Date of Conferral
2020
Degree
Ph.D.
School
Psychology
Advisor
Carl Valdez
Abstract
Juvenile crime in the United States has been a persistent social problem that has reached epidemic proportions. The purpose of this between-subjects, comparative quantitative study was to examine the relationship between recidivism risk and the type of crime, ethnicity, and race of the juvenile. Social learning theory was used to guide the study. Archival data of 59,653 cases were collected from Inter-University Consortium Political and Social Research. Correctional Offender Management Profiling for Alternative Sanctions was used to assess the dependent variable recidivism risk. The independent variables were ethnicity and type of crime of the offender reported in the Transcript of the Record Conviction Report. The variables were tested using the Kruskal-Wallis test. For each of the 3 research questions by type of crime, by ethnic group, and interaction of both, the null hypothesis was rejected. Findings indicated that White, African American, and Hispanic juveniles by type of crime were viewed and treated differently in the juvenile justice system. The social change implication of the findings come from considering the impact of recidivism risk for youth of color and type of crime by juvenile justice agencies recognizing these effects on the services in the community.
Recommended Citation
Taylor, Larry E., "Effects of Ethnicity and Type of Crime on Juvenile Offenders’ Recidivism Risk" (2020). Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 10188.
https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/10188
