The American juvenile justice system is characterized by the overrepresentation of youth of color that is particularly acute for Black children even at young ages. Despite policy solutions targeting this problem, the Black-White gap in juvenile justice involvement continues to widen. Using mixed methods, this study examines rates of disproportionality among younger children (under age 12) in the state of California juvenile justice system alongside stakeholder views on the causes of and solutions for overrepresentation. We find that at each stage of the juvenile justice system the overrepresentation of Black youth increases relative to White youth. Consistent with the literature, stakeholders attribute this problem to early phases of the system (i.e., school discipline, arrests) where more discretion is applied. They also suggest that alternatives to formal systems involvement would help to remedy overrepresentation. These findings lend support to minimum age laws that uniformly exclude younger children from the juvenile justice system altogether.

美国青少年司法系统的特点是，有色人种的代表过多，这对黑人儿童来说尤其严重，即使他们很小。尽管有针对该问题的政策解决方案，但少年司法介入中的黑白差距仍在扩大。本研究使用混合方法研究了加利福尼亚州少年司法系统中年龄较小的儿童（12岁以下）中的不成比例率，以及利益相关者对超额任用的原因和解决方案的看法。我们发现，在少年司法制度的每个阶段，黑人青年的代表人数都相对于白人青年有所增加。与文献一致，利益相关者将此问题归因于系统的早期阶段（即学校纪律，逮捕），在该阶段需要更多的自由裁量权。他们还建议，正式系统参与的替代方案将有助于纠正代表过多的情况。这些发现为最低年龄法律提供了支持，该法律一律将年幼儿童完全排除在少年司法系统之外。