African American Juveniles

Every night when the news comes on African Americans are constantly reminded of the rise in crime. The worst part of this is most of the crime such a robbery, theft, homicide, and the selling of illegal drugs are being committed by children younger than the age seventeen ( H. Morrison 2003). There is much more behind a juvenile committing the crime than just because they felt like doing it. There are such factors such as female headed households, abuse and neglect, broken homes, peer pressure to be someone that they aren't, and looking for attention in all of the wrong places. African Americans in juvenile facilities are not only overlooked but are also misrepresented in the criminal justice system.

In total there are 36,740 out of 96,655 African American Juveniles in the criminal justice system. Out of all of these juveniles 13,510 have committed violent offenses such as criminal homicide, violent sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault, 9,630 have committed property offenses such as burglary, theft, and arson, 3,322 juveniles have committed drug offenses, 3,520 have committed public offenses such as using drugs and having sex for money voluntarily, 5,109 are technical violations, and 1,649 are status offenses such as underage drinking and curfew violations.

A number of recent studies have investigated the disproportionate confinement of African Americans in the juvenile justice system around the country. Some have found that the higher incarceration rates come from the higher crime rates committed (Drakeford, 2005). When African Americans and whites are compared it is found that eighty percent of incarceration discrepancy was due to racial arrest rate differences (Leiber, 2005). It is also found that law enforcement officers who are white are more likely to arrest poor African American youth because of the stereotype (Drakeford, 2005). In Minnesota their law imposed a four year sentence for first time crack cocaine users and only probation for powder cocaine users.