NCJ Number
226155
Date Published
January 2009
Length
80 pages
Annotation
Through a presentation of papers from a symposium, this paper attempts to stimulate discussion within the child welfare and juvenile justice fields about the role of race and ethnicity in both systems, and propose a shared language and framework for understanding racial disparity in the two systems, describing ongoing initiatives to address disproportionate minority contact.
Abstract
It is believed by some that racial and ethnic disproportionality in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems is inevitable, the product of societal factors beyond one’s control, or wrongly, that rates of abuse or neglect and juvenile crime are simply higher among communities of color. Some are concerned that racial and ethnic disproportionality cannot be reduced without first solving the broader societal issues to which they are related. However, as this compendium of papers from the symposium titled “The Overrepresentation of Children of Color in America’s Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems” indicates, numerous strategies can and should be undertaken simultaneously at the Federal, State, and local levels to work toward achieving racial equity in these systems. Societal issues are only one part of an intricate puzzle that must be pieced together to achieve the desired results. Racial equity in child welfare and juvenile justice results in improved outcomes for all children. This paper presents the content of the symposium and two commentaries on a Chapin Hall paper titled Understanding Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice. It starts by exploring the language used to describe the extent of racial and ethnic differences in the involvement of children in the two systems and offers a common language intended to clarify the meaning of the terms. The paper then describes current efforts to use what is known about disparity to improve services in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. The paper concludes by exploring the commonalities and differences that characterize the two systems in order to focus on opportunities to work together and solve common problems. Figures, references, and appendix