Preadjudicatory detention in a large metropolitan juvenile court

While the use, and possible abuse, of detention by the juvenile court has been the subject of heated controversy in recent years, this issue has received very little systematic empirical attention. A few studies of detention have been conducted, but they have produced mixed findings, which may be a result of the different locations and time periods considered, and the different methodologies employed. To shed additional light on this important question, we examine in this investigation the effect of a variety of legal, extralegal, and other case characteristics on the preadjudicatory detention practices of a large metropolitan juvenile court. Over 60,000 cases disposed of by the court during a seven-year period (1969–1975) were considered in a detailed multivariate analysis of detention outcomes (detained/not detained). The analysis produced no evidence that the court operates on a double standard—discriminates—along sexual, racial, or socioeconomic lines in the use of detention. Both additive and interaction statistical models considering the extralegal variables showed a youth's sex, race, and social class to be largely independent of detention decisions. In contrast, a legal factor—a youth's previous court experience—was found to be an important predictor of detention. This factor better accounts for detention outcomes than any, or all, of the other legal, extralegal, and other case history variables considered in the analysis.