Understanding juvenile pre-adjudicatory detention and front-end juvenile case processing: The moderating role of race

Abstract

PurposeThe current study expands our knowledge regarding the effects of pre-adjudicatory detention by examining the moderating role of a juvenile's race/ethnicity on the association between pre-adjudicatory detention and juvenile court outcomes (e.g., dismissal, adjudication, or disposition outcome decisions). MethodsThe current study draws on data from the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice and employs both logistic regression and an analysis of the resulting predicted probabilities to examine the moderating effect of race/ethnicity on the association between pre-adjudicatory detention and three distinct juvenile case outcomes. ResultsResults suggest that the relationship between pre-adjudicatory detention and the likelihood of case dismissal and adjudication differs significantly among Black, White, and Hispanic youth. When the analysis was limited to youth who had been adjudicated, however, the positive association observed between time spent detained and the restrictiveness of placement following disposition was equivalent among the groups examined. ConclusionsSince the effects of pre-adjudicatory detention on some front-end juvenile case processing outcomes vary by race, it is crucial to develop interventions/policies to reduce disparities in this type of detention, especially for Black youth.