Predicting the Behavior of Law in the Juvenile Court: A Focus on Noncompliance Cases

A large body of research has examined racial and gender disparities in juvenile justice decision making, generally concluding that disparities continue to plague the system. However, little research has examined disparities in “noncompliance” cases, even though youth charged with these offenses comprise a considerable percentage of youth under the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system. Using Black’s theory of law, the current study investigates the impact of race and gender on juvenile detention and adjudication decisions in “noncompliance” cases (e.g., probation violations, contempt, failure to appear) in a mid-Atlantic state. Findings suggest that Black’s theory does an adequate job of explaining the detention and adjudication decisions, and that race and gender continue to condition juvenile justice processing