Jerome Skolnick’s (2011) "symbolic assailant" is a result of police attributing particular demeanor, gestures, language, and a style of dress to people they believed were most likely to commit violent crimes. The challenge became when police applied these characteristics to specific groups such as juveniles. Literature published before and after Skolnick (2011) indicated police were more likely to stop, arrest, interrogate, or surveille juveniles based on their demeanor, gestures, style of dress, lack of respect, deference to authority, the severity, and remorse for their offenses in addition to race. However, current research indicated race, gender, and Socioeconomic Status (SES) determined if police perceived juveniles as the symbolic assailant regardless of offense type. The current research also suggested the symbolic assailant is the foundation for related theories such as racial profiling and the “juvenile offender type-script.” Thus, this dissertation sought to determine if juveniles’ demeanor, gestures, race, gender, and offense type predicted if police perceived them as having characteristics analogous to the symbolic assailant. The researcher conducted a nonexperimental predictive correlational research design analyzing secondary data from Connecticut’s Effective Police Interactions with Youth’s Pretest Survey. The results showed weak to moderate relationships between the predictor and criterion variables such as police believed juveniles’ fidgeting, pacing, and mouthing off as signs of guilt indicated a weak relationship. The strongest predictor was a combination of race and offense type as the patrol officers responded all races and ethnicities were most likely to carry weapons equally in the past 30 days, which differed from the current symbolic assailant and related literature.

The current research study examines the relationship between race, ethnicity, and offense type on three stages of juvenile court outcomes (i.e., petition, adjudication, and disposition). In the past, research has focused on the prevalence of disproportionate minority contact, especially when it comes to disparities found in sanctioning outcomes of Black and White juveniles. However, prior research included Hispanic youth, despite being one of the largest growing ethnicity groups in the United States. The current study also examines whether juveniles charged with drug offenses are treated more severely when compared to juveniles charged with a person, property, and other offenses, to investigate the possible continuance of the War on Drugs and the effect it may have on the juvenile justice system. Through various logistic regression models based on data from a Northeastern state from the years 2004-2014, the study confirmed disparities among the court outcomes for White, Black, and Hispanic juveniles. Differences were also found when looking at juveniles charged with drug offenses versus those charged with a person, property, and other offenses. Last, the race and ethnicity of the juvenile charged with a drug offense also influenced juvenile court outcomes. Further research into the impact of race, ethnicity, and offense type on court processing is necessary to shape policy and programs to better ensure fair and equal treatment in the juvenile justice system.