A Special Report on Minority Overrepresentation and the Juvenile Probation Response

Since the "DMC" (for "disproportionate minority confinement") issue first captured the serious attention of government officials, academics, and juvenile justice professionals in the 1980's, there has been plenty of debate over how to account for it. Though there have been few firm conclusions to date, Congress has called on states to assess the extent to which minorities are disproportionately confined within their borders, isolate the causes, and take corrective action, or risk losing incentive grant funds under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. This report, which grew out of a 1996 meeting of juvenile probation professionals and researchers, is intended to suggest ways in which the juvenile probation profession can contribute to this larger effort to understand and address the problem of minority over-representation.