Disproportionate minority contact in the U.S. juvenile justice system: a review of the DMC literature, 2001–2014, Part I

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe current study provides a systematic review of 107 studies. Studies were drawn from academic journals, reports, and edited books from January 2001 to December 2014. The main question addressed by the review asks, ‘What does recent literature tell us about minority status and juvenile justice processing?’ The purpose of this article is to review recent studies that examine the role that race and ethnicity play in the juvenile justice decision-making process. Results illustrate the overall complexity of the issues surrounding DMC. This paper discusses several of the limitations with existing DMC studies, details the overall findings of a quantitative analysis of empirical DMC studies, summarizes policy recommendations and considers future directions for DMC research. Part II presents a matrix of articles identified by the search.