Our Children, Their Children: Confronting Racial And Ethnic Differences In American Juvenile Justice (JOHN D AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION SERIES ON MENTAL HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226319881 ISBN 13: 9780226319889

Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

In Our Children, Their Children, a prominent team of researchers argues that a second-rate and increasingly punitive juvenile justice system is allowed to persist because most people believe it is designed for children in other ethnic and socioeconomic groups. While public opinion, laws, and social policies that convey distinctions between "our children" and "their children" may seem to conflict with the American ideal of blind justice, they are hardly at odds with patterns of group differentiation and inequality that have characterized much of American history.

Our Children, Their Children provides a state-of-the-science examination of racial and ethnic disparities in the American juvenile justice system. Here, contributors document the precise magnitude of these disparities, seek to determine their causes, and propose potential solutions. In addition to race and ethnicity, contributors also look at the effects on juvenile justice of suburban sprawl, the impact of family and neighborhood, bias in postarrest decisions, and mental health issues. Assessing the implications of these differences for public policy initiatives and legal reforms, this volume is the first critical summary of what is known and unknown in this important area of social research.

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Darnell F. Hawkins is professor emeritus of African American studies, sociology, and criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the editor or author of several volumes, including, most recently, Violent Crimes: Assessing Race and Differences.Kimberly Kempf-Leonard is professor of sociology, crime and justice studies, and political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Measurement.

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In Our Children, Their Children, a prominent team of researchers argues that a second-rate and increasingly punitive juvenile justice system is allowed to persist because most people believe it is designed for children in other ethnic and socioeconomic groups. While public opinion, laws, and social policies that convey distinctions between &;our children&; and &;their children&; may seem to conflict with the American ideal of blind justice, they are hardly at odds with patterns of group differentiation and inequality that have characterized much of American history.

Our Children, Their Children provides a state-of-the-science examination of racial and ethnic disparities in the offending and processing of youths within the American juvenile justice system. Here, contributors document the precise magnitude of these disparities, seek to determine their causes, and propose potential solutions. This collection assesses the implications of these differences for evaluating the impact of public policy initiatives and legal reforms that have been implemented or proposed over the last several decades. In addition to race and ethnicity, contributors also look at the effects on juvenile justice of suburban sprawl, the impact of family and neighborhood, bias in postarrest decisions, and mental health issues. Offering the first critical summary of what is known and unknown in this important area of social research, Our Children, Their Children will prove an invaluable resource for any policy maker, social worker, educator, attorney, counselor, or other type of worker affiliated with the juvenile justice system.  

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Our Children, Their Children

Confronting Racial and Ethnic Differences in American Juvenile Justice

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 2005 The University of Chicago
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-31988-9

Contents

Foreword Barry A. Krisberg....................................................................................................................................................................................vii1 Introduction Darnell F. Hawkins and Kimberly Kempf-Leonard.................................................................................................................................................1Part 1 Racial and Ethnic Differences in Juvenile Crime and Punishment: Past and Present2 The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Juvenile Justice Processing Donna M. Bishop..............................................................................................................................233 Racial and Ethnic Differences in Juvenile Offending Janet L. Lauritsen.....................................................................................................................................834 Degrees of Discretion: The First Juvenile Court and the Problem of Difference in the Early Twentieth Century David S. Tanenhaus............................................................................1055 Race and the Jurisprudence of Juvenile Justice: A Tale in Two Parts, 1950-2000 Barry C. Feld...............................................................................................................122Part 2 Understanding Race Differences in Offending and the Administration of Justice6 Suburban Sprawl, Race, and Juvenile Justice Paul A. Jargowsky, Scott A. Desmond, and Robert D. Crutchfield.................................................................................................1677 Race and Crime: The Contribution of Individual, Familial, and Neighborhood-Level Risk Factors to Life-Course-Persistent Offending Alex R. Piquero, Terrie E. Moffitt, and Brian Lawton.....................2028 Explaining Assessments of Future Risk: Race and Attributions of Juvenile Offenders in Presentencing Reports Sara Steen, Christine E. W. Bond, George S. Bridges, and Charis E. Kubrin......................2459 "Justice by Geography": Racial Disparity and Juvenile Courts Timothy M. Bray, Lisa L. Sample, and Kimberly Kempf-Leonard...................................................................................27010 Race, Ethnicity, and Juvenile Justice: Is There Bias in Postarrest Decision Making? Paul E. Tracy........................................................................................................300Part 3 Toward Remedial Social Policy11 Disproportionate Minority Confinement/Contact (DMC): The Federal Initiative Carl E. Pope and Michael J. Leiber............................................................................................35112 Mental Health Issues among Minority Offenders in the Juvenile Justice System Elizabeth Cauffman and Thomas Grisso.........................................................................................39013 Minimizing Harm from Minority Disproportion in American Juvenile Justice Franklin E. Zimring..............................................................................................................41314 Conclusion Kimberly Kempf-Leonard and Darnell F. Hawkins..................................................................................................................................................428Contributors...................................................................................................................................................................................................449Subject Index..................................................................................................................................................................................................451

Chapter One

Introduction

Darnell F. Hawkins and Kimberly Kempf-Leonard

Born in homes of comfort and surrounded by the protecting influences of the church and good society, we are slow to appreciate the immense difference between our favored fate and that of the child whose first breath is drawn in an atmosphere of moral impunity and in the midst of privation. (Letchworth 1886, 138-139)

What better education for a disorderly life can be found than that which the gang provides; inculcation of demoralizing personal habits, schooling in the technique of crime, the imparting of attitudes of irresponsibility, independence, and indifference to law, and the setting up of the philosophy of taking a chance and of fatalism.... Unsupervised gangs of older boys and young men continue this process of demoralization in the direction of more serious criminality. The end product is the slugger, the gunman, and the all-round gangster. (Thrasher 1927, 272-274)

The documents, as we see, corroborate our assumption that in studying the delinquency of children there is no need to ask what are the factors of demoralization, for there is no morality to start with. Except in the case of Ficki (a child whose delinquency career was profiled by the authors), all the cases show clearly that there is no constructive influence whatever in the families of the delinquent boys. In some cases (Falarski and Czalewski) the marriage-group is positively disorganized; .... But lack of positive constructive influences may very well coexist with apparently normal, i.e., not abnormal family conditions. (Thomas and Znaniecki [1927] 1958, 1793)

Cornerville's problem is not lack of organization but failure of its own social organization to mesh with the structure of the society around it. This accounts for the development of the local political and racket organizations and also for the loyalty people bear toward their race and toward Italy. (Whyte [1943] 1981, 273)

The question has been asked many times: What is it, in modern city life, that produces delinquency? Why do relatively large numbers of boys from the inner urban areas appear in court with such striking regularity, year after year, regardless of changing population structure or the ups and downs of the business cycle? (Shaw and McKay [1942] 1969, 140)

In 1992, 3 in 10 juveniles living in central cities were black, and 2 in 10 were Hispanic. In 1992, 22% of all juveniles in the U.S. lived in poverty. Minority juveniles were more likely to live in poverty than were nonminority juveniles. In 1992 the poverty rates for black juveniles (47%) and juveniles of Hispanic origin (40%) were far greater than the rate for white juveniles. (Snyder and Sickmund 1995, 6-7)

Overrepresentation of blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians in the juvenile justice system requires immediate attention. The existence of disproportionate racial representation in the juvenile justice system raises concerns about differential exposure to risks and the fairness and equal treatment of youth by the police, courts, and other players in the juvenile justice system. (McCord, Widom, and Crowell 2001, 258)

The aim of this collection of original papers is a state-of-the-science examination of the extent and causes and correlates of racial and ethnic differences in the processing of youths within the juvenile justice system. We have undertaken this effort during a period when the juvenile court and its assorted institutional appendages have come under increased scrutiny and criticism from both within and without. Much recent public...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University of Chicago Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0226319881
• ISBN 13: 9780226319889
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 459
• Herausgeber: Hawkins Darnell Felix, Kempf-Leonard Kimberly
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar