A multi-faceted analysis of the African American presence in juvenile delinquency textbooks published between 1997 and 2000

This paper presents findings from an ongoing study of the integration of African American perspectives into criminology and criminal justice courses. Content analysis is used to examine the African American presence in the leading juvenile delinquency textbooks published between 1997 and 2000. We examine the inclusion of African American scholarship, the portrayal of African Americans, and interpretations of African American youth involvement in delinquency. While some African American scholarship was present in all the texts, many of the contributions of criminologists were excluded. In most texts, portrayals of African Americans were more negative than positive. In some of the texts a wide variety of explanations were presented in discussions of African American delinquency. The authors conclude that, in the future, authors of juvenile delinquency textbooks should consider more closely the depictions of African American youth in their texts and augment the inclusion of African American perspectives.