NCJ Number
99496
Date Published
1985
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This analysis of police-juvenile encounters occurring in a large midwestern city during a 15-month period beginning in June 1970 concluded that the great bulk of such encounters were related to matters of minor significance.
Abstract
This study replicated the 1970 research of Black and Reiss, which presented an empirical portrait of the policing of juveniles. Data were collected by participant observers traveling with police on a random time sample basis. Of the 1,978 police-citizen interactions coded as encounters, 200 (approximately 10 percent) involved violators under 18. While Black and Reiss concluded that most deviant acts by juveniles were detected by citizens, this study found that 52 percent of the encounters were police initiated. This difference was due largely to the police department's traffic ticket quota system, indicating that the ratios of police- and citizen-initiated encounters were dependent on departmental policy. The data did support the Black and Reiss finding that only a minority of police-juvenile transactions involved alleged felonies and that black juveniles were more frequently involved in alleged felony encounters than whites. The greater involvement of black juveniles did not appear to be attributable to police discrimination in either study. Both studies also showed that police diversion of juveniles from the justice system was a common practice, since only 15-16 percent of the encounters ended in arrest. Additional specific findings are detailed. The article includes nine references.