Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Disproportionality in Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice

For the past two decades, the federal government has sought to reduce the overrepresentation of children of color in both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Two pieces of legislation are emblematic of those efforts. The first is the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which established addressing disproportionate minority contact as a core requirement for states’ juvenile justice agencies to receive federal funding. The second is the 2003 reauthorization of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, which requires the federal government to support collaborative work
across the child welfare and juvenile justice systems through data collection on youth known to be involved with both. For the complete text of this report: Chapin Hall and Georgetown University