Bryanna Fox
Associate Professor, University Of South Florida
Key Findings
- There are more complex dispositional outcomes for juvenile offenders than previously known.
- Four separate trajectories (Escalating, High Stable, Low Stable, and De-Escalating) for juvenile offenders were found using the group-based trajectory model.
- There was support for the “sticky labels,” theory, which states that previous labels can impact future court outcomes for juveniles.
- Sticky labels particularly impact minority youth, who are viewed as more dangerous and punished more harshly than their White counterparts.
- Juvenile offenders in the Escalating and High Stable trajectories showed over-representation of Black and Hispanic youth and an under-representation of White youth.
- Black and Hispanic youth offenders in the Low and De-Escalating trajectories still received more severe sanctions than their White counterparts.
Description
In the article, “Race/Ethnicity and the Effects of Prior Case Outcomes on Current Dispositions: Continuity and Change in the Dispositional Careers of Juvenile Offenders,” Fox and her co-authors examine how previous referrals in the system as well as race and ethnicity can impact a youth offender’s court sanctions. The researchers used data from the Pennsylvania Department of Juvenile Justice (PDJJ), which included demographic and individual information for more than 9,000 juvenile offenders over a 10-year span (from 2000 to 2010) who had been referred to the PDJJ exactly five times. The results showed more complex dispositional outcomes for juvenile offenders than were previously known. Four separate trajectories (Escalating, High Stable, Low Stable, and De-Escalating) for juvenile offenders were found using the group-based trajectory model. There was support for the “sticky labels,” theory, which states that previous labels can impact future court outcomes. Sticky labels particularly impact minority youth, who are viewed as more dangerous and punished more harshly than their White counterparts. Juvenile offenders in the Escalating and High Stable trajectories showed over-representation of Black and Hispanic youth and an under-representation of White youth. When Black and Hispanic youth offenders were in the Low and De-Escalating trajectories, they still received more severe sanctions than their White counterparts.The researchers advise that juvenile justice policies should focus more on prior offences to reduce bias in racial and ethnicity factors when assessing sentencing. In conclusion, the authors note a need for further research to build on racial and ethnicity differences in each trajectory.