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

结构变异对少年司法处理影响的比较研究

• 批准号: 9111556
• 负责人: Robert Sampson
• 金额: $ 7.27万
• 依托单位: National Opinion Research Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1992
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1992-01-01 至 1993-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9111556&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Comparative; Study; Influence; Structural; Variations

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.

到目前为止，关于少年司法系统的大多数研究都集中在个人一级的案件处理上，审查了特定司法管辖区内可由案件或被告的具体特征解释的差异。可能最常见的话题是强调种族、社会阶层和性别等“法律之外”的因素如何影响法院的判决。这一工作传统大大增加了我们对少年司法和法院运作的了解。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(即法院内部的差异)进行了大量研究，但很少有人研究其宏观原因；即法院系统之间的差异可归因于其所在社区的特点。桑普森博士正在进行的这项研究表明，当前关于官方对青少年犯罪的反应的研究取得了重大进展，从微观层面的关切转向宏观层面的兴趣，研究环境和结构因素如何影响青少年法院的运作。具体地说，这项研究提出了这样一个问题：社区的特征--特别是城市化、人口密度、异质性、贫困集中度和法院组织结构--如何影响转介、正式请愿、安全预处置拘留、释放和安置的比率。按犯罪类型、年龄、种族和性别分类的这五个方面的司法法院程序将结合1985年和1990年300多个县的社会、经济、人口和法院组织数据进行分析。我们将考察少年法庭宏观结构背景的稳定性和变化，因为它们涉及下层阶级和社会混乱、政治经济学、冲突和社会控制的理论。通过对背景因素如何影响跨司法管辖区和随着时间的推移少年法院审理程序的严格分析，这项研究可能会产生重要的新知识，将为未来几年的研究议程奠定基础。