Disproportionate Minority Contact Research Articles

A systematic review of systems-level strategies to reduce disproportionate minority contact in juvenile justice systems

The continued existence of racial and ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system is of critical importance. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to determine how effectively systems-level interventions have reduced disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system. Eleven identified studies assessed the effectiveness of systems-level interventions and met the inclusion criteria for this review. Implementing a risk assessment tool was the most common strategy in the literature. Although several articles described strategies that decreased juvenile detention and other negative outcomes overall, few strategies were associated with reducing disproportionate minority contact. Local attempts to influence how decisions are made seem to work, but jurisdictions must focus these efforts specifically on disproportionality to combat the intractable issue of disparities in juvenile justice system outcomes.

Disproportionate Minority Contact and Racism in the US: How We Failed Children of Color by Paul R. Ketchum and B. Mitchell Peck

This book speaks to two different audiences, and I applaud the authors for the efforts they made to reach both. One audience, the one I fall into that is critical of crime data and its overreliance to criminalize communities of color, might wish this book was titled “Police Data is Self-Report Data,” while the other audience might be drawn in because of the title's nods to criminology specific language. But the tension of writing for both audiences makes this an even more interesting read. The authors' central argument, weaved through eight chapters, is that minoritized youth are over-policed because of a racialized system (both institutional racism and actors) that has consistently overgeneralized (incorrectly) high rates of violent crimes of a small proportion of minoritized youth to the larger population. Furthermore, they seek to answer: To what extent is minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system due to differential involvement/behavior (i.e., non-White youth commit crimes at a higher rate) and to what extent is minority overrepresentation attributable to differential treatment (i.e., racism/racial bias within the system)? While they provide substantive data to tease out these two related questions, I want to start with the contributions of this book for criminologists and for race scholars who study the carceral state. I've probably read more than once the idea that police data are self-report data, but it is the one thing readers will contemplate well after they finish the book. If you've ever taught criminology or criminal justice courses, you probably know that most criminology textbooks and courses cover two types of data: official and unofficial. In the same way that we like to create sharp distinctions between quantitative and qualitative data, this official/unofficial dichotomy steers us to think that one is deemed more suitable for our research endeavors. But the authors are careful to point out that the overreliance on “official” data misses so much of the bigger picture. Furthermore, the authors note that “learning, strain, positivists and, perhaps to a lesser extent, life course, rest upon arrest and conviction rates being an accurate reflection of criminality, while critical and conflict theories challenge those assumptions.” (16) I cannot praise them enough for not only picking apart the “traditional” methods but also providing innovative methodological approaches to triangulate complicated data (four datasets) while they dive deeper into a general critique of criminology more broadly. Chapters 3–5 bring together data that are not often triangulated to give a more encompassing picture of differential youth involvement and treatment. Chapter 3 begins with police contact data from the Oklahoma City metropolitan area for almost 44,000 police reports. Chapter 4 turns to records from the Oklahoma Office of Juvenile Affairs Juvenile On-Line Tracking System and records from the juvenile proceedings in Oklahoma City municipal court. And Chapter 5 analyzes 520 self-report surveys from youth to learn more about why differential treatment occurs when they have police and court contact. The concluding chapters further push the need for youth self-report data like that included in Chapter 5, especially as we see the failure of police video evidence to bring about accountability. In addition, the authors advocate for the inclusion of youth self-report data after analyzing 83 interviews with Oklahoma City area juvenile professionals, many of whom “believe in stereotypes regarding non-White families having significantly different value systems and lower involvement of parents.” (p. 147). Unfortunately, the belief in those stereotypes moves young people of color disproportionately into the juvenile justice system and this chapter shows us how these professionals justify their positions. Overall, the title of this book doesn't adequately convey the intricate story the authors are trying to tell, but it is a title that will draw some in who would like to believe that the criminal justice system is not racist. What those people will read is something that forces them to consider how their work and research contribute to the further criminalization of young people of color. This book is packed with information and intricately weaves together multiple data sources, a challenge that more scholars should take seriously, and Chapter 6 alone should be used in methods courses across undergraduate and graduate levels. I only wish that the concluding remarks in support of defunding the police and then advocating for community policing were reconciled by the end of the book.

Racial disparities at rural and urban juvenile detention centers: Unanticipated findings since COVID-19’s reduction in juvenile assessments

ABSTRACT Studies on racial disparity within the juvenile justice system have demonstrated continued disproportionate minority contact (DMC) and racial and ethnic disparity (RED) issues throughout each decision point, especially at earlier stages. Yet, most research has centered on urban areas, with minimal attention given to youth-of-color in rural jurisdictions. As such, the current study utilized juvenile intake and assessment data from a rural Midwestern state, focused on racial and ethnic disparities prior to and per-COVID-19. Using data from a rural state, we examine the monthly counts of juveniles assessed at juvenile intake centers with an interrupted time-series design to explore whether the pandemic’s impact differed by race or ethnicity. Our findings do not support the claim that the pandemic has exacerbated racial or ethnic disparity. Yet, trends suggest white and non-Hispanic youth, as well as youth in rural jurisdictions, are presenting at juvenile intake centers at less reduced rates than their youth-of-color and urban counterparts, per-COVID-19. The results show the pandemic has radically reduced assessments to the juvenile justice system, though this impact is not equally distributed. While intersectional comparisons are not possible at this time, policy implications and future directions are provided.

Estimating Targeted Group Threats in the Juvenile Justice System: An Examination of Disproportionate Minority Contact at Preadjudication Detention

This study examines whether group threats in the surrounding social context positively moderate disproportionate minority contact at preadjudication detention in the juvenile justice system. To do so, the study utilizes a multijurisdictional sample of 96,619 juvenile court referrals across 139 counties (within four states) to examine a series of group threats—racial, ethnic, economic, and age threat. Due to the nested structure of the data, multilevel models are employed. To test the hypotheses, cross-level interactions between group threats and defendant race and ethnicity are estimated following current best practices for measuring interactions with nonlinear dependent variables. Findings indicate mixed and mostly limited support for the group threat hypotheses, consistent with prior mixed findings. Implications for research and policy are discussed.

Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) to Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) in Juvenile Justice: What does it Mean and Does it Matter?

Youth of color have been overrepresented in the American juvenile justice system/juvenile court since its inception in 1899. Additionally, the court's philosophy has changed over time from a more informal and rehabilitative model to a more formal and punitive model. And minoritized and marginalized youth continue to experience disparate and more severe outcomes than their White counterparts; outcomes that cannot be explained by behavior/legal factors. Moreover, the nation's Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 was not reauthorized from 2008 to 2018. On December 21, 2018, the JJDPA was reauthorized as the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-385). This article documents racial and ethnic overrepresentation over time, examines the philosophy shifts in juvenile justice and DMC/RED policy changes including the progression from DMC to RED, and provides evidence-based recommendations to reduce RED for all social workers.

Diversion and Restorative Justice: Salt Lake Peer Court Disrupting Disproportionate Minority Contact?

There is an increased acceptance of youth courts grounded in restorative justice principles to divert first-time nonviolent offenders away from formal juvenile court entry. Research assessing the effectiveness of various teen/peer courts is mixed, and focuses mainly on recidivism. This study analyzes 2010 to 2016 Salt Lake Peer Court data to examine the relationship legal and extralegal variables have on the participation in and completion of this diversionary program for first-time youth offenders. Overall, legal factors affected outcomes more than extralegal factors. Gender proved insignificant in both models with race, age, and school socioeconomic status (SES) producing varied significant effects in outcome models. Offense severity produced consistent strong significant effects across model outcomes. Implications of the study point to the possibilities of peer courts for reducing disproportionate minority contact.

A Qualitative Exploration of Justice System Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Disproportionate Minority Contact and Behavioral Health Access among System-Involved Youth of Color

A Qualitative Exploration of Justice System Stakeholders’ Perceptions of Disproportionate Minority Contact and Behavioral Health Access among System-Involved Youth of Color

Meeting the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Mandate: Lessons from State Assessments of Minority Overrepresentation and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Systems

ABSTRACT Effective as of October 2019, the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Mandate requires states to address racial/ethnic disparities in their juvenile justice systems without reference to any numerical standards or a definition of disparity in empirical terms. Standards for assessing disproportionate minority contact have also gotten looser, as the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announced that states should evaluate DMC problems and interventions based on their own metrics of success. Understanding how states have examined minority overrepresentation and disparities in their systems in the past helps to structure what states might do in terms of DMC assessment in the near future. This study analyzes 39 state assessments on behalf of the DMC mandate from 1992 to 2019. A content analysis locates patterns in methods, racial/ethnic categories, decision-making stages, geographic coverage, and recommendations for future reform efforts. Frequent use of multivariate methods and qualitative techniques, such as surveys, focus groups, and interviews, suggests that assessments are empirically rich. Most assessments likewise contain directions for reform initiatives and analysis in subsequent DMC reports. Lessons are drawn for designing robust DMC assessments for states and illuminating racial/ethnic disparities in juvenile processing ahead.

Student Discipline Disparities in Virginia

Large racial disparities in student discipline are thought to be directly contributing to disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system. Little has been done to learn about what acts as a predictor of and gives rise to these disparities. The current research aims to add to this conversation by examining the relationship between racial disparities in reported student offenders, measured using risk ratio, and two budget variables: the proportion of budget going towards diversity inclusion and per-pupil expenditures. Specifically, the research asks: How does spending on specific diversity programs and overall spending on students affect racial disparities in student discipline? A meta-analysis was utilized to answer this question. Data on Black, Hispanic, and White male students with no disabilities were collected from 314 public high schools across 126 school districts in Virginia. To find the correlation between racial disparities in reported student offenders and specific diversity programs as well as overall spending on students, a Pearson’s r test for correlation was conducted. Disparities in student discipline were positively correlated with the proportion of budget going toward diversity inclusion, but this correlation was not statistically significant. On the other hand, disparities in student discipline had a statistically significant positive correlation with per-pupil expenditures. This positive correlation indicates that the wealth of a district acts as a predictor of levels of racial disparity in student discipline. This suggests that the demographics of a district or segregation within a district could contribute to or exacerbate the existence of such disparities.

Disproportionate Minority Contact: An Expanded Examination of how Threat of Violent and Sexual Offending Impacts Court Outcomes

Racial disparities in the U.S. juvenile justice system appear to be attenuated for people with sexual and violent versus drug and property offenses. Existing theories such as the racial threat hypothesis partially explain these racial disparities, but the definition of “threat” could limit our ability to explain juvenile justice outcomes across offense categories. Importantly, research often overlooks the different and unique threats associated with violent and sexual crimes. The present study examined impacts of racial threat and an expanded definition of “threat” associated with violent and sexual crime on (a) preadjudication detention and (b) dispositions of postadjudication confinement. Statewide archival court data were obtained regarding 212,274 male and female adolescents. In the full models, less severe violent (assault vs. homicide) and sexual offenses (indecent exposure and child pornography vs. sexual abuse) were associated with lower use of detention and secure confinement. This impact of specific violent and sexual offenses on court outcomes were observed in models run with Black adolescents and models separated by violent offenses and sexual offenses. Higher rates of county-level homicide prosecutions and White-to-Black unemployment were significantly and positively associated with detention and confinement, respectively. Racial threat and other theories aiming to explain racial disparities should be reexamined and modified to include markers of violent and sexual offense stigma and threat. Further, models testing racial disparities should include an expanded definition of “threat” in selecting indicators. Our suggested modified theory could better elucidate racial disparities in the juvenile justice system and presents important practice implications.

Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Juvenile Justice System: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This paper reports on a systematic review and meta-analysis of disproportionate minority contact in the juvenile justice system. A total of 79 independent samples were analyzed from the 67 studies that met the criteria for inclusion in the meta-analyses. Meta-analytic techniques were used to examine the overall effects of race/ethnicity at the six major decision points in the juvenile justice system: detention, intake, petition, waiver, adjudication, and placement. Moderator analyses were also performed to explore heterogeneity of effects by study design features. Findings indicated small average effects for some outcomes (e.g., detention) and no discernible average effect on others (e.g., petition, waiver, adjudication). There was also substantial heterogeneity across studies, although moderator analyses did not detect any clear patterns. The findings suggest that future research must focus on the specific outcomes in which disparities occur, as well as their practical significance given small effect sizes.

Through a Glass, Darkly: Systemic Racism, Affirmative Action, and Disproportionate Minority Contact

This Article is the first to describe how systemic racism persists in a society that openly denounces racism and racist behaviors, using affirmative action and disproportionate minority contact as contrasting examples. Affirmative action and disproportionate minority contact are two sides of the same coin. Far from being distinct, these two social institutions function as two sides of the same ideology, sharing a common historical nucleus rooted in the mythologies that sustained chattel slavery in the United States. The effects of these narratives continue to operate in race-related jurisprudence and in the criminal legal system, sending normative messages about race and potential using the same jurisprudential trick: denial of our country’s race-bound legacy. By juxtaposing the rhetoric and jurisprudence concerning the underrepresentation of white people in the criminal legal system with the rhetoric and jurisprudence concerning the underrepresentation of Black people in higher education, this Article illuminates a key feature of how systemic racism persists. Obscuring the history of how both affirmative action and disproportionate minority contact came to be, the racially contorted narratives that we have adopted about affirmative action in both guises described here—affirmative action that benefits people of color by accepting them into institutions of higher learning and that which benefits white people by diverting them from the criminal legal system—allow systems to thrive under a guise of presumed racial innocence. Unmoored from the force of history, we rudderlessly reinforce well-worn social norms, no matter how discriminatory they might be.

Exploring Disproportionate Minority Contact in the Juvenile Justice System Over the Year Following First Arrest.

Minority youth are disproportionately represented in the juvenile justice system. Examining how racial disparities relate to biased entry into and continued involvement with the system, while accounting for past and current offending, can provide context about the mechanisms behind overrepresentation. 1,216 adolescents were examined after first arrest to explore associations between race and history of self-reported offending, likelihood of formal processing, and likelihood of rearrest. Black youth committed fewer offenses prior to arrest than White youth, Black and Latino youth were more likely to be formally processed, and Black youth were most likely to be rearrested (even controlling for postbaseline offending), highlighting that minority youth are overrepresented in the juvenile justice system despite similar or lower levels of criminal behavior.

Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Declined Over Time? An Empirical Assessment of the DMC Mandate

The present study examines whether racial and ethnic disparities in juvenile justice declined significantly in a state that has made substantial reform efforts in compliance with the Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) mandate. Using a sample of all referrals in Connecticut with final disposition in 2000 (N = 18,458) or 2010 (N = 12,265), the study employed multilevel modeling with cross-level interactions to assess whether disparities changed over time for five outcomes: detention, petition, adjudication, commitment, and waiver to criminal court. Findings indicated that Black-White disparities in detention decreased over time, while Black-White disparities increased for petition, adjudication, and waiver. Findings also indicated that Hispanic-White disparities increased for adjudication (while not changing for other outcomes). The limited success of the DMC mandate may be explained by implementation failure or theory failure. Adjudicating between these alternative explanations is needed to guide future reform efforts. Several implications for research and policy are discussed, including whether reform efforts should focus on overall harm reduction rather than proportional representation.

Book Review: Disproportionate minority contact: Current issues and policies

Book Review: Disproportionate minority contact: Current issues and policies

How Universal Is Disproportionate Minority Contact? An Examination of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Processing Across Four States

The extent to which disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the juvenile justice system varies across states remains largely unknown. Using a multijurisdictional sample of 146 counties across four states, the present study utilizes multilevel modeling with cross-level interactions to explore whether there is variation in the influence of race and ethnicity among states across four major juvenile justice processing decisions—preadjudication detention, petition of delinquency, adjudication of delinquency, and judicial disposition. The results highlight the existence of some variation in DMC across the four states, with the variation most pronounced at detention and least pronounced at disposition. The possibility of state variation in DMC underscores the need for state-specific analysis of DMC, what contributes to it, and what can be done to reduce it.

How Universal Is Disproportionate Minority Contact? An Examination of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Processing across Four States

How Universal Is Disproportionate Minority Contact? An Examination of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Juvenile Justice Processing across Four States

Lesson learned? Mothers' legal knowledge and juvenile rearrests.

The present study examined how mothers' personal characteristics, experience with, and attitudes toward the juvenile justice system are associated with their knowledge of the juvenile justice system over time. We hypothesized that additional exposure to the system (via sons' rearrests) would be associated with greater legal knowledge. We predicted that White women, women with higher educational attainment, and women who had been arrested would experience greater gains in legal knowledge over time, relative to non-White women, women with lower educational attainment, and women who had not been arrested. Finally, we predicted that mothers' attitudes toward the legitimacy of the justice system would not be associated with their change in legal knowledge. Mothers (N = 234) of male youth (majority non-White) completed a questionnaire of their knowledge about the juvenile justice system after their sons' 1st arrest (T1) and again 2.5 years later (T2). Knowledge did not improve over time, regardless of whether the youth was rearrested. Black mothers displayed less knowledge of the juvenile justice system when their sons were rearrested multiple times. Attitudes toward the justice system were not associated with legal knowledge. These results illustrate the importance of a family educational component to juvenile probation, especially as a vehicle to reduce disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice system. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Disproportionality in Juvenile Justice Diversion: An Examination of Teen Court Peer-Derived Consequences

AbstractJuvenile justice diversion programs, such as Teen Court (TC), represent an alternative to traditional juvenile justice responses to youth misbehavior and delinquency. However, although TC represents a potential strategy to address disproportionate minority contact, there is a dearth of research examining the extent to which TC programs are racially equitable. To address this gap, the current study examines racial disproportionality in a TC program in Arizona. Results indicated that in a diverse sample of youths involved in a TC program in Arizona, youths who identified as Latinx or American Indian were more likely to receive a severe consequence from the peer jury compared with their non-Latinx, white counterparts. Multiracial youths were less likely to receive a severe consequence compared with white youths. A hierarchical regression model indicated that offense-related variables explained the largest proportion of variance in number of consequence hours assigned. However, disparities for Latinx and American Indian youths compared with non-Latinx, white youths persisted after controlling for other demographics, type of offense, prior offenses, and additional charges. The results of the current study are the first to document racial disparity in the TC process.

Police endorsement of color-blind racial beliefs and propensity to interact with youth of color.

The beliefs of police, as the point of first contact with the justice system, may help to explain disproportionate minority contact between police and young people. Color-blind racial beliefs, a form of implicit racism in which racial differences are denied, are more strongly endorsed by police than by laypeople. Using a 2 (youth race) × 3 (offense severity) experimental design, 339 officers participated in an online study examining the influence of youth race, offense severity, and officers' color-blind racial beliefs on officers' reported likelihood of interacting with young people. Officers with lower levels of color-blind beliefs reported they would be less likely to interact with Black youth. Additionally, attrition analyses indicated that officers assigned to the Black youth condition were more likely to drop out when asked to complete the measure of color-blind beliefs. Policy and practice implications are discussed, with a focus on promoting greater discussion of color-blind ideologies in multicultural trainings for police officers and increasing frank discussions about race and racial issues.