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statistics
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angles
- There seems to be a direct correlation between the increasing
population in need of social services and the delinquent population:
nationally, 45% of abused or neglected youth had official records
of delinquency. In Massachusetts, 54% of the children committed
to DYS are simultaneously clients of the Department of Social
Services.
- Most children living in poverty are living in communities
that are policed more aggressively and have higher arrest rates.
Defenders' experiences confirm study findings which indicate
that people from lower socioeconomic groups are arrested more
frequently and on weaker evidence than their wealthier white
counterparts.
- Typical adolescent behavior is criminalized and overcharged
in urban communities. When the cumulative effect of over charging
is calculated statistically, it supports increased policing
and prosecution in these urban areas.
- Families of juveniles are not equally able to support their
children. The effects of poverty and working class life - e.g.
parents needing to rush back to work, wanting quick resolution
of cases - leading courts to conclude that juveniles will not
be successful and require confinement. Poor children and children
of color are disproportionately affected by this bias.
- Many adult decision makers in the juvenile justice system
assume that white families will proactively intervene and correct
their children's problems, and that families of color will not.
Generally, parents are seen to be an uncooperative and unresponsive
group; this is borne out in Massachusetts by the total exclusion
of parents from juvenile justice community-based roundtables
convened by District Attorneys.
- Reduction of services in the city - due to managed care and
cuts in city funding - have made it harder for poor and working
class families to obtain intervention from professionals at
meaningful, effective levels of care -until their child is in
serious crisis. The decrease in available services and the courts'
lack of faith in families combine to render families powerless,
and
unable to advocate for their child at crucial stages of the
juvenile justice system.
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