African-American Youth in The Juvenile Justice System

density, infant deaths, and poverty (Sampson, 1987,1992). Where a family lives affects
the nature of opportunities available for its children and adults. In some communities,
public transportation permits easy travel for those who do not own automobiles, allowing
residents to take advantage of opportunities for employment and entertainment outside
the neighborhood. In communities that lack these opportunities and resources, street
corner gatherings offer possibilities for illegal activities. Neighborhoods can also
influence children's behavior by providing examples of socially acceptable behaviors
and actions. For example, gang activities vary by community (Curry and Spergel, 1988;
Horowitz, 1987).
There is no other racial or ethnic group in the United States of comparable size whose
members are nearly as likely to grow up in neighborhoods of concentrated urban
poverty as are blacks (Sampson, 1987; Wilson, 1987). While there are more poor white
than black families in absolute number, poor white families are less likely to live in areas
where most of their neighbors are also poor (Chin, 1996; Moore, 1978, 1991; Padilla,
1992; Pinderhughes, 1997; Sullivan, 1989; Vigil, 1988; Vigil and Yun, 1990).
In an examination of long-term trends in the segregation of blacks and recent trends in
the segregation of blacks, Hispanics, and Asians,
Massey has suggested that blacks are unique among groups in showing very high
levels of segregation and isolation (Massey, 2000:1):
As of 1990, the degree of segregation was so severe, and occurred on so many
dimensions simultaneously, that it was called “hypersegregation. ” This pattern of
extreme segregation is unique to African Americans and is unrelated to their economic
status and unexplained by their housing preferences. . . . High levels of African
American segregation have interacted with recent shifts in the income distribution and
class segregation to produce unusually high concentrations of poverty among African
Americans. The spatial isolation of poor African Americans has, in turn, elevated the
risks of educational failure, joblessness, unwed parenthood, crime, and mortality.
Effects of deleterious neighborhoods have been studied in relation to both immigrants
and blacks (e.g., Shaw and McKay, 1969). Recent research has focused on
ethnographic studies of youthful gang members and drug dealers (Bourgois, 1995),
although the link between drug use and minority status has a long history in the United
States (e.g., Helmer, 1975).
Spatial isolation has been a consequence, in part, of social policies. Taxes promoted an
exodus of jobs from the cities, where impoverished blacks lived in public housing that
was restricted by ordinances to locations removed from job opportunities. Racial
discrimination in housing, enforced by restrictive covenants and threats of violence, set
a pattern that left blacks more clearly segregated than other minorities (Jackson, 1985;
McCord, 1997c; Robinson, 1993; Sampson and Lauritsen, 1997; Wade, 1972). The
resulting disparities may explain at least part of the differential exposure to risks by
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