And Justice for Some, Page 2

Juvenile Court Processing

Most delinquency cases are referred to juvenile court by law enforcement while others are made by parents, victims, schools, and probation officers. At court intake a decision–typically made by either juvenile probation or a prosecutor's office–is made to either dismiss the case, handle the matter informally, or request formal intervention by the juvenile court.

During the processing of a case, a youth may be held in a secure detention facility if this is determined to be in the best interest of the child or the community. While an initial decision to detain may be made by probation or detention workers, a detention hearing must follow–generally within 24 hours–to determine the need for continued detention.

If the case is handled in juvenile court, a petition is filed to either adjudicate the youth delinquent or judicially waive the youth to adult court. A delinquency petition results in an adjudicatory hearing in which a juvenile court judge determines the responsibility for the offense after witnesses are called and the facts of the case are presented. A waiver petition results in a judicial hearing involving a review of the facts of the case and a determination of probable cause that the young person committed the act. The court must then consider whether juvenile court jurisdiction should be waived and the case transferred to criminal court.

An adjudication of delinquency is followed by a disposition hearing. At this time a disposition plan is made by probation and recommendations may be presented to the judge who orders the disposition in the case. Dispositions include a variety of services and sanctions including probation, residential placement (publicly or privately operated), substance abuse treatment, or other sanctions such as weekend detention, community or victim restitution, counseling, etc. Transfer to adult court is followed by trial and sentencing in that court.

A growing number of states have adopted legislation to exclude certain serious crimes from the jurisdiction of juvenile court or to increase the discretion of prosecutors to directly file certain cases in juvenile or adult court. In such circumstances, the case will commence with charges brought in adult criminal court.

The following sections identify racial disparities as youth are processed through juvenile court. However, it should be noted that attempting to explain racial disparity as either systematic bias in decision-making or behavioral differences of minority youth without the detailed data needed to make such a decision would be inappropriate.

In 1997, the majority of cases referred to juvenile court involved White youth. The proportion of referred cases involving African American youth was twice their proportion in the population. Of the estimated 1,755,100 delinquency cases referred to the nation’s juvenile courts in 1997, 66% involved White youth, 31% involved African American youth, and 3% involved youth of other races (Table 2).

For each racial group in 1997, the largest proportion of cases referred to court involved property offenses, followed by person offenses, public order and drug offenses (Table 3).

2. Detention

An estimated 326,800 delinquent youth were detained in 1997. With respect to their proportion in the referral population, White youth were underrepresented while African American youth were overrepresented in the detained population. Of White youth referred to juvenile court, a smaller percentage were locked up in detention facilities (66% referred vs. 53% detained). Of African American youth referred to juvenile court, a larger percentage were locked up in detention facilities (31% vs. 44%). Youth of other races had the same percentage of referred and detained cases (3%).

This pattern of disproportion was across all offense categories but was most dramatic among drug offense cases (Figures 1a & 1b). Cases involving White youth were 66% of those referred but only 44% of those detained. In contrast, drug offense cases involving African American youth were 32% of those referred but 55% of those detained. In every offense category, a substantially greater percentage of African American youth were detained than White youth.

African American youth are more likely than White youth to be detained pretrial, even when charged with the same offense.

Overall, detention was used more often for African American youth (27%) and youth of other races (19%) than for White youth (15%) (Figure 2). This was true among each of the four major offense categories as well. Thus, for youth charged with comparable offenses–whether person, property, drug, or public order offenses–minority youth, especially African American youth, were locked up in detention more often than White youth. Consequently, cases involving African American youth were more than twice as likely to be detained for a drug offense than were cases involving White youth or youth of other races (38%, 14%, and 16%, respectively). More than one in four (28%) person offense cases involving African American youth and youth of other races were detained compared to less than one in five (19%) White youth.

3. Formal Processing (Petitioning)

An estimated 996,000 delinquency cases or 57% of all referrals were formally processed or petitioned in 1997. Overall, there was little difference between the race proportions of referrals to court and the race proportions of formally processed cases (Figure 3). The differences that did exist demonstrated a disparate disadvantage to African American youth. For example, cases involving White youth were 66% of referrals and 63% of petitioned cases while cases involving African American youth were 31% of referrals and 34% of petitioned cases. Youth of other races represented about the same proportion of the referred and petitioned population (3%).

Overall, delinquency cases were petitioned more often among cases involving African American youth (62%) than White youth (54%) or youth of other races (55%) in 1997 (Figure 4). This was true for each of the four offense categories. The most striking difference was among drug offense cases. In 1997, about three in four (78%) drug offense cases involving African American youth were formally processed compared to about one-half of cases involving White youth (56%) and youth of other races (55%). Formal processing of person offense cases was more likely among cases involving African American youth (64%) and youth of other races (63%) than cases involving White youth (55%).

4. Waiver

An estimated 8,400 petitioned delinquency cases were judicially waived from juvenile to adult court in 1997. This represents about 1% of all petitioned cases. Overall, cases involving White youth represented a smaller proportion of waived cases than of petitioned cases (50% vs. 63%). In contrast, cases involving African American youth represented a larger proportion of waived cases than petitioned cases (46% vs. 34%). Youth of other races were about the same proportion of waived and petitioned cases (4% vs. 3%) in 1997.

This was the pattern among all offense types as well. The differences are particularly striking for person offenses and drug charges. For offenses against persons, White youth were 57% of the cases petitioned but only 45% of cases waived to adult court (Figures 5a & 5b). African American youth charged with similar offenses were 40% of cases petitioned but rose to 50% of cases waived to adult court. Similarly, in drug cases, White youth were 59% of cases petitioned but only 35% of cases waived to adult court. African American youth charged with similar offenses were 39% of cases petitioned but rose to 63% of cases waived to adult court. Thus, in drug cases, White youth enjoy a 24% "waiver advantage" while African American youth carry a 24% "waiver disadvantage".

---

An estimated total of 200,000 youth are prosecuted as adults each year. 9 The great majority of these prosecutions result from legislative provisions that exclude youth charged with certain offenses from juvenile court jurisdiction and from decisions to "direct file" charges against youth in criminal court. No national data are currently available on these cases.

The likelihood of waiver among petitioned delinquency cases was greater for African American youth (1.2%) and youth of other races (1.0%) than for White youth (.7%) (Figure 6). Minority youth were much more likely than White youth to be waived to criminal court even when charged with a similar offense. This was true for every offense category. Again, the differences are particularly striking for person and drug offenses. In 1997, 1.2% of the White youth charged with person offenses were waived to adult court, while 1.8% of the African American youth were waived, and 2.4% of other minorities were waived. Similarly, .7% of White youth charged with drug offenses was waived to adult court, while 1.8% of African American and 1.3% of other minority youth were waived.

Over one in four (28%), or an estimated 163,200 adjudicated cases, received a disposition of out-of-home placement in 1997. More than one-half (55%) of adjudicated cases resulted in a court disposition of probation. With respect to the White proportion of adjudicated cases, White youth were underrepresented among cases receiving out-of-home placement (64% vs. 60%) and overrepresented among cases receiving probation (64% vs. 66%) (Figure 7).

The opposite was true among cases involving African American youth. Cases involving these youth were overrepresented among cases receiving out-of-home placement (32% vs. 36%) and somewhat underrepresented among cases receiving probation (32% vs. 31%). Youth of other races represented about the same proportion of adjudicated cases placed out-of-home (4%), placed on probation (3%).

These trends were true in all offense categories and were especially notable among drug offenses (Table 5). In 1997, 59% of adjudicated drug offense cases involved a White youth, while White youth were 45% of drug offense cases resulting in out-of-home placement and 64% of cases resulting in formal probation. In contrast, 39% of drug offense cases involved an African American youth while African American youth were 53% of adjudicated drug offense cases resulting in out-of-home placement and 34% of drug offense cases receiving formal probation.

Adjudicated cases involving White youth were less likely to result in out-of-the-home placement in 1997 (26%) than were cases involving African American youth (32%) or youth of other races (29%) (Figure 8). Thus, among youth charged with similar crimes, in every offense category, minority youth were more likely to be placed out-of-home.

Adjudicated delinquency cases involving White juveniles (56%) were generally more likely to result in formal probation than were cases involving either African American youth (53%) or youth of other races (51%) in 1997 (Figure 9). This was true among all offense categories except public order offenses. The difference in the likelihood of probation was most pronounced among adjudicated drug offense cases. In 1997, 61% of adjudicated drug offense cases involving White youth resulted in probation compared to 49% of cases involving African American youth.

a. Detention

A 1992 amendment to the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 required states receiving funds under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to identify and assess disproportionate minority representation of youth in the juvenile justice system. According to a 1997 report 10 summarizing state data submitted to the OJJDP in compliance with these mandates, the minority proportion of detained youth exceeded their proportion in the general population in all states but one. 11 An index of minority overrepresentation was used to identify overrepresentation by dividing the minority proportion of detained youth by the proportion of minorities in the youth population. A resulting index value of over 1.0 indicates minority overrepresentation. With regard to minority overrepresentation in juvenile detention, the 1997 report showed an average index of 2.8 among 43 of the 44 states reporting detention data (i.e. the proportion of youth in detention who were minorities was 2.8 times or 280% higher than the proportion of minority youth in the general population). A high index of 7.9 was seen in Iowa and low of .7 in Vermont (Figure 10).

Among states reporting data, the index of overrepresentation for detained African American youth ranged from 10.7 in Minnesota to .7 in Vermont (Table 6). For Latino youth in detention, the index of overrepresentation ranged from 4.8 in Connecticut to .9 in California (Table 7).

b. Waiver

The minority proportion of youth transferred to criminal court was 5 times or more their proportion in the general population in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island (Table 8). The overrepresentation ranged from 1.3 in Texas and North Dakota to 5.3 in Rhode Island.