An Examination of Justice System Outcomes and Racial Impacts of Participation in Extracurricular Activities.

• In Event: The Impact of Social Bonds on Delinquency

Abstract

Literature on the school-to-prison pipeline has emphasized the lack of empirical knowledge around key independent covariates that impact the pathway from school to criminal legal involvement, and whether that pathway is further impacted by the race of the student. However, a portion of juvenile justice literature consistently finds that the system's response to persons involved in the system can depend on extralegal factors beyond the severity of that person’s offense and their prior record. Specifically, prior research consistently concludes that factors, such as race, is associated with juvenile justice outcomes, regardless of the involved individual’s actual behavior or prior record. Another section of juvenile justice literature is centered on relevant social phenomena at play during the commission of a criminal act. The present study argues that elements derived from Hirschi's social bond theory may not only affect offending behavior, but may likewise bias the system, such that peripheral by-products of the social bond, such as relationships and accrued social capital, can act as protective factors guarding youth against harsh treatment in the juvenile justice system and importantly the protective effect is stronger for white youth than others.

Authors

• Lauren Duhaime, CNA Corporation

• Kenneth Novak, CNA Corporation