Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Doctor of Social Work (DSW)

School

Social Work

Advisor

Greg Murphy

Abstract

The punitive sentencing of minority youthful offenders is contrary to the juvenile justice system’s founding principles of rehabilitation. Moreover, the introduction of mitigation helps to inform the courts’ decisions on the most appropriate recourse; however, few researchers have studied the experiences of social workers who provide sentencing advocacy for minority youth. This basic qualitative study explored the experiences of social workers in Louisiana involved in addressing sentencing disparities of minority youth and the changes social workers perceive as necessary to reduce these disparities. Six social workers in Louisiana were interviewed regarding their experiences related to providing sentencing advocacy for minority youth, and critical race theory was used to understand how both racism and mitigation impact sentencing outcomes for youth of color. Emergent themes regarding racial disparities that disadvantaged youth of color at all stages of system involvement were extracted from interview data through a six-step, inductive, thematic technique and validated by member checks. The findings of this study indicated that disparities began with arrest rates, continued through the pretrial stage, including legal representation, and stereotyping youth of color by system actors resulting in extreme sentences. The results help to understand how systemic issues and gaps in services in the juvenile justice system perpetuate sentencing disparities and how social workers can develop ways to address them through an increase in community involvement and sentencing alternatives. Such data can impact positive social change by alleviating the disadvantages that youth of color experience in the juvenile justice system thus decreasing system involvement.

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