Purpose: The United States continues to cycle a disproportionate number of minority youth through the juvenile justice system. Although this pattern of ethnic disparity is commonly attributed to discriminatory practices within the legal system, an alternative explanation suggests that minority youth may enter the juvenile justice system by default because of a lack of access to appropriate social service alternatives. The study's purpose is to explore the role of social service interventions in addressing extralegal risk factors, such as school, family, mental health, and substance abuse issues among minority and majority youth charged with serious offenses.

Methods: Longitudinal survey data (1987-2002) was drawn from New Jersey's Somerset County Office of Youth Services Adolescent Information Database (AIF) and Somerset County Juvenile Court's Family Automated Case Tracking System (FACTS) official case records. The combined data provided documentation of the youth's history of social service and juvenile justice contacts and concurrent extralegal factors, such as family, school, mental health or substance abuse issues that greatly contributed to the need for intervention. The sample was comprised of 187 (52% minority and 48% majority) Somerset County residents between the ages 14 and 18 who appeared before the county judge for a serious offense (e.g., aggravated assault, burglary; possession of a weapon).

Results: Multiple and logistic analyses revealed that extralegal risk factors related to juvenile justice involvement differed between minority and majority youth. Minority youth were more likely to have a higher incidence of mental health, family, and school factors compared to majority youth. While substance use history positively and significantly increased the severity of the disposition among majority youth, mental health history was a significant risk factor among minority youth. Access to services also differed by race/ethnicity. Although minority and majority youth accessed inpatient mental health treatment at approximately the same rate, majority youth were more likely to access community outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment compared to minority youth. Minority youth, on the other hand, were more likely to come in contact with more 'serious' types of social service interventions, such as the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) and the Family Crisis Intervention Unit (FCUI), or placed in shelters or residential/foster care.

Implications for Practice: This investigation revealed that minority had more difficulty connecting with community treatment services compared to their majority counterparts. These findings suggest that the social work field can play an instrumental role in improving the representation of minority youth and their families in community-based treatment services. The opening or widening of other service avenues that circumvent the juvenile justice system may serve to deliver improved health and social justice outcomes for at-risk populations, especially for minority youth and their families.