Citation

Pope CE, Feyerherm WH. Crim. Justice Behav. 1981; 8(3): 287-301.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/009385488100800303

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Allegations of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system abound. Many theorists appear to accept such discrimination as a demonstrated fact. However, a review of research is not so conclusive; mixed results are apparent. The current analysis examines the relative impact of race and other social factors as compared to a set of legally relevant variables such as referral offense and referral source. The focus of the analysis is the processing of juveniles in California, in particular the decision at intake to release, handle informally, or handle case with a formal petition. The analysis indicates that the legally relevant set of variables has a greater impact on processing than race. Indeed, age of the juvenile has a greater impact on processing than race.

Keywords: Juvenile justice

Language: en