Research Report Archive

  • Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC) Identification and Assessment - Disproportionate minority contact refers to the over- or under-representation of minority youth within the juvenile justice system as compared to White youth from the point of arrest or referral through detention or secure confinement. The Juvenile Justice State Advisory Group (SAG), as appointed by the Governor, provides guidance to the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC), by supporting the state’s compliance with the JJDPA, which includes leading the consistent review of and strategic response to DMC in the state’s juvenile justice system. In 2016, the SAG commissioned Georgia Statistical Analysis Center to conduct a new DMC identification study and assessment.

    The identification study, which can be found      Download this pdf file. here  , is designed to answer the following research questions:
    • Which Georgia counties have the highest rates of DMC?
    • At what stages in the juvenile justice case process are the highest DMC rates observed?
    • What are the differences, if any, in DMC across races and ethnicities?
       
      Phase II of this research includes a macro-level examination of county-specific factors that may be associated with disproportionate minority contact at referral, diversion, and detention. Factors the SAC will assess may include: allocation of law enforcement resources, disproportionate arrest for violent crime, percent of minority youth in a county living in poverty or on free/reduced lunch, county racial demographics, minority youth graduation rates, whether schools within the county report using corporal punishment, percent of family violence incidents within a county where a child was present or the victim, out-of-school suspensions per capita, and disproportionate arrest of minority youth for drug-related offenses. Additionally, the SAC will conduct a qualitative analysis including interviews with key stakeholders to identify drivers of disproportionate contact and understand decision-making at referral, diversion, and detention. Our hope with the county-level causal analysis and the qualitative assessment is that we will be able to more specifically identify what is driving DMC and what interventions might be useful at curbing the disparities.

 

  • Forsyth County Mental Health Needs Assessment: Diverting from the County Criminal Justice System Using the Sequential Intercept Model - The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) was invited to work with the Forsyth County Mental Health Task Force (FCMHTF) to assess the scope of interaction between persons with serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) and the criminal justice system, the resources available to treat those persons in the community, and the linkages between those resources and the county criminal justice system. In March of 2016, the CJCC contracted with the Forsyth County Commission for the Statistical Analysis Center (SAC) to conduct this needs assessment in partnership with the FCMHTF.

    The objective for the needs assessment was to identify what is required to ensure that persons with SPMI are diverted from the criminal justice system to crisis intervention and/or treatment. The goal is to identify ways to limit incarcerations in the county jail, provide necessary treatment for persons with mental illness who frequently contact the county’s criminal justice system (“frequent jail users”), and ensure that law enforcement, 911 dispatchers, and the courts can direct patients and their families to appropriate resources in Forsyth County. Click  Download this pdf file. here  to read the full assessment.