Disproportionate Minority Contact at the System’s Front End: Officer Perceptions and Implications for Justice Practice

• In Event: Identifying and Understanding Overrepresentation of Minority Youth in the Juvenile Justice System: Initial Results from Ohio’s Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Study

Abstract

The issue of disproportionate minority contact has become an important focus of juvenile justice researchers in recent years. While the evidence consistently indicates that minority youth are overrepresented in comparison to their peers, the reasons for this overrepresentation have not been fully elaborated. This is unfortunate as the overrepresentation has important implications for the perceived legitimacy of the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Given that they are the main gatekeepers for the juvenile justice process, this study examines police officer perceptions of overrepresentation (N=116). The data are drawn from 17 focus groups and interviews across 15 agencies. Among officers, disproportionate contact is perceived to be a function of a combination of community and family risk factors. In general, differences in rates of offending are attributed to the variation in risk factors according to socio-economic status and geographic location. Officers’ perceive that the social, economic, and cultural environments produce behavioral patterns and subsequent referral to the juvenile justice system. The paper’s discussion examines the implications of the modal findings and related variation for police interaction with minority youth and perceived legitimacy of the justice process.

Authors

• Derek Mueller, University of Cincinnati

• Hannah Denise McManus, University of Cincinnati

• Christopher Sullivan, University of Cincinnati

• Robin Engel, University of Cincinnati