Disproportionate Confinement of African-American Juvenile Delinquents

Front Cover
LFB Scholarly Pub., 2003 - Law - 203 pages
Mooradian finds that the disproportionate number of African-American youth who are confined as juvenile delinquents is not purely a product of their delinquent acts. In analyses of real-world social agency data, particular combinations of personal, familial, societal, and juvenile-justice variables emerged as the best explanations for the problem. In addition, Mooradian suggests that culturally-sensitive measures are required in order to represent the particular experience of African-American youth and families. Analysis of some widely used clinical measures indicates that many of the included items and factors are inapplicable to African-Americans. Thus, he presents new scales, developed from these instruments, to improve the validity of measurement and the utility of the results. Historical issues in confinement of juveniles, and implications for further research, policy decisions, and intervention are discussed.

Contents

OVERVIEW
1
MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS IN DELINQUENCY
17
SOCIAL ECOLOGY AND JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
42
PROBLEM PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURES
57
RELATIONSHIPS AMONG VARIABLES
91
41
131
INTERPRETATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
137
NOTES
159
REFERENCES
179
INDEX
191
Copyright

About the author (2003)

John K. Mooradian is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Michigan State University, where he is also Coordinator of the Specialization in Clinical Social Work with Families. Dr. Mooradian is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who treats individuals, couples, and families. His research interests focus on the social ecology of adolescents and families.

Bibliographic information