Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-02T20:23:56.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“Who Signs the Complaint?” Relational Distance and the Juvenile Justice Process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Dale Dannefer
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper investigates the role of “relational distance” between complainant and offender as a determinant of legal sanctions in juvenile status offender cases. After reviewing evidence suggesting that greater relational distance is associated with harsher sanctioning, I develop the case for an alternative “relational resource” hypothesis, which emphasizes that conflicts among proximate parties entail an intrinsic loss of resources for the accused. This hypothesis is supported by status offense data from four decision points in the juvenile justice system which show, with some variation across decision points, that youth who are the subject of parent-initiated complaints fare consistently worse than youth accused by the police. The available evidence suggests that this is not explained by the possibility that parental accusations only occur when behavior is especially serious. Analyses of temporary detention and court disposition data reveal higher-order interactions that suggest that the impact of the complainant's identity is partially contingent on the formality of agency procedures and on the family's circumstances.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , 1984 , pp. 249 - 271
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

The data for this study were collected under the auspices of the Department of Institutions and Agencies, State of New Jersey, with funds provided by that agency and by the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Portions of the analysis were conducted while the author was supported by the Sociology of Social Control Training Program at Yale University. The author is indebted to Donald Black, Elaine Dannefer, Betty Drysdale, Richard Lempert, Russell K. Schutt, Ralph R. Sell, Karol Soltan, and the LSR's anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this paper.

References

ANDREWS, R. Hale Jr. and Andrew H., COHN (1974) “Ungovernability: The Unjustifiable Jurisdiction,” 83 Yale Law Journal 1383.Google Scholar
Andrew H., COHN (1977) “PINS Processing in New York: An Evaluation,” in Teitelbaum, L.F. and Gough, A.R. (eds.), Beyond Control: Status Offenders in the Juvenile Court. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1970) “Production of Crime Rates,” 35 American Sociological Review 733.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1971) “The Social Organization of Arrest,” 23 Stanford Law Review 1087.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1976) The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
BLACK, Donald J. (1980) The Manners and Customs of the Police. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
BLOCK, Richard (1974) “Why Notify the Police: The Victim's Decision to Notify the Police of an Assault,” 11 Criminology 555.Google Scholar
BURKE, Peter J. and Austin T., TURK (1975) “Factors Affecting Postarrest Disposition: A Model for Analysis,” 22 Social Problems 313.Google Scholar
CARTER, Timothy J. and Donald, CLELLAND (1979) “A Neo-Marxian Critique, Formulation and Test of Juvenile Dispositions as a Function of Social Class,” 27 Social Problems 96.Google Scholar
CHUSED, Richard H. (1973) “The Juvenile Court Process: A Study of Three New Jersey Counties,” 26 Rutgers Law Review 488.Google Scholar
CICOUREL, Aaron V. (1976) The Social Organization of Juvenile Justice. London: Heinemann Educational Books, Ltd.Google Scholar
COHEN, Lawrence E. (1975) “Pre-Adjudicatory Detention in Three Juvenile Courts: An Empirical Analysis of the Factors Related to Detention Decision Outcomes.” Utilization of Criminal Justice Statistics Project, Vol. 8. U.S. Department of Justice, LEAA. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
COHEN, Lawrence E. and James R., KLUEGEL (1978) “Determinants of Juvenile Court Dispositions: Ascriptive and Achieved Factors in Two Metropolitan Courts,” 43 American Sociological Review 162.Google Scholar
DANNEFER, Dale and Russell K., SCHUTT (1982) “Race and Juvenile Justice Processing in Court and Police Agencies,” 87 American Journal of Sociology 1113.Google Scholar
ENNIS, Philip H. (1967) Criminal Victimization in the United States: A Report of a National Survey. A Report to the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
FARRELL, Ronald A. and Victoria Lynn, SWIGERT (1978) “Prior Offense Record as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy,” 12 Law & Society Review 437.Google Scholar
GARBER, Steven, Steven, KLEPPER and Daniel, NAGIN (1983) “The Role of Extralegal Factors in Determining Criminal Case Disposition,” in Blumstein, A., Cohen, J., Martin, S.E. and Tonry, M.H. (eds.), Research on Sentencing: The Search for Reform, Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Science.Google Scholar
GOFFMAN, Erving (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
GOODMAN, Leo A. (1971) “The Analysis of Multidimensional Contingency Tables: Stepwise Procedures and Direct Estimation Methods for Building Models for Multiple Classifications,” 13 Technometrics 33.Google Scholar
GOODMAN, Leo A. (1972a) “A General Model for the Analysis of Surveys,” 77 American Journal of Sociology 1035.Google Scholar
GOODMAN, Leo A. (1972b) “A Modified Multiple Regression Approach to the Analysis of Dichotomous Variables,” 37 American Sociological Review 28.Google Scholar
GOTTFREDSON, Michael R. and Michael J., HINDELANG (1979) “A Study of The Behavior of Law,” 44 American Sociological Review 3.Google Scholar
GULLIVER, Philip H. (1963) Social Control in an African Society: A Study of the Arusha, Agricultural Masai of Northern Tanganyika. Boston: Boston University Press.Google Scholar
HALL, Jerome (1952) Theft, Law, and Society, 2nd Ed. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
KAWASHIMA, Takeyoshi (1963) “Dispute Resolution in Contemporary Japan,” in von Mehren, A.T. (ed.), Law in Japan: The Legal Order in a Changing Society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
LERMAN, Paul (1970) “Beyond GAULT: Injustice and the Child,” in Lerman, P. (ed.), Delinquency and Social Policy. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
MAHONEY, Anne R. (1977) “PINS and Parents,” in Teitelbaum, L.F. and Gough, A.R. (eds.), Beyond Control: Status Offenders in the Juvenile Court. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
McINTYRE, Jennie (1967) “Public Attitudes Toward Crime and Law Enforcement,” 374 The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 34.Google Scholar
PRUITT, Charles R. and James Q., WILSON (1983) “A Longitudinal Study of the Effect of Race on Sentencing,” 17 Law & Society Review 613.Google Scholar
TANNER, R.E.S. (1966) “The Selective Use of Legal Systems in East Africa,” East African Institute of Social Research Conference Papers: Part E, Number 393; as cited in Donald Black, The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
TERRY, Robert M. (1967) “The Screening of Juvenile Offenders,” 58 Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science 173.Google Scholar
THORNBERRY, Terrence P. (1973) “Race, Socioeconomic Status and Sentencing in the Juvenile Justice System,” 64 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 90.Google Scholar
WILSON, James Q. (1968) “The Police and the Delinquent in Two Cities,” in Wheeler, S. (ed.), Controlling Delinquents. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar