Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States

TLDR

Racial and ethnic disparities in crime and criminal justice are long‑standing, with disproportionate representation of blacks and Hispanics in offenses, victimization, and incarceration, driven by social forces that concentrate race with poverty and historical policies such as the drug war. The study proposes that future research should adopt multilevel contextual designs to examine cumulative disadvantage over the life course, incorporate multiracial conceptualizations, and employ comparative cross‑national analyses. It recommends using multilevel (contextual) designs that capture cumulative disadvantage, multiracial perspectives, and cross‑national comparisons to better understand these disparities.

Abstract

Although racial discrimination emerges some of the time at some stages of criminal justice processing-such as juvenile justice-there is little evidence that racial disparities result from systematic, overt bias. Discrimination appears to be indirect, stemming from the amplification of initial disadvantages over time, along with the social construction of "moral panics" and associated political responses. The "drug war" of the 1980s and 1990s exacerbated the disproportionate representation of blacks in state and federal prisons. Race and ethnic disparities in violent offending and victimization are pronounced and long-standing. Blacks, and to a lesser extent Hispanics, suffer much higher rates of robbery and homicide victimization than do whites. Homicide is the leading cause of death among young black males and females. These differences result in part from social forces that ecologically concentrate race with poverty and other social dislocations. Useful research would emphasize multilevel (contextual) designs, the idea of "cumulative disadvantage" over the life course, the need for multiracial conceptualizations, and comparative, cross-national designs.