Race/ethnicity and the juvenile justice process:

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Race/ethnicity and the juvenile justice process
Exploring the over-representation of Latino youth
in Californias juvenile justice system
Enrique Ruacho May 16, 2009 Advisor Dr. Elliot
Currie
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Outline

• Introduction
• Statement of the Problem
• Research Questions
• Literature Review
• Methods
• Findings
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgements

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Introduction

• Who forms the juvenile justice system?
• Police, probation, and judicial officers
• Public defenders, prosecutors, and community
  advocates
• What does it do?
• Public safety
• Treat and rehabilitate youth

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Introduction

• Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC)
• Relative Rate Index (RRI)
• Compares minority youth to White youth at various
  stages

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Statement of the Problem
Source Juvenile Justice in California, 2006
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Research Questions

• Does the juvenile justice system in California
  operate with a bias that differentially
  disadvantages Latino youth?
• How does that bias manifest and operate at
  different stages of the justice system?
• How might this system be changed?

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Literature Review

• Research shows that minority youth are more
  likely to be
• Apprehended and arrested
• Detained before trial
• Receive a disposition at trial

Source (Armstrong Rodriguez, 2005 Brown Ray
Alarid, 2004 Leiber Fox, 2005 Leiber
Johnson, 2008 MacDonald, 2003 Secret Johnson,
1997 Tittle Curran, 1988)
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Literature Review

• Gap Focuses on White youth and
  African-American/minority/non-white youth
• Gap Research overwhelmingly uses a quantitative
  model of analysis
• Exception Conley, 1994

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Methods

• Site Los Angeles County
• Participants
• Police, probation, and judicial officers, public
  defenders, prosecutors, and community advocates
• Sample size N9

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Methods

• Sampling strategy
• Publicly available contact info
• Social networks
• Data collection procedures
• Government reporting systems
• Interviews between 45 min. to 1 hour
• January to April 2009

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Methods

• Data Analysis
• Recurring themes and trends
• Researchers position relative to the study

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Findings

• Dual Roles and Narrow Tasks
• Decentralized network of justice officials
• Narrow tasks
• Lack of a holistic perspective

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Findings

• Dual Role and Narrow Tasks
• Public Defender what I try to do is defend my
  clients make sure that they have good legal
  representation, and make sure that all their
  constitutional rights are being protected.
  (March 2009)

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Findings

• Dual Roles and Narrow Tasks
• Focus is on youth conduct, rather than
  contributing factors
• Judicial Officer 1 I mean theres just a bunch
  of reasons the system has to deal with the
  conduct (January 2009).

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Findings

• Systematic Discrimination
• Latino youth face severe adversities
• Bias Sociological perspective vs. Legal elements

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Findings

• Rehabilitation An Arduous Task
• Not a shared goal
• Lack of resources
• Community Advocate its really difficult for
  organizations like us I need 20 case managers. I
  need more resources (February 2009).

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Conclusion

• Policy recommendations
• How to reduce bias through policies?
• Juvenile justice reform
• Future research
• Issues of juvenile delinquency and violence in
  the educational system

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Acknowledgements

• Professor Elliott Currie
• Professor Kristen Day
• UROP
• Taylor Hogg
• Angel Ruacho

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Questions???