Gender Disparity In The Juvenile Justice System

Implicit biases, bias in judgment and/or behavior influenced by unconscious negative stereotypes and attitudes about people based on harmful narratives about race and crime in the nation, [citation] perpetuate the racial disparity in the juvenile justice system today. Evidence suggests that many Americans are subject to consciously or subconsciously associate minority adolescents, specifically black youth, with crime and delinquency. In fact, the media and their constant portrayal of minorities as violent offenders and drug dealers further this notion [citation]. Nonetheless, within the juvenile justice system, racialized assumptions and attitudes tend to reduce sympathy for those accused, suggesting that key decision makers in the juvenile process may act on racial and ethnic biases. For example, recent studies cite evidence of bias in perceptions of culpability, a risk of re-offending, and deserved punishment for adolescents when the decision-maker knew the race of the juvenile beforehand [citation]. Likewise, a study conducted in 1998 examining the link between race and delinquency in adolescence found that probation officers were more likely to see the offenses of minorities as caused by individual failings for which state intervention was a necessary solution, however, viewing external factors like lacking a role model as the cause for offenses committed by white youth [citation], suggesting that minorities are responsible for their own life conditions and ultimately deserving of punishment received as a result. …show more content…
The next section examines more explicitly how implicit biases may impact key decision-makers in the juvenile justice