Factors Influencing Intake Decision and Court Disposition of Juveniles in North Carolina

• NCJ Number: 87854
• Author(s): J S Huryn
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 520 pages
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. North Carolina State University - doctoral thesis

Annotation

This North Carolina study found that legal and processing variables were the most important in influencing the decision about whether a juvenile should become further involved in the juvenile justice system.

Abstract

This research analyzed decisionmaking in the North Carolina juvenile justice system at the intake and judicial disposition stages to determine those factors that influenced the decisions made. At both decision points the data were analyzed through cross-tabulation to determine whether the demographic characteristics of the youth, seriousness characteristics of the offense and offense history, or processing characteristics of the case were most related to the decision. Data were obtained from the Juvenile Services Division of the Administrative Office of the Courts for 1977, 1978, and 1979. Data for the court stage were also available for 1976. For the intake stage, the independent variables were categorized as demographic (age, sex, race, and residence), legal (characteristics of the present case and former legal involvement in the juvenile justice system), and process (variables involved in the process of the intake counselor making the intake decision). The variables associated with the court decision were categorized as demographic, contextual, legal, and process. The variables found to be most important to the outcome of the youth's interaction with the juvenile justice system were previous court record, the nature of the offense, the person who petitioned the youth, whether the youth was detained, how quickly the youth was processed, and where the court was located. Traces of bias due to race, sex, family structure, and family and school situation do exist in the system but appear to result from decisions by police, parents, schools, and others who refer the youth in differing ratios according to sex, offense, age, and other variables. Recommendations for further study are offered. Tabular data and about 190 references are provided.