Comparative Study of The Influence of Structural Variations on Juvenile Justice Processing

迄今为止，大多数关于少年司法制度的研究都集中在个人层面的案件处理上，研究在特定司法管辖范围内的差异，这些差异可以用案件或被告的特定特征来解释。可能最常见的话题是强调种族、社会阶层和性别等“法外”因素如何影响法院判决。这项工作的传统大大增加了我们对少年司法和法院工作的理解。然而，这幅图景必然是不完整的。尽管对少年司法程序的微观原因（即法院内部变化）进行了大量研究，但很少有研究其宏观原因的努力；也就是说，法院系统之间的差异可以归因于它们所居住的社区的特征。桑普森博士正在进行的这项研究是目前有关官方对少年犯罪反应的研究的一个重大进展，从微观层面的关注转向宏观层面的兴趣，研究环境和结构因素如何影响少年法庭的运作。具体来说，研究提出了这样一个问题：社区的特征——尤其是城市化、人口密度、异质性、贫困集中和法院组织结构——是如何影响转介率、正式上访率、安全预处置拘留率、释放率和安置率的？按照犯罪类型、年龄、种族和性别分类的司法法庭处理的这五个方面，将与1985年和1990年300多个县的社会、经济、人口和法院组织数据一起进行分析。稳定和变化的宏观结构背景下的少年法院将被审查，因为他们承担下层阶级和社会混乱，政治经济，冲突和社会控制的理论。通过严格分析背景因素如何影响跨司法管辖区和时间的少年法庭处理，本研究可能会产生重要的新知识，这将为未来几年的研究议程奠定基础。

To date most of the research on the juvenile justice system has focused on individual-level case processing, examining variations within a given jurisdiction that could be explained by either case or defendant-specific characteristics. Probably the most common topic has emphasized how "extra-legal" factors such as race, social class, and gender influence court decisioning. This tradition of work has added substantially to our understanding of juvenile justice and the workings of the court. The picture, however, is necessarily incomplete. Despite the vast number of studies on the micro causes of juvenile justice processing (i.e., within court variation), there are few efforts that have examined its macro causes; that is, differences among court systems that can be attributed to the characteristics of the communities in which they reside. The study being undertaken by Dr. Sampson represents a major advance in current research on official reactions to juvenile delinquency by shifting from micro level concerns to macro level interests in examining how environmental and structural factors affect the operations of the juvenile courts. Specifically, the research asks the question: how do features of the community-- especially urbanization, population density, heterogeneity, concentration of poverty, and court-organizational structure-- influence rates of referral, formal petitioning, secure pre- disposition detention, release, and placement. These five dimensions of justice court processing, classified by crime type, age, race, and sex, will be analyzed in conjunction with social, economic, demographic, and court organizational data for over 300 counties in 1985 and 1990. Both stability and change in the macrostructural context of juvenile courts will be examined as they bear on theories of the underclass and social dislocations, political economy, conflict, and social control. Through rigorous analysis of how contextual factors shape juvenile court processing across jurisdictions and over time, this study is likely to produce important new knowledge that will establish the research agenda for years to come.