The Long Shadow of Police Racial Treatment: Racial Disparity in Criminal Justice Processing

Abstract

This article explores racial disproportionality in criminal justice processing in an era of punitive criminal justice policies and mass incarceration. Using arrest data from New York State, the authors compare the racial disparity in prison sentencing with the disparity at arrest while controlling for crime type and criminal history of the arrest population. Findings show that the racial disparity in prison sentencing at the state level is established before courts begin criminal case proceedings. Scholars and policy makers interested in the sources of racial disparity in incarceration should concentrate on the processes that generate crime and arrests. However, a decrease in racial disparity at prison sentencing, relative to arrest, suggests that the practices of courtroom actors still merit scholarly attention.

Sentencing scorecards: Reducing racial disparities in prison sentences at their source

“…Though prison sentences occurred at about the same rate, the very large sample sizes result in this difference being statistically significant ( p < 0.001) 4 . This general result is similar to other state‐wide analyses (Beck & Blumstein, 2018; Kim & Kiesel, 2017).…”

“…4 This general result is similar to other state-wide analyses (Beck & Blumstein, 2018;Kim & Kiesel, 2017). Examining sentencing disparities only at the statewide level risks missing racial gaps in the incarceration rates in the individual counties.…”

“…The Commission reached a consensus that the analysis should focus on individual counties, in addition to the state as a whole. While elegant, the Kim and Kiesel (2017) analysis did not adjust for any factors besides coarse measures of crime type and criminal history. Without adjustment for a comprehensive set of compelling case-level features, practitioners can simply argue that these analyses do not account for the unique factors of individual cases that can explain why racial disparities in prison sentences exist.…”

Institutionalizing inequality in the courts: Decomposing racial and ethnic disparities in detention, conviction, and sentencing*

“…Relatedly, although our data trace people from arrest until case disposition, giving us a broader view into the punishment process, we are still only able to consider racial inequality occurring within the courts post‐arrest. A wealth of recent research has found large racial inequalities in stops, arrests, and other police actions (Beckett et al., 2006; Fagan & Davies, 2000; Geller & Fagan, 2010; Kochel, Wilson, & Mastrofski, 2011; Mitchell & Caudy, 2015), and past research has found racial disparity in arrest patterns explains sentencing inequalities (Kim & Keisel, 2018). We believe our analysis, however, still broadens the conversation around prosecution and sentencing disparities, acknowledging how the criminal justice system is both a product of and a contributor to larger inequalities.…”

Social Accountability and Institutional Change: The Case of Citizen Oversight of Police

“…Recent studies in public administration have emphasized the impact of institutions on racial disparities in policing outcomes, as opposed to individual‐level behaviors (Epp, Maynard‐Moody, and Haider‐Markel ; Eterno, Barrow, and Silverman ; Hong ; Jennings and Rubado ; Kim and Kiesel ; Maynard‐Moody and Musheno ; Menifield, Shin, and Strother ; Rivera and Ward ). While these studies effectively demonstrate the relevance and importance of widely prevalent norms, rules, and values in driving racially disparate criminal justice outcomes, the role of accountability institutions has not received sufficient attention.…”