Arrested While Latino

Treatment of Latino youth in the U.S. juvenile justice system is harsher than for non-Hispanic white juveniles - and it's getting worse, according to a report commissioned by several groups that sponsor a campaign to end such inequities.

The report said disproportionate numbers of Latino youth are detained before trial in most states.

It also said the percentage of Latino youth in the nation's detention centers rose by 84 percent between 1983 and 1991, compared with an 8 percent increase for non-Hispanic white youth over the same period and a 46 percent increase for youth overall.

"They are arrested more often, stopped more often, detained more often, incarcerated more often and for longer periods of time," said Nancy Walker, co-author of the report and associate director of the Institute for Children, Youth and Families at Michigan State University.

Even when Latino kids are charged with the same offense as their white counterparts, they're punished more severely, the report found. Latino youth who've never been detained are 13 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug offenses than non-Hispanic white youth - and they'll spend more than twice as much time in jail, the report said.

The report's other co-author, Francisco Villarruel, blames recent anti-gang statutes for the apparent crackdown on Latino youth. He said he is hearing more stories from Latino youth picked up by the police for simply standing on a street corner.

"It's bad, but chances are it's worse," said Villarruel, associate professor of family and child ecology at Michigan State University. "This is only what we can see."

The data are inadequate because state and county governments don't have a single category for "Hispanic" or "Latino," he said.

A child with a Puerto Rican father and black mother, for example, would be "African American" in California, "Hispanic" in Michigan and "biracial" in Ohio. In Arizona, children can define their own race or ethnicity.

The report also found: