African-American Youth in The Juvenile Justice System

comparable across states, and analyses that aggregate across jurisdictions may mask
important information. The data used in the analysis by Hamparian and colleagues vary
for the time period in which they were collected. Information from some of the states is
incomplete. Problems with assigning race or ethnicity are reflected in these statistics as
well.
This brief review, along with evidence cited in other chapters of this volume, strongly
suggests that there is racial disparity at various points in the juvenile justice system and
in various jurisdictions across the nation. The focus of the rest of this chapter is not to
further document disparity, since the evidence appears fairly clear, despite the
limitations of existing data. Some of the nation's minority juveniles, most notably blacks,
experience higher rates of arrest and further justice system involvement than do whites.
The remainder of this chapter examines the research findings that may prove helpful for
efforts to better interpret and understand these disparities and identify areas in which
research or action is most urgently needed. Earlier in the chapter, contrasting
explanations of disproportionality were raised. The first—attributing the disparity to the
behavior of the youth—suggests that the disparity is an accurate or reasonable
reflection of the extent of involvement in delinquent and criminal behavior by these
youth. The second perspective—attributing the disparity to
the justice system—emphasizes the persistent effect of bias among decision makers in
the juvenile justice system. We first consider the evidence for race differences in
delinquent behavior and then consider evidence of bias in the juvenile justice system.
Behavior-Based Explanations
To explore the possibility that the racial disparity observed in rates of justice system
involvement arises as a result of racial differences in criminal conduct, the possibility of
error in crime data must first be entertained. Errors could lead to the appearance of
racial disparity that, on closer examination, can be shown not to exist. Then, to the
extent that racial disparity can be shown to exist, its causes must be explored. In the
field of juvenile and criminal justice research, there are several measures that have
been used to determine the extent of criminal behavior. In Chapter 2, the issues of
measuring delinquency and crime were discussed and it was pointed out that none of
the measures is without problems. There is fairly good agreement that the best
approach to measuring crime is to use multiple sources of information (Farrington,
1998; Loeber et al., 1998b; National Research Council, 1993). The use of multiple
sources of information may be especially rewarding for efforts to understand the
sources and causes of racial and ethnic disparity.
The three most common approaches to measuring delinquency and crime —self-report
surveys, victimization surveys, and official arrest and conviction statistics—all indicate
high rates of serious offending among young blacks. While studies using differing
methods and sources of data are not in agreement on the magnitude of differences in
rates of involvement in youth crime across racial, ethnic, and social class categories,
most research does show important differences, particularly with regard to race.
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