Testing the racial invariance hypothesis among juvenile offenders: the racially differentiated effects of police deployment in Louisiana parishes

This study tests the racial invariance hypothesis among juvenile offenders across Louisiana parishes. Using Office of Juvenile Justice data from 2022–2023, American Community Survey estimates, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) law enforcement staffing data, this study assesses whether structural conditions predict Black and White juvenile petition rates equivalently across 61 parishes. Poverty, unemployment, and residential mobility are mostly non-significant across the racial groups. However, police per capita is consistently associated with lower Black, but not White, juvenile petition rates for both violent and property crimes. This finding is a violation of what the racial invariance hypothesis would expect. The female-headed household (FHH) measure also violates invariance for violent crime. These findings suggest law enforcement deployment functions as a racially differentiated structural condition in Louisiana.