Prior research has produced inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between race and secure detention of juveniles. Many previous studies were conducted in single jurisdictions, had limited measures of offense seriousness, often did not examine the influence of social factors, and experienced sample selection problems. Using data on felony offenses in five counties, this study examined detention at three stages in the juvenile justice process: police detention, court intake detention, and preliminary hearing detention. Data were collected from case files in police agencies and juvenile courts to reflect actual offense behavior and the youths' family and social situations. Bivariate and logistic regression techniques were used to explore the issue of racial disparity. Findings indicated that African American and Latino youth were more likely to be detained at each decision point, even after controlling for the influence of offense seriousness and social factors.

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Previous research includes: chronic juvenile offenders, conceptualization and measurement issues in criminology, family relationships and delinquency, public attitudes toward delinquency, and co-author of Crime in

This study focuses on sentencing outcomes pursuant to the Michigan Firearms Statute that came into force in 1977 and the Michigan Sentencing Guidelines that were enacted in 1988. The sample included drug law violations and personal offenses committed with a firearm with a particular focus on offender characteristics such as age, race (Blacks, Whites and Mexican-Americans) and gender as well as other socio-legal variables. Multivariate analysis of the demographic variables (age, gender and race) revealed that age significantly impacted sentence length for offenders convicted of carjacking and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder. When gender was examined, these data did not suggest that gender of the convicted offender had a significant impact on sentence length. Multivariate analysis revealed that Blacks received significantly shorter sentences for second degree murder, armed robbery and assault with intent to commit murder.

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This study assesses the impact of socioeconomic, sociodemographic, and attitudinal characteristics of husbands and wives on the timing of marital dissolution. The primary concerns were with divorce and the intervals of marital duration before divorce occurred.The analysis was based on data collected from an initial sample of 610 couples -in the early -years of marriage, all of whom resided within a large North Central Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area in 1978. The couples were reinterviewed seven years later in 1985 (N = 544). The data collected from the first wave of subjects were used to identify antecedent characteristics of husbands and wives, whereas, data from the second wave were used to measure the timing (tempo) of marital dissolution among the 105 couples who subsequently divorced.Partial correlation coefficients indicated that the tempo of divorce significantly varied according to the wife's employment status, occupational status, future work plans, father's education, age at marriage, gender role orientation and number of children. Moreover, a multiple classification analysis of these variables showed that under controlled conditions wives' employment status and number of children were more powerful predictors of the tempo of divorce.