Effect of Social Characteristics on Juvenile Court Dispositions

• NCJ Number: 81582
• Journal: Sociological Quarterly Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1977) Pages: 237-252
• Author(s): C W Thomas; R J Cage
• Date Published: 1977
• Length: 16 pages
• Grant Number(s): 73-NI-03-0002; 75-NI-99-0031
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Publication Format: Article
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: This article is a revision of a paper presented to the Southern Sociological Society convention, April 1975 in Washington, D.C.

Annotation

The purpose of this study, which is based on data obtained from a sample of 1,522 official court records, is to provide an assessment of the impact of a variety of social background, demographic, and offense-related variables on the severity of sanctions imposed by juvenile court judges in one southeastern metropolitan jurisdiction. The findings show that the extra-legal variables which were considered have an effect on case disposition even when offense seriousness and prior records of delinquency are held constant.

Abstract

Of the growing number of criticisms directed at facets of the juvenile justice system, none is more common than the contention that the informality of the juvenile court encourages discrimination. (Author abstract)