The involvement of the youth from minority racial groups in criminal justice is a major issue that faces the criminal justice system of the US (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). For instance, it is noted that Black youth are only about 12 to 17 per cent of the juvenile population of the whole country (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). Nevertheless, it is also recorded that Black youth constitute some 50 per cent of the arrests on property and make up over a third of the entire juvenile offenses that involve violence (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). Literature reports an overrepresentation of black youths in shelter, correctional and detention facilities as well (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). A child in Custody Census completed in 1985 indicated that more than 37 per cent of the youth in such facilities were Black, which is an additional indicator of racial disparities in US juvenile justice system (Hartney and Vuong, 2009).
This paper explores the nature and extent of racial disparities in juvenile criminal justice of the US concerning the detention decisions. First, it explores both the historical and contemporary evidence that points at such disparities. Another part of the work explores the role played by racial bias in juvenile criminal justice as it concerns the placement of the youth in detention. Lastly, this work recommends the best approaches of dealing with racial disparities concerning detention within the juvenile criminal justice system. Based on this outline, this work reports the existence of racial bias throughout the history of juvenile criminal justice as well as its contemporary state related to detention. It further notes that such biases have been the basis of institution of severe outcomes such as placing more youth of color in prison than their White counterparts.
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Racial Disparities in Juvenile Justice: Historical and Contemporary Evidence of the Rates of Detention
African Americans constitute only about 13 per cent of the entire population of the US, yet they make up to 28 per cent of the total arrests, about 40 per cent of all people held in jails and prisons and about 42 per cent of all those on death row (Hartney and Vuong, 2009; Fagan, Slaughter and Hartstone, 1987). However, in contrast, the Whites make up to 67 per cent of the whole population of the country and constitute approximately 70 per cent of all arrests (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). Only about 40 per cent of all the inmates in jails and prisons are Whites and 56 per cent of them are on death row (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). Native Americans and Hispanics are also overrepresented in the criminal Justice system. A major concern about such overrepresentation of people of color in the criminal justice system began in 1988 at a time when the Federal Government needed to deal with the issue of system-involved youth (Hartney and Vuong, 2009). However, it should be noted that juvenile courts were not established until the start of the 1990s after a recognition of the fact that minors had different needs than adults (Hartney and Vuong). It was highly considered that while children may break the law, they remain suited for rehabilitation.
An index score was developed by Hamparian et al. (1997) and was a representation of the ratio of youths involved at each decision point to the juvenile population of the state. According to this index score, a score of 1.00 implied that minority youth were represented equally in the criminal justice system as the majority youth (Hamparian et al., 1997). However, a score of more than one indicated an overrepresentation of the minority groups. Therefore, the greater the index score the larger the overrepresentation. According to Hamparian, it is evident, first from a broader scale that minority groups are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. For instance, in 1997 the youth of color are overrepresented 23.2 times compared to the rest of the youth. The Hamparian index score also indicates a higher disparity for Black youth for all the cases apart from one than the rest of the minority groups.
The disparities noted also give an insight on the rates of detention for the juveniles. Data on the country-wide rates of detention among the different races of the youth between 1983 and 1997 indicates a rise in the rate of youth detention by 47 per cent (Parry, 2004). The rate of White youths detained increased by 21 per cent while that of Black youths increased by 76 per cent (Parry, 2004). Such data implies that four for each five youths detained over this period were youths of color. It is also indicated that 19 per cent of all the youth delinquent referrals ended up in detention and that African American youths constituted about 47 per cent of the detained youths.
The use of such data indicates that the US juvenile justice system has been characterized by biases in racial and ethnic representation. The history of juvenile system of the country indicates that the youth of color have been the most affected by the laws across all the states.
The Impact of Minority Youth Overrepresentation on Detention Decisions and Progression through the Juvenile Criminal Justice System
That the juvenile criminal justice system is race-biased is provable as indicated. Literature reports that one of the impacts of the racial biases concerns the detention of the youth. More youths of color are detained than their White counterparts. The main reasons for admissions for detention for the White youth are property offenses, person offenses, and court violations. On the other hand, African Americans are detained for property offenses, crimes against persons and court violations (Parry, 2004). Another finding is that even though drug admission represented only a small percentage of the causes of detention, disparities resulted in more African American youth being detained that the Whites. African American youths are also subjected to more multiple detentions than the Whites in relation to court violation (Parry, 2004). However, when the type of detention was a 48-hour hold, more White than African American youths are likely to be detained (Parry, 2004).
It should additionally be noted that such biases have been one of the major factors impacting on the choice of the system of detention even after a considering variables such as prior records of crime, severity of the crime among others. For this reason, being a youth of color raises the probability of being detained in comparison to the Whites. In addition, being detained raises the likelihood of moving further into the system of criminal justice and because African American youths are more detained than the Whites, they are more likely to receive severe punishment than the Whites do (Bishop and Frazier, 1996). In particular, the creation of the juvenile justice system was to give minor offenders a chance to rehabilitate away from prison or jails (National Research Council, 2001). It means that juveniles have a chance to mend their character in friendlier environments than the adults do. However, the existence of racial disparities within the juvenile justice system and the overall overrepresentation of minority groups has been the basis for sentencing more minority group juveniles to prison than the Whites (National Research Council, 2001).
It is noted that a higher percentage of black juvenile offenders end up in prison and jails despite more White juveniles being arrested (National Research Council, 2001). The National Research Council also indicates and affirms the fact that other minority groups are less represented than the Blacks are. From this analysis, it follow, therefore, that the overrepresentation of minority groups in systems of juvenile criminal justice system has a strong bearing on the nature sentencing given by courts.
Racial disparities also impact the nature of rulings made by courts in the course of juvenile criminal justice execution. For example, literature reports a higher likelihood of minority offenders being sentenced to severe punishments than their White counterparts (National Research Council, 2001). For instance, the most recent data reporting the rates of juvenile commitment to juvenile facilities following an adjudication of delinquency reduced by 47 per cent between 2003 and 2013 (The Sentencing Project, 2016). However, even in the wake of such an achievement, there was no significant change to the endemic of racial disparity in the juvenile criminal justice system. For this reason, juveniles of color are still many more times likely to be committed than the Whites; in fact, the White and Black secure commitment rose by 15 per cent over the same period (The Sentencing Project, 2016).
The numbers of both the white juveniles and youth of color on juvenile commitments dropped through the ten years, but still blacks have a higher rate of commitment than the rest of the minority groups (The Sentencing Project, 2016). For example, the rate of White juvenile commitment fell by 51 per cent from 149 to 69 in every 100000 youths while that of Blacks dropped by 43 per cent from 519 to 294 for every 100000 youths. The same rates fell by 52 per cent from 230 to 111 for the Hispanic Juveniles and 28 per cent from 354 to 254 for American Indian youth (The Sentencing Project, 2016). Therefore, for this reason, racial and ethnic disparities within the juvenile criminal justice system means that minority groups are more likely to be punished severely than the rest of the groups.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The US juvenile criminal justice system is marred by racial disparities; there is an overrepresentation of minority groups in detention. Black juveniles are more affected by the disparities, which is why courts are more likely to sentence them to imprisonment than they will do for White juveniles. Therefore, it is recommended that practitioners in the juvenile criminal justice system reform all the types of detention admissions. For instance, a need exists to adopt instruments for assessement of detention risk and ensure that the instruments are not biased in terms of race. There is also a need for all stakeholders in the detention of juveniles to collaborate on the development of strategies to make detention perceived as a component of the continuum of services and not principally as the most secure detention form.
References
Bishop, D. M., & Frazier, C. E. (1996). Race effects in juvenile justice decision-making: Findings of a statewide analysis. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973- ) , 86 (2), 392-414.
Fagan, J., Slaughter, E., & Hartstone, E. (1987). Blind justice? The impact of race on the juvenile justice process. NPPA Journal , 33 (2), 224-258.
Hartney, C., & Vuong, L. (2009). Created equal: Racial and ethnic disparities in the US criminal justice system.
National Research Council. (2001). Juvenile crime, juvenile justice . National Academies Press.
Parry, D. L. (2004). Decision making and juvenile justice: An analysis of bias in case processing. Contemporary Sociology, 33 (1), 93-94.
The Sentencing Project (2016). Racial Disparities in Youth Commitments and Arrests . The Sentencing Project . Retrieved 20 February 2017, from http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/racial-disparities-in-youth-commitments-and-arrests/
