A Multi-level Analysis of Juvenile Court Case Handling Decisions at Intake: Findings fromn a Rural State

• In Event: Juvenile Court Intake, Transfer and Direct File Decisions

Abstract

Intake decisions can have cumulative effects on later stages of juvenile justice case processing. Intake practices vary considerably across jurisdictions, yet few studies have evaluated court characteristics and the contexts within which courts are situated. The purpose of this study is to address the methodological limitations of prior research by using multi-level modeling to examine case-, court-, and county-level factors that may influence juvenile court intake decisions (i.e., divert/take no action, informal case handling, and petition/formal handling) for status and delinquent offenses. Results of the two-level multi-nominal regression analyses shows that courts with higher referral rates and urban jurisdictions are more likely to divert or informally handle status and delinquent referrals, while the percent Black youth population was negatively associated with intake decisions. Separate models for urban and rural courts found similarities between courts in use of legal factors, and differences in the salience of extra-legal factors and the impact of percent Black youth population on intake decisions. These findings indicate the need for further study to identify additional contextual factors to help explain the differential use of extra-legal factors in rural and urban courts and to determine whether this differential use is associated with disparities in court processing outcomes.

Authors

• Angela Robertson, Mississippi State University

• Richard Dembo, University of South Florida

• Sheena Gardner, Mississippi State University

• Stacy Haynes, Mississippi State University