Hispanics in the Juvenile Justice System: The Majority Minority

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

Despite being the nation’s largest and fastest-growing minority population, Hispanic youth have rarely been the focus of juvenile justice studies. The failure to devote attention to the involvement of Hispanic youth in the juvenile justice system has often been related to data quality issues, where many data collection efforts neglect to gather complete information on ethnicity or ignore it entirely. However, several national data sets provide an opportunity to examine Hispanic youth at various stages of the juvenile justice system and to compare them to other minority groups, as well as non-Hispanic whites. The following panel will examine Hispanic juvenile victimization, offending behavior, involvement in juvenile court processes, and in the custody population. Considerations for handling disproportionality analyses when Hispanics are the majority population will also be discussed.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 44. Juvenile Justice System

Individual Presentations

• Hispanic Juvenile Victims and Offenders - Charles Puzzanchera, National Center for Juvenile Justice

• Hispanic youth in juvenile court - Sarah Hockenberry, National Center for Juvenile Justice

• Hispanic juvenile offenders on probation and in residential placement - Teri Deal, National Center for Juvenile Justice; Melissa Sickmund, National Center for Juvenile Justice

• Understanding disproportionate minority contact with the juvenile justice system even when the minority group is the majority population - Melissa Sickmund, National Center for Juvenile Justice; Charles Puzzanchera, National Center for Juvenile Justice

Discussant

• Brecht Donoghue, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention