The chapter discusses the role of policing in relation to juveniles. It notes that in 2008 police arrested an estimated 2.1 million juveniles, with 67% referred to juvenile court. It describes different policing approaches like community policing which aims to involve the community in solving crime problems. Research shows that policing strategies alone do not effectively reduce juvenile crime and that police are just one part of addressing the complex issue.

1. Juvenile Justice: An Introduction, 7th ed.
Chapter 7
POLICING AND JUVENILES

2. Chapter 7
What You Need to Know
• In 2008, police arrested an estimated 2.1 million persons under age
18. The majority of these (67%) were referred to juvenile court
jurisdiction. The police used their discretion to handle and release
22 percent of these youths.
• A new view of the police role is one of community or problem-solving
policing. This view tries to include the community as a
partner in defining and solving crime and disorder problems.
• “Broken windows” policing places emphasis on policing disorder
such as loitering and vagrants because this model sees disorder as a
factor associated with street crime. The theory is that if police can
reduce disorder, crime will also decrease.
• Research indicates that some departments using traditional police
strategies refer to it as community or problem-solving policing. So
not all departments are actually following the directions of
innovators.

3. Chapter 7
What You Need to Know (Cont’d)
• African Americans generally hold less positive views of the
police than whites. Many youths appear to be either
indifferent or less than overwhelming in their support of
police.
• Research on racial profiling has produced mixed results. It is
clear, however, that police views on what constitutes a
dangerous neighborhood and on what constitutes disrespect
can have at least indirect effects on stops and arrests of young
black males.
• Disproportionate minority contact refers to the over-representation
of any racial group in arrest and court statistics
compared to the proportion of that group in the population.
• Research indicates that juvenile curfew laws are not effective
in reducing crime.

4. Chapter 7
Police Work with Juveniles
• In 2008, police arrested an estimated 2.1 million
persons under age 18
• The percentage of offenders that police refer to
juvenile court has significant increased since 1980
• The fact that 22% of the juveniles taken into custody
are simply handled and released shows the
discretion that police have with juveniles
• In 2008, there were an estimated 1,280 arrests of
juveniles for murder
• Juvenile arrests for violent crimes were down 9
percent from 1999

5. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
• Professional policing model: Quick response would
lead to apprehension of suspects or quick handling of
problems that citizens reported to central dispatch
– Increased professionalism did not reduce crime
– Quicker response time did not have dramatic effects on
crime
– Much of a police officer’s shift did not even involve crime
– Built barriers between the police and citizens
– Decreased the number of foot patrol officers and put the
police car as a barrier between the officer and citizens

6. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
Custody Rules with Youths
• Under the parens patriae doctrine:
– The use of arrest tactics typically invoked by police in
relation to adult offenders would normally be avoided
with youths
– Fingerprinting, photographing, and incarcerating youths
were all either forbidden or severely restricted
– In terms of custody, youths must be segregated from
adults. This segregation has to be physical, visual, and
aural (sound) separation

7. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
Current Rules on Fingerprinting / Photographing
• Vary from state to state and have changed a great deal over
the past several decades
• Rules outline who, under what circumstances, and the use
and disposition of photos and fingerprints
• Ohio, for example, allows the police to obtain these records
without judicial consent for a felony or serious act
– Police must immediately inform the juvenile court
– Materials are to be destroyed within 30 days unless the youth is
adjudicated delinquent for an act that is a violent misdemeanor or
felony
• Rules attempt to balance protection of the child with needs of
the juvenile and criminal justice systems

8. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
Interrogation Tactics with Juvenile Suspects
• Supreme Court has held that a juvenile suspect can
waive the privilege against self-incrimination and the
right to consult with an attorney
• Police should consider the age of the child to assess
the voluntariness
• Police question juvenile suspects in much the same
manner as they question adults
• More than one-third of proven false confessions
come from suspects under 18 years of age
• Many police investigators use techniques that can
lead to inaccurate statements and even false
confessions from juvenile suspects

9. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
The Police and Juveniles
• Police take different actions with juveniles than they
would with adults
• Police work with juveniles involves order
maintenance
• Most frequent police encounters with juveniles were
traffic-related offenses
• Police continue to operate as gatekeepers to the
juvenile justice system

10. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
Police Use of Excessive Force
• Teens are the most likely targets of the least
damaging type of police brutality, namely, abusive
language and commands
– National survey showed that in 1999 about 3 percent of
16-19-year-old respondents reported force or threat of
force
– Most of those who experienced force (76%) said the force
was excessive

11. Chapter 7
Professional Policing and Juveniles
Police Use of Excessive Force
Deadly force:
– Typical victim of police shooting as between age 17 and 30
– Tennessee v. Garner et al. ruled that police may shoot only
those escaping felons who pose a threat to the officer or
to others (The case involved a juvenile)

12. Chapter 7
Community or Problem-Solving Policing
• Response to the shortcomings of the professional policing
model
• Various names: community policing, problem-solving
policing, problem-oriented policing
• Critical common elements:
– Deal with conditions or factors that lead to crime or disorder
– Community building
– Focus on both crime and disorder: “broken windows” policing
• Disorder = rowdy teens hanging out on street corners, “squeegee men”
offering to wash car windows for cash “contributions,” prostitutes plying
their trade, youths or adults trying to jump turnstiles to avoid paying
subway fare, “winos” urinating on the street or sleeping in public places
like subway stations, and so on

13. Chapter 7
Community or Problem-Solving Policing
• After problem identification, police and citizens
work together with private companies and public
agencies (e.g., city housing inspectors, schools, and
health departments) to address problems
• restorative justice conferences - example of
problem-solving approach used by the police:
– Police act as facilitators
– Supporters from both sides (offender and victim) meet in
a conference
– Facilitator tries to get the group to understand what
happened
– Group tries to work out an agreement to repair the harm
– Evaluations show strong support by all parties

14. Chapter 7
Community or Problem-Solving Policing
• Operation Ceasefire
– Police-targeted gangs engaged in violent behavior
– “Pulling levers”: entails delivering a message to violent
gangs that violence will not be tolerated and full
enforcement of laws against all gang members will take
place
– Arrest gang members for trespassing, public drinking,
overt drug use, disorder offenses, probation violations,
and outstanding warrants
– Strong impact on violence
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
has supported the development of comprehensive,
community-wide approaches to gang prevention

15. Chapter 7
Citizen Attitudes Toward Police
• Citizens generally hold rather positive attitudes toward
the police
• Attitudes do vary by age and race:
– Lower-class youths comprise one group holding negative
attitudes toward the police
– Lower-class youths have little faith in the police
– As a result, the inner-city youth often relies on self-protection
• Variations in attitudes toward the police help to explain
the paradox that police often hold negative or cynical
views of citizens while citizen attitudes toward the police
are actually rather positive
– Police are much more likely to come in contact with citizens
with less positive views

16. Chapter 7
Citizen Attitudes Toward Police
• Implications of the Attitudinal Research
• Both sides could benefit from clarification
– Police might benefit from becoming aware that citizens
generally are positive about the police
– Citizens need to know why police may be somewhat
cynical toward them
– Citizens must be realistic in their expectations of what the
police can do
• Police need to be careful in their dealings with
citizens who hold less positive attitudes
– Police sensitivity to the attitudes of youthful and minority
citizens can lead to improved police-community relations

17. Chapter 7
Police in Schools
• Police presence in schools has grown considerably
– 2007, almost 70 percent of schools had either security guards or
police officers on the premises
– Part of this growth is due to a number of highly publicized
shootings in schools
• Presence of School Resource Officers (SROs) has become
commonplace
• 2005 survey of almost 1,400 U.S. schools found that 48%
had SROs and 76% relied on public law enforcement
– Mostly involved in traditional police functions
– Many provide mentoring and referrals, train teachers and
parents, teach programs like D.A.R.E., and chaperone school
events

18. Chapter 7
Police in Schools
• Widespread introduction of police into the school
setting may criminalize school discipline
• Introduction of zero-tolerance policies at the same
time
• Treat students as quasi-criminals and mandate
quasi-criminal justice solutions
• More is needed than simply placing police officers
in schools
• There is need for both parent cooperation and
supplementing law enforcement presence “with
intensive monitoring, counseling, and other related
services”

19. Chapter 7
Racial Profiling and System Contact
• Racial profiling defined “as the police use of race as
the sole basis for initiating law enforcement activity
(e.g., stopping, searching, and detaining a person)”
(Meehan & Ponder, 2002)

20. Chapter 7
Racial Profiling and System Contact
• Common form of alleged racial profiling is the practice of
stopping African-American drivers for “driving while black”
– Targeting black drivers about twice as often as all other drivers
• Charges of racial profiling need thorough investigation
• Research has shown that blacks and Hispanics are “often
overrepresented among stops when compared with the
various benchmarks for those groups. Similarly, the
research shows that once stopped, blacks and Hispanics are
more likely than whites to be searched or arrested” (Alpert,
2007)

21. Chapter 7
Racial Profiling and System Contact
• Can produce negative consequences:
– Reduce deterrence by lowering trust in the police and
willingness to report crime
– Raises the broader question of the effect of race on police
decisions to arrest and juvenile court decisions to detain,
petition, and sentence
• Disproportionate minority contact: outcome of
differential decision-making
– Raises the question of possible unfair police action
• Need to be aware how race can affect decisions to stop
and decisions to arrest
• Factors such as a youth’s neighborhood and demeanor
can bring in race as an indirect influence

22. Chapter 7
Juvenile Curfew Laws
• Enacted in an effort to reduce victimization of and by
juveniles
• Curfew laws do not reduce crime or victimization:
– The hours covered by the laws may not be times evidencing high
victimization
– Need daytime curfews for those youths who are not under the
jurisdiction of truancy laws
– Juveniles do not necessarily comply with curfew laws
– Curfew laws do nothing to improve juveniles’ relationships with
peers, schools, and family, all of which are important correlates of
delinquency
• Police think curfew laws are effective even though they do
not have concrete evidence that the curfews are effective

23. Chapter 7
Assist Supervision of Probationers
• Use police officers to enhance probation officer
supervision of juvenile offenders, especially intensive
supervision
• Help probation officers conduct unscheduled
evening visits
• Address needs as well as enforce probation
conditions
• Deal with substance abuse, anger management,
academic difficulties, and employment needs
• Some effect in reducing serious crimes
• One concern is mission distortion: Is probation to
provide service or do law enforcement?

24. Chapter 7
Effectiveness with Juvenile Crime
• Police are making a variety of efforts to combat
juvenile crime
• How effective are the police?
– Some things simply do not work (e.g., juvenile curfew
laws)
– Possible reasons that some interventions do not work is
that they are simplistic and contrary to what we know
– It is critical to avoid unrealistic expectations
– The police are only part of the picture