Although there is a rich body of theory on crime causation, development of general sociological theory on criminal justice has been sparse. A major reason is that the criminal justice literature is dominated by a focus on individual level case processing, in particular how “extralegal” factors such as race, social class, and gender influence court decision making. This chapter addresses the lack of a macrolevel focus on juvenile justice by providing a theoretical framework and empirical assessment of the structural context of juvenile court processing in the United States. It derives a macrolevel theory on inequality and official social control that poses the question: How does structural context – especially racial inequality and the concentration of “underclass” poverty – influence formal petitioning, predisposition detention, and placement of juveniles? The chapter lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the relationship between larger societal forces of increasing poverty and inequality and formal systems of juvenile social control.
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