Case Studies of Nine Jurisdictions that Reduced Disproportionate Minority Contact in their Juvenile Justice Systems

• NCJ Number: 250301
• Author(s): Elizabeth Spinney; Marcia Cohen; William Feyerherm; Rachel Stephenson; Martha Yeide; Michael Hopps
• Date Published: March 2014
• Length: 97 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2009-JF-FX-0103
• Agencies: OJJDP-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Report (Technical Assistance); Report (Grant Sponsored); Program/Project Description; Case Study

Annotation

This report presents case studies of nine U.S. jurisdictions that reduced disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in their juvenile justice systems over a 3-year period during the research time frame.

Abstract

DMC has been recognized for decades as a deep-rooted problem in U.S. juvenile justice systems. All States are required to address DMC in order to stay in compliance with the Federal Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA). The U.S. Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) tracks compliance with this JJDPA requirement. In 2005, OJJDP began requiring States to use a Web-based data entry system to input data on the flow of youths at nine points in their juvenile justice systems. The current study is the first to conduct a systematic review of these data and identify sites that have reduced DMC over an extended period of time. Through the presented case studies, strategies used to reduce DMC in these nine sites are identified. The sites selected represent a diverse group of jurisdictions, both geographically and demographically. The portion of the youth population ages 10-17 that was minority ranged from 15 percent in one county to 78 percent in another jurisdiction. The poverty rates for children and youth also varied significantly among the nine sites. This study identifies and explains the eight most-noted strategies. Extensive tables and figures and 121 references