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Being Young and Black

What Are Their Effects on Juvenile Justice Decision Making?

Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, jleiber{at}vcu.edu

Joseph D. Johnson

Michigan State University, East Lansing

This study examined the extent to which race and age individually and jointly determined juvenile justice case outcomes at intake and judicial disposition among males in one county juvenile court in the state of Iowa. Using an interpretation of the symbolic threat thesis and the emphasis on stereotyping as the theoretical framework, we discovered that being Black and older increased a youth's chances of receiving an intake court referral and decreased the odds of participation in intake diversion. Age did not condition intake decision making for African Americans but was discovered to temper case outcomes for Whites. Although individual relationships were found, there was no evidence of joint race-age effects in decision making at judicial disposition.

Key Words: race • age • symbolic threat • juvenile court decision making

This version was published on October 1, 2008

Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 54, No. 4, 560-581 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0011128707308857


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