The Child as Other: Race and Differential Treatment in the Juvenile Justice System

The juvenile justice system is rife with disparities between white and non-white children. African American children are not the only ones who may be treated as the other inthe juvenile justice system. Latino, Native American, Asian, and even white children may be othered in the appropriate social context. This article focuses on African American children and their condition, because it is exemplary of how all children who are perceived as children of the other are treated and because, in some ways, the treatment of African American children, in a bipolar racial hierarchy, is unique