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Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities

Legislation, Policies, and Legal Factors with Disproportionate

Policies enacted through legislation or through administrative action may sometimes contain elements that create a disadvantage for minority youth. These disadvantages may occur for a variety of reasons, but the most common are those that target some specific aspect of delinquent behavior, those that target specific locations, and those that use prior delinquent or criminal history as an element of the policy. As examples, consider the following:

Policies that target certain types of offenses or offense characteristics may have a disproportionate impact on minority youth.
Policies that target location issues (e.g., certain types of offenses near schools or public housing areas) may place minority youth at a disadvantage given the location characteristics.
Policies that mandate specific handling (e.g., moving a case to adult court) may have eligibility or threshold criteria based on prior delinquency or offense histories.

This is not to say that all such policies or practices that result in differences in treatment are necessarily wrong or need to be modified. What is suggested is that if such policies result in accentuating DMC, then policymakers, analysts, and community members should be aware of those consequences and ensure that the policies are well founded and that the jurisdiction considers whether to continue those policies, end them, or seek to modify them in order to address DMC effects.

In some communities, for example, an intentional decision to reduce gang activity may result in an increase in DMC measures, which is predicted and understood as a consequence of that public safety objective. The point is not to expect to eliminate all such disparate impacts at once, but rather to examine and monitor these impacts when they occur to ensure that public safety, rehabilitation of gang members, and fair juvenile justice system response all are kept in an intentional balance. For example, although a short-term increase in DMC may be likely to result from a gang-suppression initiative,the long-term expected outcome of a comprehensive and balanced approach would be reduced levels of DMC.

Differential Behavior

Mobility Effects: Importation/Displacement

Indirect Effects

Differential Opportunities for Prevention and Treatment

Justice by Geography

Accumulated Disadvantage

Statistical Aberration