ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of race on disposition decision-making for adjudicated delinquent girls in one regional probation office of Los Angeles county. Girls have averaged approximately 40% of referrals to diversion programs while they constitute a maximum of 25 % of those youths processed through the juvenile justice system. While the log linear analysis did not show a significant relationship between race and disposition recommendation, a further breakdown of the category “institutional placement” does reveal a significant relationship between race and type of placement recommended for adjudicated girls. The most striking difference in the framing of delinquent girls by race was in the discursive constructs used to describe the roots of their delinquent activities. In addition to negative peer influences and self-destructive tendencies, several white girls were described as also having low self-images.
