Structural Variations in Juvenile Court Processing: Inequality, the Underclass, and Social Control
- 1 January 1993
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Law & Society Review
- Vol. 27 (2) , 285-311
- https://doi.org/10.2307/3053938
Abstract
This article develops a macrolevel framework on inequality and juvenile court processing by integrating ideas drawn from conflict theory, research on urban poverty, and recent race-specific trends in drug enforcement. Using 1985 data for more than 200 U.S. counties, we examine how structural context—especially racial inequality and the concentration of “underclass” poverty—influence the formal petitioning, predisposition detention, and out-of-home placement of juveniles. The data are generally consistent with the hypothesis that underclass blacks are viewed as a threatening group to middle-class populations and are thus subjected to increased control by the juvenile justice system. We discuss the implications of our results for a better understanding of the relationship between larger societal forces of increasing poverty and racial inequality and local systems of formal social control.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
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