Hispanic youths comprised 9 percent of Lancaster County's population in 2004. Why they also comprised nearly 23 percent of the youths in the county's juvenile-justice system that year is the focus of an 18-month study announced last week by Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

PCCD granted the nonprofit Philadelphia Health Management Corp. $100,000 in federal funds last week to study the disproportionate number of Hispanic youths in juvenile-justice systems in seven Pennsylvania counties. The study includes Berks, Dauphin, Lehigh, York, Philadelphia and Lancaster counties, which are home to the state's largest Hispanic populations and show a disproportionate number of Hispanic youths in the justice system. Adams County also is included in the study to provide a rural perspective.

"Latinos are one of the fastest-growing populations, so we wanted to get a better understanding of their needs," said Mike Pennington, director of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the PCCD division which will manage the PHMC grant. "The needs assessment means looking at all the key decision points that lead someone to the system and really looking at the numbers and assessing them and informing our efforts. We want to make sure ours are data-driven initiatives."

In addition to gathering focus groups of Hispanic parents, youths and youths currently in the juvenile-justice system, Philadelphia Health Management Corp. will interview probation and school district administrators as well as community-based organizations to get more information about what might be causing the disparity.

"Because this study will give us a better understanding of the needs of Latino youth in our juvenile justice system, we will be better able to target services and financial resources to enhance prevention and intervention methods that best help them," said PCCD Chairman Walter M. Phillips Jr.

Pennington, whose office provided the 2004 population figures for Lancaster County, said 5,379 Hispanic youths went through the county's juvenile-justice system that year. He said Lancaster County's Hispanic population is the fourth-largest in the state, following Philadelphia, Lehigh and Berks counties.

Because his office focuses on developing prevention and intervention programs to reduce juvenile crime, the needs-assessment study may show areas that contribute to higher Hispanic youth delinquency.

"It could be school-system related. It could be (higher) dropout rates or that language courses are lacking. There might be needs for translators or interpreters. It might be gang-related activity," Pennington said.

"We just don't have a good understanding of some of this stuff. But hopefully the needs assessment will tell us where the gaps are so we can make recommendation of intervention and prevention programs."

Since 2004, PCCD has invested nearly $22 million in various programs to reduce juvenile violence, delinquency, substance abuse and other problem behaviors.

E-mail: slindt@lnpnews.com