Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Spohn, Cassia

doi:10.1086/681550

Cited by 62 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Moreover, acts of crime themselves are more than simply (illegal) situational actions; an act of crime is itself racially coded and unevenly consequential. The higher degrees of surveillance and harsher punishments faced by minorities make offending by minorities riskier and potential costlier (e.g., Spohn, ; Tonry, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Racial disparities in street crime have long been a focus of criminological scholarship. Although differences are vastly magnified by biases in the criminal justice system (Spohn, 2015;Tonry, 1995), evidence from a range of sources indicates that African Americans engage in higher rates of street crime than do Whites (e.g., Elliott, 1994;Hawkins et al, 2000;Piquero and Brame, 2008). 1 Following the classic works of Sampson (1987), Sampson and Wilson (1995), and Massey and Denton (1993), among others (e.g., Hawkins, 1983;Krivo and Peterson, 2000), macro-level structural explanations have dominated research on race and crime.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization, and Crime Over Time: A Social Schematic Theory Model

Burt

Lei²

2017

Criminology

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Recent studies evince that interpersonal racial discrimination (IRD) increases the risk of crime among African Americans and familial racial socialization fosters resilience to discrimination's criminogenic effects. Yet, studies have focused on the short‐term effects of IRD and racial socialization largely among adolescents. In this study, we seek to advance knowledge by elucidating how racialized experiences—in interactions and socialization—influence crime for African Americans over time. Elaborating Simons and Burt's (2011) social schematic theory, we trace the effects of childhood IRD and familial racial socialization on adult offending through cognitive and social pathways and their interplay. We test this life‐course SST model using data from the FACHS, a multisite study of Black youth and their families from ages 10 to 25. Consistent with the model, analyses reveal that the criminogenic consequences of childhood IRD are mediated cognitively by a criminogenic knowledge structure and socially through the nature of social relationships in concert with ongoing offending and discrimination experiences. Specifically, by increasing criminogenic cognitive schemas, IRD decreases embeddedness in supportive romantic, educational, and employment relations, which influence social schemas and later crime. Consonant with expectations, the findings also indicate that racial socialization provides enduring resilience by both compensating for and buffering discrimination's criminogenic effects.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization, and Crime Over Time: A Social Schematic Theory Model

Burt

Lei²

2017

Criminology

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“…The majority of research addressing racial disparities in postarrest outcomes has focused on disparities in sentencing, overall demonstrating that Blacks and Hispanics received harsher sentences than did Whites even after controlling for legally relevant factors that should influence sentencing decisions (Spohn, , ; Zatz, ). Blacks and Hispanics charged with misdemeanors or felonies in Manhattan were more likely to receive sentences involving incarceration than were Whites (Kutateladze et al., ).…”

Section: Prevalence Of Racial Disparitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: Prevalence, Causes, and a Search for Solutions

Kovera

2019

Journal of Social Issues

111

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Racial disparities in the criminal justice system are well documented and widespread. The present review examines racial disparities in three areas of the system: policing, prison populations, and participation on juries. Some, but not all, of these disparities may be the result of implicit racial bias. Even if the disparities are caused by implicit racial bias, given the number of people involved in the decision making that results in these disparities and the difficulty in training people to overcome implicit bias, interventions designed to eliminate disparities by reducing implicit racial bias may fail. Instead, policies designed to constrain the operation of implicit and/or explicit bias or that eliminate (or at a minimum reduce) problematic outcomes for everyone, regardless of race, may be more effective at reducing racial disparities than are interventions designed to eliminate implicit bias.

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“…The scholarly literature is voluminous on the associations among race and ethnicity and outcomes of various stages of the criminal justice process (for a review, see Spohn ). This research stream includes studies of apparent disparities in arrest rates across racial and ethnic groups (Smith et al ; Grogger ; Golub et al ; Gelman et al ; Lytle ; Dobbie et al ) but has placed less attention on decisions made by the police in the early stages in a pending criminal arrest.…”

Section: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Police Discretion and Racial Disparity in Organized Retail Theft Arrests: Evidence from Texas

Braun¹,

Rosenthal²,

Therrian³

2018

J Empirical Legal Studies

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When definitions of two distinct criminal offenses overlap, power to decide which definition to apply to an arrest devolves to local law enforcement agencies. This discretion can lead to unequal treatment and denial of due process, especially when disadvantaged populations are arrested for nonviolent property crimes. We present a Bayesian analysis of arrests under a vaguely worded statutory scheme for retail theft in Texas, in which a shoplifter who is guilty of property theft is also guilty of organized retail theft. Using arrest data from the Texas Department of Public Safety, we find wide variation across law enforcement agencies in initial charging categories, with black and Hispanic arrestees being charged for the more serious crime more often than white arrestees. The racial discrepancy is greater for agencies serving cities with higher per‐capita income. These results highlight consequences of ambiguous provisions of criminal codes and suggest a method for identifying agencies whose policies may have disparate impact across racial and ethnic groups.

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Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Cited by 62 publications

References 45 publications

Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization, and Crime Over Time: A Social Schematic Theory Model

Racial Discrimination, Racial Socialization, and Crime Over Time: A Social Schematic Theory Model

Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System: Prevalence, Causes, and a Search for Solutions

Police Discretion and Racial Disparity in Organized Retail Theft Arrests: Evidence from Texas

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