Faculty Publications

Race, Age, And Juvenile Justice Decision Making

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Journal of Crime and Justice

Volume

25

Issue

2

First Page

23

Last Page

47

Abstract

Recent theoretical perspectives explore the joint effects of race and age on decision-making in criminal and juvenile justice proceedings. Underlying these approaches is a focus on the use of racial stereotyping and decision-makers’ perceptions of minorities as threatening, especially young African Americans. While there is some empirical inquiry into the combination effects of race and age on decision-making in the criminal justice system, little is done with the juvenile justice system. This is a critical omission since unlike criminal proceedings, age by itself is traditionally treated as a legally justified factor that can be considered by decision-makers to arrive at decisions for juvenile outcomes. Using an interpretation of the symbolic threat thesis, we attempt to address this void in the literature by examining the validity of three hypotheses that involve the individual and joint effects of race and age on juvenile justice outcomes. The results provide partial support for the consideration of both race and age to expand our understanding of the contextual nature of social control in general and decision-making in particular. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Department

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology

Original Publication Date

1-1-2002

DOI of published version

10.1080/0735648X.2002.9721156

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