Examining the Role of Gender, Race, and Community Characteristics in Juvenile Court Decisions

• In Event: Juvenile Justice Decision-Making

Abstract

The present research focuses on the influence of extralegal variables, specifically gender and race, on juvenile court outcomes at different stages in the decision-making process, as well as the importance of juvenile court and community characteristics in explaining variations in outcomes. Using a unique data set that combines juvenile court case records with community-level variables, the analysis examines whether contextual variables on the community-level (such as unemployment, political climate, racial composition, income levels, etc.), as well as contextual variables that pertain to the workings of the court (such as caseload size, the types of cases typically handled, the types of outcomes typically decided on, etc.) help explain variations in juvenile outcomes along gender and race lines at different stages of juvenile justice processing.

Author

• Katharina Neissl, Northeastern University