NCJ Number
174548
Journal
American Sociological Review Volume: 63 Issue: 4 Dated: August 1998 Pages: 554-570
Date Published
1998
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether the race of a juvenile offender affects sentencing recommendations proposed by probation officers in presentence reports.
Abstract
Primary sources of information were 233 narrative reports written by probation officers in three counties in a western State. These reports were a subsample of reports drawn from a sample of juvenile court cases processed through the courts between 1990 and 1991. Probation officers write these narratives for the court at disposition, typically following conviction. The reports provide summary information about a youth's social history and typically conclude with the probation officer's assessment of the likelihood of criminal recidivism and recommendations for sentencing. The study analyzed these narratives to explore the relationship between race and officials' characterizations of youths, their crimes, and the causes of their crimes; officials' assessments of the threat of future crime by youths; and officials' sentence recommendations. Demographic information on offenders and their legal histories were taken from case files on all juvenile offenders. The study found pronounced differences in probation officers' attributions about the causes of crime by white versus minority youths. Further, these differences contributed significantly to differential assessments of the risk of reoffending and to sentence recommendations, even after adjusting for legally relevant case and offender characteristics. These results suggest that differential attributions about the causes of crime act as a mediating factor between race and sentencing recommendations. 3 tables and 61 references