THE EFFECT OF RACE ON JUVENILE JUSTICE PROCESSING

Studies concerning differential treatment of minority youths in the ju venile justice system have not provided conclusive evidence. However, previous literature has revealed methodological problems which may acc ount for the inconsistency among previous studies. Multi-stage design, adequate control of legal and non-legal variables, and refined measur ement of social variables have been demonstrated as crucial elements i n resolving the inconclusiveness in previous studies. The purpose of t his study is to employ these approaches to defect case-handling bias a t three stages of juvenile justice processing: detention, adjudication , and disposition. Data were obtained from juvenile cases reported to the Ohio trial court in 1989. A total of 2,334 court cases were random ly sampled from 17 Ohio counties. Research findings showed a different ial treatment of minority juveniles at the detention stage. Further, d etention status was also found to have an increasing impact at the two subsequent decision points.