Introduction

We have attempted to present data—lots of data—related to disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the juvenile justice system. These data, from police interactions, court processes and outcomes, and interviews with juvenile justice officials, all come from the same location and the same time period. Our data triangulation approach to understand DMC in one place at one time shows that minority and non-White youth are disadvantaged at every point in the process, from initial contact with police to court outcomes and decisions about incarceration. These findings are only meaningful to the extent the data are accurate or valid. Furthermore, the findings are more meaningful and useful to the extent the data from this one location and time period tells us something about DMC more generally. In this chapter, we examine these issues of data validity and generalizability of the findings. We address these issues, in turn, with a particular focus on the validity issues related to our self-report data of juvenile deviant and criminal behavior.

Empirical comparison of self-report data and school disciplinary data

The self-report data from juveniles about their deviant and criminal behavior suggests that there are relatively few differences between White and non-White youths. Where there are differences, however, the differences suggest that White juveniles behave in ways more deviant and criminal (see Chapter 5). How accurate are the self-report data from the juveniles? Are juveniles truthful about their delinquent and criminal behavior? If not, are there differences between White and non-White juveniles? Much of our argument centers on the answers to these types of questions. If the self-report data are dismissed as inaccurate, it weakens our overall argument. If, however, the self-report data paint an accurate picture of deviant and criminal behavior of juveniles, especially differences in behaviors of juveniles along racial and ethnic group lines, it strengthens our argument. Significant to our conclusion, we also explain why the official data currently used to create crime rate information are of low quality and highly biased.

Self-report vs. official data

Official reports from police, courts and prisons have long been considered a default “gold standard” of data.