctional facilities.
Coleman cites an example in Connecticut where the state has looked at DMC arrests
since 2005 and developed a training curriculum for patrol officers. Police departments
who sent officers to get certified in the training would then be eligible to apply for OJJDP
formula grants for police and youth community service projects. The state has seen a
40 percent reduction in black youth arrests since 2006, she said.
"It's only been in probably the last three years that states have really started to
concentrate looking at disproportionality in arrests," Coleman said. "I think over the next
several years, we'll start to see those numbers come down at the front part of the
system. "It's impossible to know the exact amount of government funds that have gone
toward reducing DMC since 1988 because addressing minority contact is only one of
four criteria that states must comply with when vying for formula grants. What's more,
once states receive the grant, it's up to them to determine how much is spent on DMC
reduction efforts.
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