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The Criminalization of Black Children Across US Social Systems

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The Criminalization of Black Children Across US Social Systems:

A Literature Review

Lucina B. Kayee

Social Work Department, Metropolitan State University

Social Work 351 - Social Research

Professor Robert Wilson

August 13th, 2022

Abstract

The criminalization of Black children is not a novel phenomenon in the United States. However, in the past twenty years, more serious inquiries and studies have taken place to broaden and deepen our understanding of how established systems are constructed to aid and perpetuate in the entrapment, persecution, and imprisonment of Black youth. This literature review will look at the social structures that exist to support the punitive systems that criminalize Black children; this includes but is not limited to harassment by law enforcement, overrepresentation in the juvenile justice system, and the funneling of Black foster youth into the juvenile justice system. These three topics only scratch the surface regarding the systemic criminalization of Black children.

Background, rationale, and significance of the literature review topic

The relationship between the criminal justice system and Black Americans has been a well-studied phenomenon in the past thirty years. Black Americans are overrepresented in the criminal justice system, ranging from interactions with police officers to incarceration rates. The social history of Black incarceration is well studied, and this literature review seeks to look at the existing systems that continue to perpetuate the targeting of Black Americans by the criminal justice system, specifically Black American children. This literature review's importance lies in identifying existing discriminatory practices within the various public and private social systems extant in the United States. Racism and its systemic impacts are far from extinct; Racisms impact affects Black people throughout the entirety of their lifetimes, and this literature review attempts to identify the relationship between these seemingly disparate systems and practices in regard to how they criminalize Black children.

Interactions between public systems and private institutions

Black children experience punitive treatment for their behaviors throughout all social systems, whether engaging in criminal activity or not. Punitive punishment of Black children is prevalent in all social systems and settings, in particular when Black children occupy public spaces such as schools, stores, and even sidewalks. In a study on Black youth of Baltimore ages 15 to 24, researchers found that Black youth in impoverished neighborhoods changed their behaviors such as how they emote, their speech patterns, and especially where they walk and at what time of the day, they travel in order to avoid police harassment. Two-thirds of the young men in the study sample discussed negative police interference upon their daily activities, whether they were engaging in illegal activities or not. Police interactions were almost never described as ‘safe’ by the young folks in the sample, and police harassment extended even onto private property where youth may be relaxing on their front porches and stoops. Schools are often regarded as an extension of police officers’ jurisdiction with the presence of school resource officers. Police harassment, according to the study, can extend all the way from the outside of a young person’s residence all the way to the classroom (Boyd et. al, 2019).

The overrepresentation of Black youth in the criminal justice system

The systemic targeting of Black youth is just the beginning of the punitive process that funnels children into the criminal justice system. Once charges have been filed and they enter the criminal justice system, they have the odds stacked against them. In a 2021 study, authors Abrams, Barnert, and Mizel, found that Black children are vastly overrepresented in all aspects of the criminal justice system. Using statistical models, the researchers compared the incarceration rates of Black children under 12 with that of white children under 12. The referral rate for Black children was 3.8 times higher for Black children compared to white children. Similar and even more disparate statistics exist for petitions filed and wardship status among Black children. The authors highlighted the role of schools in the criminalization of Black children. In the 2015-2016 time period, Black students only made up 15% of the total student population, but 31% of students were referred from schools to law enforcement, according to the US Department of Education. According to the authors, Black children are more harshly punished for misbehavior or unjustly targeted for normal behaviors (Abrams et. al, 2021).

How the foster care system systemically criminalizes Black foster youth

Intersections of private and public spheres and systems seem fraught with intentional targeting of Black youth; however, this does not paint a complete picture. Unintentionally within social systems still, yield effective results in the criminalization and imprisonment of Black children. In a qualitative study by researcher Michaela Christy Simmons on African American foster children in New York City spanning the 1920s to the 1960s she found that the transition from governmental child welfare systems to private contractors left Black foster children without placements and thus were placed into juvenile detention centers. The catalyst for this longstanding practice was not necessarily intentional but rather neglect on both parties’ parts to find equal and adequate placement for Black foster youth (Simmons 2020). This is another branch of a network of social systems that funnel Black children into prison systems, whether guilty or not. Another layer to remember is that schools play a part in referrals to child protection agencies.

Conclusion

There is an insidious element to the ecology of social systems that unduly punish Black people and target them throughout their lifetimes, even as children. It is clear that massive policy changes will need to be implemented to address the gross negligence of the police, school, and judicial systems. Beyond legal changes, there must be racial bias trainings for the teachers of our children. As is evidenced by this review, only by looking at the deep intersections between social systems can either of these solutions work.

References

Abrams, L. S., Mizel, M. L., & Barnert, E. S. (2021). The criminalization of young children and overrepresentation of Black Youth in the Juvenile Justice System. Race and Social Problems, 13(1), 73–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-021-09314-7

Boyd, M. L., & Clampet-Lundquist, S. (2019). “It’s Hard to Be Around Here”: Criminalization of Daily Routines for Youth in Baltimore. Socius. https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023118822888

Simmons, M. C. (2020). Becoming Wards of the State: Race, Crime, and Childhood in the Struggle for Foster Care Integration, 1920s to 1960s. American Sociological Review, 85(2), 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122420911062