Tucson, Arizona Thursday, 18 July 2002
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/20718NLatinos-YouthCrime.html
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - Treatment of Latino youths in the U.S. juvenile justice system is harsher than for non-Hispanic white juveniles - and it's getting worse, according to a report commissioned by several groups that sponsor a campaign to end such inequities.
The report said disproportionate numbers of Latino youths are detained before trial in most states.
It also said the percentage of Latino youths in the nation's detention centers rose by 84 percent between 1983 and 1991, compared with an 8 percent increase for non-Hispanic white youths over the same period and a 46 percent increase for youths overall.
"They are arrested more often, stopped more often, detained more often, incarcerated more often and for longer periods of time," said Nancy Walker, co-author of the report and associate director of the Institute for Children, Youth and Families at Michigan State University.
Even when Latino kids are charged with the same offense as their white counterparts, they're punished more severely, the report found.
Latino youths who've never been detained are 13 times as likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses as non-Hispanic white youths - and they'll spend more than twice as much time in jail, the report said.
The report's other co-author, Francisco Villarruel, blames recent anti-gang statutes for the apparent crackdown on Latino youths. He said he is hearing more stories from Latino youths picked up by the police for simply standing on a street corner.
"It's bad, but chances are it's worse," said Villarruel, associate professor of family and child ecology at Michigan State.
"This is only what we can see."
The data are inadequate because state and county governments don't have a single category for "Hispanic" or "Latino," he said.
A child with a Puerto Rican father and black mother, for example, would be "African American" in California, "Hispanic" in Michigan and "biracial" in Ohio.
In Arizona, children can define their own race or ethnicity.
The report also found:
* In Los Angeles County in 1998, Latino youths were 1.9 times as likely as non-Hispanic white youths to be arrested for violent offenses.
* In 36 states in 1993, Latino juveniles 10 and older charged with property offenses were incarcerated an average of 45 days longer than non-Hispanic white juveniles.
* In 21 states in 2000, Latino youths were two to 17 times as likely to be incarcerated with adults as white youths.
The study was commissioned by Building Blocks for Youth, a campaign by groups - such as the Youth Law Center and the Juvenile Law Center - that seeks to end the justice system's disparate treatment of minority youths.
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