law and juvenile justice for people of color in elementary and secondary schools, The

Journal of Negro Education, The, Summer 2002 by Brown, Frank, Russo, Charles J, Hunter, Richard C

According to Hodgkinson (1999), two factors serve to increase minority enrollments in our schools: immigration and fertility. Nearly 85% of immigrants come to this country from non-European countries, and the average Black female gives birth to 2.6 children compared to 1.7 children for the White population (Hodgkinson, 1999). By 2020, half of the students will be non-White; and by 2050 or sooner half of all Americans will be nonWhite. The White school age population will continue to decline and the minority school age population will continue to increase (Hodgkinson, 1999). Today, more than 180 different language groups are represented in LEP programs funded under Title VII (Garcia, 2001). Many of these students also qualify for support under Title I programs for students at risk for academic failure. Also, many minority students are immigrants and need special services.

There is a concentration of minority children in single-race urban schools where resources are limited and crime control is a major safety and political issue. This concentration makes it easier to target minority children for criminal behavior. The recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ending their 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education to racially integrate the public schools will likely increase the ability of local governments to target minority students for greater social control with crime and safety issues. Beginning in 1960 Whites left the inner cities for suburbia in large numbers to escape school integration (Fleming, 1975). For Whites who remained in the cities, intradistrict segregation became the norm along with ability grouping or tracking and the placement of minority students in special education classes (Flemming, 1975). The concentration of minority children in single-race schools will make it easier to target this population for further regulation through crime control mechanisms supported by legislative bodies and the courts.

Juvenile Crime and Minority Life in America

Juvenile crime is not new in America, but the rationale for changing the way we treat juvenile delinquents is new. In 1970, Ramsey Clark (1970), former U.S. Attorney General under President Lyndon B. Johnson, addressed crime in America. He concluded that, in 1968, most individuals arrested for serious crimes were African Americans. Indeed, in 1968, two-thirds of all persons arrested for serious crimes were under 21 years of age but crimes by minors were less violent than adult crimes (Clark, 1970). Millions of poor people have been forced to testify against themselves and those they know (Clark, 1970) despite the 5' Amendment and the Miranda Rule approved by the U.S. Supreme Court stating that a person arrested must be made aware of his/her rights and provided with representation by an attorney paid for by the State if he/she can not afford one. Some judges sentence long, some short (Clark, 1970). There are examples of inequality in sentencing daily, often in different courtrooms and the same courtroom. Some judges regularly give juvenile offenders prison terms for first-offense car theft, while others turn them over to the custody of their parents.