The differential selection of juvenile offenders from the schools for court appearance

Abstract

This study was conducted within the confines of the Youngstown City School District, Youngstown, Ohio. The various schools in this system work in conjunction with the Mahoning County Juvenile Court to combat the problems of delinquent behavior by students in the schools. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine the selection process, as it is applied by school personnel, in order to ascertain which students are more likely to appear in juvenile court. It is hoped that a delineation of who is sent to court by the schools will aid in more effective programming for these offenders. An ex post facto research model was employed in this study. A sample of 136 recorded school offenders was drawn from the records of the schools. These students constituted two groups which were compared, those referred to juvenile court by the schools and those not referred to the court. The influence of various inherent factors such as sex, age, IQ, grade level, amount of school contact, school attended, and the occupation of the major wage earner of the youthful offender's family are explored. Using a chi-square test of statistical significance, it was concluded that definite differential liability for selection does exist for certain types of students.