Race as a Factor in Juvenile Arrests

The authors of this Bulletin focus on a somewhat neglected area of research, i.e., the role that race plays in police decisionmaking. Using statistics from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, they compare arrest probabilities of white and nonwhite juveniles for violent crimes. Their investigation finds no direct evidence that an offender’s race affects police decisions to take juveniles into custody in such incidents. Thus, it sheds light on one critical question about race and justice and reminds us that others remain to be answered. of the five Wisconsin counties studied. In these counties, no race-related differences in decisionmaking were apparent after the initial intake decision—youth were treated similarly at all decision stages, regardless of race. In Milwaukee, the largest metropolitan county in the state, African American youth were overrepresented (relative to their share of the total juvenile population) at all stages of processing; however, race (i.e., being African American) did not account for these differences. Factors that predicted whether a youth would be held in secure confinement included severity of the offense, prior secure confinement, and whether a youth was on state probation; race was not a significant factor. However, a Michigan study (Wordes, Bynum, and Corley, 1994) did find that minority youth were more likely than white youth to be detained in a secure facility. As the researchers note, “Across all analysis, youth who were African American or Latino were consistently more likely to be placed in secure detention. This was observed in the detention practices of both the police and the courts” (p. 162).