This dissertation examines whether there are racial and ethnic disparities in the use of solitary confinement among pre-adjudicatory youth in juvenile detention centers throughout the state of Florida. In doing so it adds to the existing scholarship in the field of juvenile justice in addition to providing more information about the roles that race and ethnicity play in discretionary decisions throughout the American justice system. To this end, the presence of racial and ethnic disparities (i.e., whether racial and ethnic minority youth are significantly more likely than white youth to experience a given outcome) was assessed with respect to five outcomes: 1) the decision to place a youth in solitary confinement, 2) the number of times a youth was placed in confinement during a single juvenile detention stay, 3) placement in confinement that lasts 24 hours or longer, 4) placement in confinement within one day of admission to detention, and 5) placement in confinement within one week of admission to juvenile detention. Findings revealed evidence of racial disparity in only the first of these outcomes and no evidence of ethnic disparity across any of the five outcomes. Specifically, black youth had 68.8% greater odds of being placed in solitary confinement than white youth even after controlling for relevant predictive factors such as risk to reoffend. Overall, this suggests that, contrary to the equal treatment guaranteed by the American criminal justice system, race plays a significant role in the discretionary decision to place a youth in solitary confinement. Suggestions for alleviating such disparate treatment on the basis of race as well as implications for theory and directions for future research are discussed. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Criminology and Criminal Justice in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 17, 2019. / Includes bibliographical references. / Jillian Turanovic, Professor Directing Dissertation; Stephen Tripodi, University Representative; Daniel P. Mears, Committee Member; Carter Hay, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_709800 |
| Contributors | Ogle, Meghan Rose (author), Turanovic, Jillian J. (Professor Directing Dissertation), Tripodi, Stephen J. (University Representative), Mears, Daniel P. (Committee Member), Hay, Carter H. (Committee Member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Criminology and Criminal Justice (degree granting college) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (176 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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