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Resumo

Since 1992 there has been a federal mandate to reduce 'disproportionate minority contact' (DMC), that is, juvenile and criminal justice system contact of non-White youth at rates exceeding their representation in the population. There is little research on how juvenile court authorities interpret this problem and their responsibility to address it, yet existing studies suggest that racial attitudes of court workers, and the lack of diversity among these officials, may contribute to DMC. Using a survey of juvenile court workers, the authors consider how court authorities view the importance of addressing disproportionate minority confinement and the individual-level and contextual predictors of these orientations. The authors find significant variation in the extent to which local court workers view DMC as a problem and that racial politics condition these orientations. Their findings support prior work suggesting that courtroom workgroups be seen as collectives that filter and interpret external rules and regulations, such as the DMC Mandate and indicate the significance of race to the focal concerns of court workers. Within limitations of the study, findings suggest racial politics of probation officers and court contexts may impede or promote local responses to the DMC Mandate and that minority representation within the courtroom workforce is an important source of DMC Mandate support.

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