Juveniles

14 Pages 3489 Words

lacement are approximately the same, there is a fairly marked tendency to incarcerate higher proportions of white repeat status offenders under the court's contempt power (36% of whites, compared to 26% of nonwhites) (Bishop; Frazier).
Their analysis points to clear disadvantages for nonwhites at multiple stages in delinquency case processing. While the magnitude of the race effect varies from stage to stage, there is a consistent pattern of unequal treatment. Nonwhite youths referred for delinquent acts are more likely than comparable white youths to be recommended for petition to court, to be held in pre-adjudicatory detention, to be formally processed in juvenile court, and to receive the most formal or the most restrictive judicial dispositions (Bishop; Frazier). For status offense cases, a very different pattern emerges. Whites are slightly more likely to be referred for formal processing than nonwhites. Although there are no significant race differences in status offender outcomes at the judicial disposition stage, when repeat stat...