STUDY ADDRESSES DISPARITY BETWEEN AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND WHITE YOUTHS SENTENCED TO DETENTION FACILITIES
12 March 2002 - Case Western Reserve University

In the spring of 2000, William Sabol, associate director of community analysis and senior researcher at Case Western Reserve University's Center on Urban Poverty and Social Change, undertook a study to address the disparity in the numbers of black and white youths from Cuyahoga County committed to Ohio Department of Youth Services detention facilities.

Sabol decided to investigate for himself the size of the racial disparity and what might lie behind it. Using data from the Center's Cleveland Area Network on Data and Organizing, he examined the outcomes of the approximately 38,000 juvenile delinquency cases handled in the courts from 1997 to 1999.

The study measures the differences between the movements of groups of white and African-American youths through the justice system and identifies four stages where disposition decisions take place: whether to refer a case to the court; whether to handle a referred case officially or dispose of it by other means; whether to consider the youth in an official case a delinquent; and the final disposition of the case, which may include referral to ODYS, among other possible outcomes.

What Sabol found surprised him. After controlling for factors such as differences in the severity of offenses, prior contact with the court and prior detention, he discovered that black and white youth offenders are equally likely to be committed to ODYS facilities. Almost all the difference in the numbers incarcerated arise from the larger numbers of black youths whose cases were actually referred to the court, 24,412 compared to 13, 582 for whites.

According to Sabol, much of the difference in the rate at which black and white youths are brought into the justice system arises from the differing resources of white and African-American communities and the way that affects dealings with the courts.

"Black youths from inner-city neighborhoods who are referred to the courts may be detained before their case is adjudicated because the community lacks the resources to provide alternative programs or pretrial supervision in the community, resources which are more likely to be available in affluent, white communities," Sabol said. "That makes a big difference because being detained increases the likelihood of a youth's being committed to ODYS facilities, regardless of the nature of the offense for which they were arrested."

Conversely, Sabol found that wealthier communities tend to handle youth crime more quietly, outside of the courts.

"Those communities have the resources to get troubled kids into treatment or counseling," he said. "If a kid gets picked up for doing drugs in school, the principal is likely to call the parents, not the police. That's less true in a poor neighborhood."

The study also looks at how the courts treated individual characteristics of black and white youths within the various categories of offenses. It finds the largest difference to be in the category of drug offenses, where 70 percent of the black youths but only 32 percent of the white youths were charged with felonies. The difference was somewhat offset by the fact that only 6 percent of black youths with drug offenses had prior violations, compared to 27 percent for white youths. In general, however, there was little evidence of racial differences in court treatment of black and white youths.

According to Sabol, reducing the numbers of African-American youths entering the court system comes down to getting more resources into neighborhoods and communities with high concentrations of minority youth.

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