"Minority Referrals to the Division of Juvenile Justice"

Minority youths in Anchorage are referred to the Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) for delinquent behavior at rates much higher than white youths. Further, while minority youths constitute only 34 percent of the juvenile population, they represent 61 percent of the referrals to DJJ. The disproportionality — termed disproportionate minority contact in the field of juvenile justice — appears for all minority groups and across both genders, and appears for both new offenses and for probation and conduct violations. The findings discussed here are the first from an extended examination of race, ethnicity, and juvenile justice in Anchorage. A sidebar story, "Refinement in Methodology", describes the used to study disproportionate minority contact in the Alaska juvenile justice system.

"Juvenile Arrest Figures"

In both Alaska and the U.S. as a whole, most juvenile arrests continue to involve property rather than violent crime. In Alaska, however, juvenile arrests for property crimes have constituted a higher proportion of juvenile arrests than in the nation as a whole. This article presents figures for juvenile arrests reported under the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) program for 1995 to 2004.

"Juvenile Detention in Alaska"

The Alaska Division of Juvenile Justice operates 8 juvenile detention facilities and 16 probation offices, which are briefly described in this article. A map of facility and probation office location is also provided.