- Date
- October 2001
- Author
- Mark Soler
In recent years, a host of juvenile justice issues have been in the forefront of public debate and policy discussion in the United States: racial disparities in the justice system, prosecution of youth in adult criminal court, incarceration of young people in jails and prisons, and effectiveness of prevention and treatment programs. From 1992 to 1997, 47 states and the District of Columbia made their juvenile justice systems more punitive, either by making it easier to prosecute juveniles as adults, by expanding sentencing authority, or by removing confidentiality protections of juvenile court records or proceedings. Yet research has demonstrated that youth prosecuted in adult court actually have higher recidivism rates and commit more serious crimes later than youth in juvenile court. A report by the surgeon general in January, 2001 dispelled a number of "myths" about youth and violence, including the myths that minority youth are more likely to become involved in violence than other racial or ethnic groups and that "getting tough" with young offenders by prosecuting them as adults will lead to less crime. The report also confirmed earlier research on the effectiveness of a variety of violence prevention programs.
Building Blocks for Youth, a national initiative for a fair and effective youth justice system, issued several reports during 2000 and 2001 on these issues. The Color of Justice, by the Justice Policy Institute, found that in California minority youth prosecuted in adult court were much more likely to be sentenced to imprisonment than white youth, even when arrested for similar offenses. And Justice for Some, a comprehensive national report by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, found that youth of color are treated more severely than white youth at every stage of the justice system—from arrest to incarceration—even when charged with the same offenses. Youth Crime/Adult Time, an in-depth study by Pretrial Services Resource Center of youth prosecuted as adults in 18 of the largest jurisdictions in the country, found racial disparities similar to those in earlier reports, and raised serious questions about the fairness and appropriateness of the process. It found that most determinations to prosecute youth in adult court (85%) were made by prosecutors or legislatures, not by judges; a significant number of youth were charged with non-violent offenses; a majority of youth in the study were released before trial, most within 24 hours of having charges filed, and many were released without bail, all indicating that the charges were not especially serious. In Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders to Adult Court, the study analyzed data from state criminal justice agencies in Illinois and national corrections databases. It reported that Illinois' practice of automatically sending 15- and a 16-year-old youth charged with drug crimes within 1,000 feet of a school or public housing project to adult court has produced one of the most racially disparate outcomes in the nation. Of the 259 youth automatically transferred to adult court from Cook County over a year period, only one was White. Over 99% of the Cook County youth automatically transferred to the adult court for drug crimes were minority youth.
Juvenile justice battles are increasingly fought in the court of public opinion. The myth that a new breed of young and violent "super-predators" threatens the nation (also debunked by the Surgeon General's report) may be the most obvious example of a sound bite driving national policy, but it is hardly the only one. The penchant of television news for reporting violent crime prominently and often ("If it bleeds, it leads."), despite seven straight years of decreases in crime in all categories, adds to the problem. In Off Balance: Youth, Race and Crime in the News, another Building Blocks report, researchers from the Berkeley Media Studies Group and the Justice Policy Institute found that overall media coverage of youth crime is increasing regardless of actual changes in crime and that youth and minorities are over-depicted as criminals in the news media. Consequently despite a 68% decline in youth homicides from 1993 to 1999, 62% of poll respondents in 1999 believed youth crime was up. These data make it even more important that child advocates learn to access the media with messages that will resonate with the public. Advocates for children and youth need to equip themselves to meet these issues.
Information on juvenile justice research, and on effective prevention and treatment programs, is available from a number of sources, including the Building Blocks for Youth website. Information on public opinion has not been as readily available, in part because there have been few public opinion polls taking an in-depth look at attitudes toward youth, crime, race, and the justice system.
To address the gap in public opinion research, Building Blocks for Youth has responded in several ways. First, it surveyed the available public opinion research on youth and justice issues, such as polls conducted in past years by the Gallup Organization, CBS News, NBC News, CNN, Time, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the California Wellness Foundation. Second, it convened a series of ten focus groups, two each in Baltimore, Richmond, Chicago, Seattle, and South San Francisco, on youth, crime, and race issues. The groups were separated by gender, race/ethnicity, and education level to facilitate candid discussions. Third, it conducted an extensive national survey on attitudes toward youth crime, the juvenile justice system, the impact of race, and messages, policies, and messengers for change. This public opinion research was undertaken by Belden Russonello & Stewart, a research and communications firm located in Washington, D.C.
Other groups have also surveyed on these issues. In anticipation of the 100th anniversary of the first Juvenile Court in Cook County, Illinois, the Children's Court Centennial Committee (CCCC) commissioned Peter Hart Research and Public Opinion Strategies to do a survey in Illinois of adult and youth attitudes about juvenile justice issues. The FrameWorks Institute and the Center for Communications and Community at UCLA prepared a summary and analysis of survey research related to the public's attitudes concerning adolescents, performed a content analysis of the representation of adolescents in television entertainment programming, and conducted in-depth interviews and focus groups during 1999 and 2000.
This advocacy guide summarizes the public opinion research on youth and juvenile justice issues from the Building Blocks focus groups and national poll, as well as other polls. Unless otherwise noted, detailed findings discussed below are from the Building Blocks poll. After summarizing the public opinion research, this advocacy guide makes recommendations about how advocates can frame the issues in their work (focusing on effective messages and messengers), and how they can use this information in their organizing and advocacy efforts.