Juvenile Offenders: Prevalence, Offender Incidence, and Arrest Rates by Race

There is general consensus that a disproportionate number of minority youth are incarcerated, with incarceration rates for minorities that are two to four times that of Whites (for example, see Krisberg and Schwartz, this volume). Given the disproportionate rate of incarceration among minority youth, an obvious question is whether this reflects differences in individual behavior or official responses to behavior (or both). One possible answer is simply that minorities have a greater involvement in delinquent and criminal behavior (Hindelang, 1978). This greater involvement would then be anticipated to result in more frequent arrests, more frequent juvenile court appearances, and larger incarceration rates. In this article differences in delinquent behavior and arrest rates among racial groups are explored to see if such differences could explain the observed differentials in incarceration rates.