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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

DMC Contributing Mechanisms

DMC contributing mechanisms are social influences that increase the likelihood of a minority youth coming into contact with the juvenile justice system. These mechanisms resemble the risk factors in the prevention research literature. According to the preventive literature, a mix of risk and protective factors influence a youth over the course of adolescent development in either positive or negative ways to determine the youth’s potential to engage in problem behaviors such as delinquency, substance abuse, dropping out of school, and HIV/AIDS risk behaviors (Hawkins, Catalano, and Miller, 1992). Risk factors increase, and protective factors decrease, the likelihood of problem behaviors. While no single risk factor is more potent than any other, in general the more risk factors and the fewer protective factors present in life, the greater the probability of problem behaviors (Bry, McKeon, and Pandina, 1982; Newcomb, 1995).

Although there are no corresponding protective factors in DMC research as yet, DMC contributing mechanisms similarly can influence the degree of contact a youth has with the juvenile justice system. Like risk factors, the presence of these contributing mechanisms—alone or in combination—increases the likelihood of negative effects (i.e., minority overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system). As is true for risk factors, no single contributing mechanism is more potent than another; however, the greater the number of contributing mechanisms, the greater the probability of minority overrepresentation. Also like risk factors, DMC contributing mechanisms can have a cumulative effect on a youth’s life course that leads to increased involvement with the juvenile justice system. For instance, juvenile justice decisionmakers tend to use prior record and seriousness of offense as the basis for making any determination (e.g., diversion, detention, formal sanctioning). Therefore, any contributing mechanism that artificially inflates a young offender’s delinquent history will have profound consequences later in life.

This section briefly explains the major mechanisms that the research literature has identified as contributing to DMC. A more detailed explanation of contributing mechanisms can be found in the DMC Technical Assistance Manual, 4th Edition, available at http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/dmc_ta_manual/.

Differential Behavior

Mobility Effects: Importation/Displacement

Indirect Effects

Differential Opportunities for Prevention and Treatment

Justice by Geography

Legislation, Policies, and Legal Factors With Disproportionate Impact

Accumulated Disadvantage

Statistical Aberration