An Evaluation of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Indiana's Juvenile Population

The State Justice Statistics (SJS) Program is designed to maintain and enhance each state's capacity to address criminal justice issues through collection and analysis of data. The SJS Program provides support to each state to coordinate and conduct statistical activities within the state, conduct research to estimate impacts of legislative and policy changes, and serve as a liaison in assisting BJS to gather data from respondent agencies within their states.

The Indiana Statistical Analysis Center is housed within the Research and Planning Division of the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI). Guided by a Board of Trustees representing all components of Indiana’s criminal and juvenile justice systems, ICJI serves as the State’s planning agency for criminal justice, drug and crime services, youth services, traffic safety, and victim services. The Institute develops long-range strategies for the effective administration of Indiana’s criminal and juvenile justice systems and administers federal and state funds to carry out these strategies. A director and four research associates manage the SAC.

Under this award, the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute’s (ICJI) Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) will conduct activities under the following Core Capacity area: Collecting and analyzing data on criminal justice system processes. The Indiana SAC is seeking funding for a project to develop and improve the process of collecting, analyzing, contextualizing, and disseminating data representing juvenile contacts with the justice system by race and ethnicity in support of a fair and equitable administration of justice in the State of Indiana. This will be accomplished through a collaboration with case management system administrators and the manager of the racial and ethnic disparities data repository to collect accurate and relevant data; to use analytical methodology beyond a singular bias statistic that appropriately depicts minority youth disparate contact with the juvenile justice system; and, to create a tool that enables criminal justice professionals to address the overrepresentation of justice-involved minority youth in their communities. The project will enhance the data-reporting environment by elevating the analytical platform and making actionable the data, while developing a robust understanding of the implications of social systems for minority youth in Indiana. Upon the grant’s end date, the work will be continued by the ICJI’s Youth Equity Program Manager.

Funds are being requested for SAC staff to attend the annual ASUCRP Conference and one of the JRSA regional meetings. Subscriptions to online peer-reviewed journals will also be purchased.

(CA/NCF)