Are any of you familiar with a study out of the governor's office to "reduce disproportionate minority contact" in juvenile cases? I got a call from someone at A & M wanting me to agree to sit on a "listening session" panel on this issue. My chief juvenile officer knows nothing about it...and the only ones who seem to have been contacted are LULAC, NAACP affiliates...and me.

Why am I nervous about this one??

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney

Maybe you are nervous because you recognize that crime statistics in most jurisdictions reflect NOT the characteristics of the general population, but of characteristics of those who commit crimes (what a novel concept). In my experience, I have dealt with quite a few more male juvenile offenders than females - but I don't see anyone jumping up and down wondering why we don't file petitions against more female juveniles. If the theory is that crimes are committed equally by every demographic, why stop with looking at race? Maybe because people would laugh at you (out loud!) if you argued that we are biased in our prosecution of theft cases because we are not prosecuting people with annual incomes that exceed $1,000,000 at the same rate as we are prosecuting people with annual incomes below the poverty level.

Maybe you are nervous because you know that when you get an offense report, you do not - ever - look at the race of the offender (or the victim) to determine how to proceed, and that going over every single case that you have prosecuted or declined, to determine why (maybe years after the fact) you did what you did is absolutely ridiculous. And that only a person or group with a pre-determined conclusion would even attempt such an exercise.

Maybe a better use of your time than participating in this group would be to read Ann Coulter's book "Guilty" that takes a good look at why "victimization" is necessary for some groups to justify their continued existence.

Sorry for the rant - just getting tired of this type of thing!

My guess is that your call from A&M was from Prairie View A&M University - College of Juvenile Justice and Psychology. Their web site may give you some insight to the program.

http://www.pvamu.edu/pages/307.asp

(This topic was moved from the Civil forum to the Juvenile forum on 9/21/09.)