Journal of Quantitatiûe Criminology, Vol. 17, No. 2, 2001 The Effect of Prior Youth Court Dispositions on Current Disposition: An Application of Societal-Reaction Theory Anthony Matarazzo, 1,2 Peter J. Carrington, 1 and Robert D. Hiscott 1 This paper tests hypotheses implicit in the societal-reaction perspective concern- ing the nature and pattern of the relationship between prior and current youth court dispositions. The dispositional stage is the most critical decision-making level which young offenders encounter in their contact with the youth court sys- tem. Previous research has produced inconsistent results in the attempt to deter- mine which model or models of justice underlie dispositional decisions by youth court judges. Log-linear modeling is employed on 16,636 youth court cases in Canada in 19931994 to determine the nature and magnitude of the relationship between current and prior dispositions. The results indicate that prior youth court dispositions exert a significant impact on current dispositions, even when relevant variables are controlled. Evidence is found mainly of stabilization—the repetition of the same type of disposition—and also of escalation in dispositions. These findings provide support for the societal-reaction theory and possibly for the desert-based theory of sentencing. KEY WORDS: youth court; dispositions; stabilization; escalation; societal-reac- tion theory. 1. INTRODUCTION Much of the research on sentencing has contented itself with con- trasting the role of ‘‘extralegal variables’’—especially race, but also gender, age, and socioeconomic status—with ‘‘legal variables’’ such as seriousness of the current offense and the criminal history (Bishop and Frazier, 1992, 1996; Farnworth and Teske, 1995; Frazier et al., 1992; Horowitz and Potti- eger, 1991; Kramer and Steffensmeier, 1993; Leiber and Jamieson, 1995; Steffensmeier et al., 1993). Hagan (1974) refers to these research endeavors 1 Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada. 2 To whom correspondence should be addressed: e-mail: amataraz@watarts.uwaterloo.ca 169 0748-4518010600-0169$19.500  2001 Plenum Publishing Corporation