Alamissi Ouro-Gneni

Introduction
Over the years the researchers have found that ethnic minorities are overrepresented in the
Juvenile Justice System in Utah. We are going to discuss this phenomenon in light of racial
profiling as a contributing factor. If our findings determine the presence of such factor, then we
are faced with a great violation of the Constitution of United States that provides for the
protection of civil liberties, one of which is the freedom of movement for all people including
minorities.
Statement of the Problem
When statistics show that minorities are overrepresented in the judiciary system, does that imply
that racial profiling actually plays a role, from the time of arrest to adjudication to the final stage
in the process, which is sentencing?
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to determine the existence and level of influence of the racial
profiling factor in the advent of minorities overrepresentation in the Utah Judicial System.
Background Related Factors
If on the one hand the study found that the types of crimes which mostly lead to arrests,
adjudication and sentencing are poverty related, on the other hand it also shows that poverty is
more prevalent amongst minorities. So it is no surprise that more kids hailing from minorities
families will end up being involved in those types of crimes, leading up to them being
overrepresented in the judicial system. For example, the study shows that if you take a hundred
kids from minorities groups and compare them with a like number of kids from white groups, the
minorities group kids still out-perform their counterparts when it comes arrests and convictions.
This goes a long way to show that racial profiling is actually an important factor here.
Other Risk Factors
One of the reasons minority youths are more represented in the justice system can be
traced to the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy. In fact, due to the unending pattern of clashes
with law enforcement and the traditional outcome which is the arrest, minority youths tend to
believe that they naturally belong in the justice system. As a consequence, their actions will be
geared towards the realization of their beliefs, landing them more often than not in a correctional
institution where they would otherwise not be. This becomes an infernal cycle tantamount to the

chicken and egg dilemma, because it becomes difficult to determine how it all started, whether it
is the bias that triggered the self-fulfilling prophecy or the other way round.
Disproportionality in the Utah Juvenile Justice System
The referenced document shows that there is a striking disproportionality in the Juvenile
Justice System in Utah. The author has carried out interviews with all the parties concerned,
starting with the victims and going through the prosecuting bodies, the representation circles and
the courts personnel. He has gained access to a wide array of documentation including police
reports on arrests and detention as well as court records. The constant reality that stands out is
that those documents show a stark imbalance in the detriment of racial minorities, from the time
of arrest leading up to detention to adjudication to sentencing. The obvious and inevitable
conclusion is the admission that racial profiling appears to be a factor in this disequilibrium.
Studies of Racial Bias in the Juvenile justice System
The studies have found that since 1960s, there has been ongoing discrimination on the
basis of socioeconomic background. Based on those studies, it is easy to understand why some
minorities are discriminated against. In fact, it is not a fallacy to state that African Americans and
Hispanics fall in that category so it is no surprise that they should be overrepresented in the
judicial system, above all the juvenile one, since youths are prone to committing crimes than
older people.
At the adjudication level, the discretion authority granted to judges for the good of
juvenile defendants has also turned out to disfavor minorities since the biases can now better be
masked and escape any form of scrutiny or investigation.
Studies of Racial Bias in the Juvenile justice System
The following table from the referenced documents shows a disproportionality in arrest
data in the Salt Lake City Police Department in the detriment of minorities. In fact, being onethird of the city population, they account for 52% of offenses with 51% arrests but they are more
likely to get involved in offenses and arrests than their white counterparts.
These data go a long way to demonstrate how biased the system is, right from the time of arrest,
because it reveals that minorities suffer more arrests than whites, no matter the number of
offenses.

Quantitative Analyses
The above table shows a stark disproportionality in numbers between the minority
population and the white population as far as arrests are concerned. According to the study, in
1997, minority youths made up only 9.5 percent of Utah population, yet 30 percent of all youths
arrested for person offenses and 19 percent of all youths arrested for property offenses in Salt
Lake County, Provo, and Ogden. Also minority youths were 9 to 41 times more likely than
whites.
Recommendations
Given those high numbers, it is clear that we have a problem that needs to be fixed. First,
we need to create youth employment opportunities, affordable recreation centers with a variety
of sport activities, add some programs in high school to educate them to take responsibility of
their lives, because they are Utahs future leaders. Second, we need to change Utah Juvenile
Justice System, which means more transparency on all cases, collect all data at any time, an
important step in order to have a full picture of the problem. And last we need more training,

more diversity that can represent the population of Utah in order to build trust between police
and youth minorities.
Conclusion
The findings are backing the assumption that indeed there is overrepresentation in the Utah
Juvenile Justice System, and we are confident that Board of Utah Juvenile Justice System is
taking some measures to fix this issue that we are facing.