Learning From SAGE Journal Articles
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Chapter 1: Overview of Race and Crime
Billinger, S. M. (2007).
Another look at ethnicity as a biological concept.
Critique of Anthropology, 27, 5-35.
Abstract
Montagu referred to race as ‘man’s most dangerous myth’, while Lévi-Strauss called it ‘the original sin of anthropology’. Although persuasive arguments against the concept of race were made throughout the 20th century, race remains a particular problem for anthropologists who deal in the classification of human populations. Racial terminology has been perpetuated within anthropology largely owing to the fact that, historically, race formed the very core of anthropological study. Despite the conceptual inadequacy of race, the anthropological enterprise has yet to move beyond it as an explanatory tool for understanding human biological variation because of the lack of a conceptual and/or methodological replacement. This article re-analyses historical anthropological literature on ethnicity and biocultural interaction as a replacement for the race concept, and recasts it in the context of modern philosophical and psychological perspectives on population variation.
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Jones, R.A. (2005).
Race and revisability.
Journal of Black Studies, 35, 612-632.
Abstract
This article investigates the changing definitions of race. In this article, the author asks the questions, (a) To what extent is race an ontological, linguistically lexical, or political category? (b) Howhave changing scientific (i.e., DNA and Human Genome Project) and political (i.e., changing definitions for purposes of the 2000 census) paradigms altered conceptions of race? and (c) Are open definitions (i.e., constantly revisable) the correct process philosophy, or pragmatist, trope for postmodern conceptions of race?
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Pascale, C.M. (2008).
Talking about race: Shifting the analytical paradigm.
Qualitative Inquiry, 14, 723-741.
Abstract
This article examines patterns of common-sense knowledge about race to understand how race is made to appear both self-evident and inherently meaningful in daily interactions. It explores a new methodological imaginary by drawing strategically from ethnomethodology and poststructural discourse analysis to examine the histories and the visions of power that rest beneath the surface of common-sense knowledge about race. Because common-sense knowledge links the production of meaning in local contexts to the broader production of cultural knowledge, it provides a key focal point for examining the dialogical relationship between the apparent agency of local practices and the efficacy of cultural discourse. The article concludes with implications for social research and social justice.
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Spinner-Halev, J. (2007).
From historical to enduring injustice.
Political Theory, 35, 574-597.
Abstract
Advocates of remedying historical injustices urge political communities to take responsibility for their past, but their arguments are ambiguous about whether all past injustices need remedy, or just those regarding groups that suffer from current injustice. This ambiguity leaves unanswered the challenge of critics who argue that contemporary injustices matter, not those in the past. I argue instead for a focus on injustices that have roots in the past, and continue to the present day, what I call enduring injustice. Instead of focusing on finding the party responsible for the injustice, I argue that we use history to help us understand why some injustices endure, which I suggest is partly due to the limitations of liberal justice. I conclude with a conception of responsibility for repairing enduring injustice that deemphasizes searching for the causal agent, and instead focuses on how to repair the injustice, which I explain through an expansive conception of shared space.
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Webster, C. (2008).
Marginalize white ethnicity, race and crime.
Theoretical Criminology, 12, 293-312.
Abstract
White ethnicity is generally invisible and unexamined in racism, crime and justice debates. Serving mostly as a default comparator to describe visible minority experiences of crime and criminal justice processes, white ethnicity is seen as unproblematic as an ethnicity except as a potential source of racism. This article draws on aspects of ‘whiteness studies’ in the USA and UK—focusing on marginalized white ethnicities—to explore racialized ‘white’ ethnicity, both historically and today. Designations such as white ‘underclass’, ‘new’ migrants, ‘white trash’ are offered to show that some whites are seen as ‘less white’ than others within a hierarchy of ‘whiteness’. The article concludes that racism and classism towards marginalized white working-class ethnicities have criminalized these groups in ways not too dissimilar from the criminalization of visible working-class minorities.
Chapter 2: Extent of Crime and Victimization
Case, P.F. (2008).
The relationship of race and criminal behavior: Challenging cultural explanations of a structural problem.
Critical Sociology, 34, 213-238.
Abstract
Disproportional arrests and conviction rates between blacks and whites in the US criminal justice system is well documented in social research. Many studies have examined the various social explanations for the disproportional arrest rates by race, varying from structural explanations of institutionalized racism and differential poverty outcomes to micro-level analyses of culturally prescribed behaviors. Research that focuses on culturally motivated behaviors may increase the sense of otherness associated
with blacks and may minimize the effects of discriminatory criminal justice practices and unequal opportunities. Studies that focus on describing disproportional distributions without also including individual behaviors may also mask successful strategies by blacks avoiding re-arrest as they manage to reintegrate into society. This study analyzes racial differences in recidivism patterns for a cohort of prisoners in the Ohio prison system. Recidivism was tracked for approximately 14 years (through 2006). These ex-prisoners were compared using survival analysis and Cox Regression analysis.
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Olsen, L.M., & Wahab, S. (2006).
American Indians and suicide: A neglected area of research.
Trauma Violence Abuse, 7, 19-33.
Abstract
Suicide is a major public health problem for American Indians in the United States. Published studies indicate that American Indians experience the highest rate of suicide of all ethnic groups in the United States. This article synthesizes the epidemiology and risk factors associated with suicide among American Indians, barriers to research, prevention, mental-health services, and recommendations for research and practice. The authors’ recommendations arise from the current literature as well as interviews with practitioners and academics in the field of suicide prevention. The authors present significant substantive and methodological issues that inform research on suicide in American Indian communities, as well as existing contemporary interventions. Overall, socioeconomic characteristics, substance abuse, barriers to mental health services and acculturation play a role in the occurrence of suicide in American Indian communities. These findings suggest suicide is an important public health problem that needs to be addressed for American Indians.
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Patton, T.O., & Snyder-Yuly, J. (2007).
Any four Black men will do: Rape, race, and the ultimate scapegoat.
Journal of Black Studies, 37, 859-895.
Abstract
This study examines the impact of false rape charges a former Iowa State University student brought against four Black males. Using textual analysis coupled with Barthes’s theory of myth, the authors critically examine how the story took hold and the communicative impact of the falsified claims of rape that affected African American men, rape survivors, and women. Using previous scholarship on rape and race (macrocontext), the authors test the scholarly conclusions on the myth of rape and race in a microcontext case study. Thus, they are interested in how the false accusation revived the myth and how Iowa State University and the local community, the regional media, and the campus police perpetuated the myth. The authors argue that racism and sexism are allowed to continue in this situation because of the preservation of White hegemonic patriarchal power. This preservation of White patriarchal hegemony is echoed in macrocontext-level conclusions.
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Walsh, A. (2005).
African American serial killing in the media: The myth and the reality.
Homicide Studies, 9, 271-291.
Abstract
There were many expressions of shock and surprise voiced in the media in 2002 when the “D.C. Sniper” turned out to be two Black males. Two of the stereotypes surrounding serial killers are that they are almost always White males and that African American males are barely represented in their ranks. In a sample of 413 serial killers operating in the United States from 1945 to mid-2004, it was found that 90 were African American. Relative to the African American proportion of the population across that time period, African Americans were overrepresented in the ranks of serial killers by a factor of about 2. Possible reasons why so few African American serial killers are known to the public are explored.
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Yuan, N.P., Koss, M.P., Polacca, M., & Goldman, D. (2006).
Risk factors for physical assault and rape among six Native American Tribes.
Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 21, 1566-1590.
Abstract
Prevalence and correlates of adult physical assault and rape in six Native American tribes are presented (N = 1,368). Among women, 45% reported being physically assaulted and 14% were raped since age 18 years. For men, figures were 36% and 2%, respectively. Demographic characteristics, adverse childhood experiences, adulthood alcohol dependence, and cultural and regional variables were assessed. Using logistic regression, predictors of physical assault among women were marital status, an alcoholic parent, childhood maltreatment, and lifetime alcohol dependence. Predictors of sexual assault among women were marital status, childhood maltreatment, and lifetime alcohol dependence. Among men, only childhood maltreatment and lifetime alcohol dependence predicted being physically assaulted. Tribal differences existed in rates of physical assault (both sexes) and rape (women only). The results underscore the problem of violence victimization among Native Americans and point to certain environmental features that increase risk of adulthood physical and sexual assault. Implications for tribe-specific interventions are discussed.
Chapter 3: Theoretical Perspectives on Race and Crime
Morris, G.D., Wood, P.B., Dunaway, R.G. (2006).
Self-control, traditionalism, and Native American substance abuse: Testing the cultural invariance of a general theory of crime.
Crime & Delinquency, 52, 572-598.
Abstract
Using a sample of White and Native American high school students, the authors provide a test of (a) self-control theory’s invariance thesis and (b) native traditionalism as an explanation of Native American substance use. Self-control significantly influenced all forms of substance use when controlling for race and in race-specific analyses. However, z tests by race revealed that self-control is a stronger predictor of marijuana and serious drug use among Native Americans. Beyond this simple comparison across groups, the authors control for native traditionalism (as a proxy for cultural variation) among the Native American respondents. In doing so, self-control remained a consistent predictor of their substance use. Although these findings largely support the invariance thesis of self-control, the racial difference related to marijuana and serious drug use poses a theoretical challenge. With regard to native traditionalism, results suggest that those most attached to their native traditions engage in greater substance use.
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Parker, K.F., & Maggard, S.R. (2005).
Structural theories and race-specific drug arrests: What structural factors account for the rise in race-specific drug arrests over time.
Crime & Delinquency, 51, 521-547.
Abstract
Studies examining the structural correlates of urban crime have generated a large body of research; however, few studies have linked the structural conditions to race-specific drug arrests. In this study, the authors examine the impact of urban disadvantage, social disorganization, and racial threat indicators on the rise in race-specific drug arrests from 1980 to 1990. They find these theoretical perspectives contribute to an understanding of the change in race-specific drug arrests. Findings indicate that shifts in the urban economy significantly affected Black drug arrests, while having no effect on the change in White drug arrests. In addition, the shift away from manufacturing jobs significantly
affected Black arrests for drug possession. Consistent with the theory, social disorganization measures proved equally significant for Whites and Blacks, whereas mixed support was found for racial threat arguments. The importance of a theoretically grounded exploration into the rise in racial disparities in drug arrests is highlighted.
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Potter, H. (2006).
An argument for Black feminist criminology: Understanding African American women’s experiences with intimate partner abuse using an integrated approach.
Feminist Criminology, 1, 106-124.
Abstract
This article draws on existing feminist theoretical concepts to develop a Black feminist criminology (BFC), using intimate partner abuse against African American women to examine this pioneering approach. BFC expands on feminist criminology and is grounded firmly in Black feminist theory and critical race feminist theory. BFC recognizes a significant connection between intimate partner abuse against women and structural, cultural, and familial influences. It is argued that BFC aids in a more precise explanation of how Black women experience and respond to intimate partner abuse and how the crime processing system responds to battered Black women.
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Welch, K. (2007).
Black criminal stereotypes and racial profiling.
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 23, 276-288.
Abstract
The racial stereotyping of criminals has been an enduring and unfortunate feature of American culture. However, following the civil rights movement, the linkage between Blacks and crime was galvanized. The stereotyping of Blacks as criminals is so pervasive throughout society that “criminal predator” is used as a euphemism for “young Black male.” This common stereotype has erroneously served as a subtle rationale for the unofficial policy and practice of racial profiling by criminal justice practitioners. This article details the theoretical elements contributing to the development of Black criminal typification to understand how this has been used to justify racial profiling.
Chapter 4: Policing
Brunson, R.K., & Miller, J. (2006).
Gender, race, and urban policing: The experience of African American youth.
Gender & Society, 20, 531-552.
Abstract
Proactive policing strategies produce a range of harms to African Americans in poor urban communities. We know little, however, about how aggressive policing is experienced across gender by adolescents in these neighborhoods. The authors argue that important insights can be gained by examining the perspectives of African American youths and draw from in-depth interviews with youths in St. Louis, Missouri, to investigate how gender shapes interactions with the police. The comparative analysis reveals important gendered facets of African American adolescents’ experiences with and expectations of law enforcement. Young men described being treated routinely as suspects regardless of their involvement in delinquency and also reported police violence. Young women typically described being stopped for curfew violations but also expressed concerns about police sexual misconduct. This study highlights the differential harms of urban policing for African American young women and men and highlights the need for systematic attention to the intersections of race and gender in research on criminal justice practices.
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Gabbidon, S.L., Marzette, L., & Peterson, S. (2007).
Racial profiling and the courts: An empirical analysis of federal litigation, 1991-2006.
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 23, 226-238.
Abstract
This article examines 135 federal-level racial profiling cases. Based on a review of these cases, the research reveals that such cases are on the decline. Moreover, most of the persons alleging they were racially profiled were Black and Hispanic. More than half of the persons making racial profiling allegations were caught engaging in criminal activity during the incident that instigated the legal suit. In addition, most of the incidents involved multiple male officers, who were employed by local police departments. The research also found that persons making racial profiling allegations win in less than a third of the cases. The article concludes by discussing the implications of these results.
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Romero, M. (2006).
Racial profiling and immigrant law enforcement: Rounding up the usual suspects in the Latino community.
Critical Sociology, 32, 447-473.
Abstract
Critical race theorists have applied the concepts of microaggressions and macro-aggressions to characterize the racial affronts minorities encounter in the criminal justice system, particularly in the War on Drugs and in the use of racial profiling. Building on LatCrit and critical race scholars, I analyze the function that immigration raids serve as a policing practice that maintains and reinforces subordinated status among working-class Latino citizens and immigrations. Using a case study approach, I analyze a five day immigration raid in 1997. locally referred to as the “Chandler Roundup.” Immigration policing constructed citizenship as visibly inscribed on bodies in specific urban spaces rather than “probable cause.” The Chandler Roundup fits into a larger pattern of immigration law enforcement practices that produce harms of reduction and repression
and place Mexican Americans at risk before the law and designate them as second-class citizens with inferior rights.
Latino residents experienced racial affronts targeted at their “Mexicanness” indicated by skin-color, bilingual speaking abilities, or shopping in neighborhoods highly populated by Latinos. During immigration inspections, individuals stopped were demeaned, humiliated and embarrassed. Stops and searches conducted without cause were intimidating and frightening, particularly when conducted with the discretionary use of power and force by law enforcement agents. In urban barrios, the costly enterprise of selected stops and searches, race-related police abuse, and harassment results in deterring political participation, identifying urban space racially, classifying immigrants as deserving and undeserving by nationalities, and serves to drive a wedge dividing Latino neighborhoods on the basis of citizenship status.
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Smith, M.R., & Alpert, G. (2007).
Explaining police bias: A theory of social conditioning and illusory correlation.
Criminal Justice and Behavior, 34, 1262-1283.
Abstract
Although recent empirical research has shown that Blacks and Hispanics are consistently overrepresented among police stops, searches, and arrests, few criminologists have attempted to provide a theoretical explanation for the disparities reported in the research literature. This article proposes a theory of individual police behavior that is grounded in social–psychological research on stereotype formation and that assumes a nonmotivational but biased response to minority citizens by the police. Accordingly, stereotype formation and its consequences are largely unintentional and are driven by social conditioning and the illusory correlation phenomenon, which results in the overestimation of negative behaviors associated with minority group members. After specifying the theory, the article presents a research agenda for empirically testing and verifying its propositions.
Chapter 5: Courts
Spohn, C., & Sample, L.
(OnlineFirst)
The dangerous drug offender in Federal court: Intersections of race, ethnicity, and culpability.
Crime & Delinquency.
Abstract
This study examines the complex relationships among stereotypes about crime, the offender’s race/ethnicity, and sentencing decisions. Using data on White, Black, and Hispanic male drug offenders sentenced in three U.S. district courts and a definition of the dangerous drug offender appropriate to the federal sentence system, the authors explore the degree to which stereotypes about dangerous drug offenders influence sentence length. The results reveal that fitting the stereotype of a dangerous federal drug offender (i.e., a male drug trafficker with a prior trafficking conviction who used a weapon to commit the current offense) affected the length of the prison sentence for Black offenders but not for White or Hispanic offenders. Further analysis revealed that this effect was confined to Black offenders convicted of drug offenses involving crack cocaine. The results provide further evidence that the focal concerns guiding judicial decision making may vary depending on the offender’s race or ethnicity.
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Turner, K.B., & Johnson, J.B. (2007).
The relationship between the type of attorney and bail amount set for Hispanic defendants.
Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Science, 29, 384-400.
Abstract
This research empirically examines the difference that type of counsel, public or private, makes in the bail amount set for Hispanic defendants. Data were collected on all felony defendants assigned to the district court in a Midwestern county. Specifically, the authors hypothesized that Hispanic defendants who retain the assistance of private counsel will receive lower bail amounts than defendants assigned a court-appointed attorney. Several independent controls were employed including the legal variables—offense seriousness and prior arrests—and the extralegal variables—sex, age, and residency. These data were analyzed using ordinary least squares multiple regression. The analyses show that although Hispanic defendants utilizing private counsel receive lower bail amounts than defendants assigned a court-appointed attorney, only the variables age, residency, and offense seriousness significantly affect bail amount set.
Chapter 6: Sentencing
Crow, M.S., & Johnson, K. (2008).
Race, ethnicity, and habitual-sentencing laws: A multilevel analysis of individual and contextual threat.
Criminal Justice Policy Review, 19, 63-83.
Abstract
Although sentencing research has expanded over the past decade, very little has been published in the area of habitual-offender statutes. The current research revisits and updates two of the few studies that focused on these sentencing enhancements. Crawford,
Chiricos, and Kleck (1998), and later Crawford (2000), examined the application of the
habitual-offender sentence enhancement for offenders in Florida in 1992 and 1993.
Consistent with the prior research, this study includes individual-level as well as
county-level variables and also updates the analysis by examining more recent data,
including a measure of ethnicity, and using hierarchical general linear modeling to simultaneously model individual-level data nested within counties. The racial threat perspective serves as the backdrop to explain racial and ethnic disparity in punishment decisions based on contextual as well as individual threat. The findings indicate that racial and ethnic sentence disparity exists when habitual-offender status is invoked in Florida.
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Curry, T.R., & Corral-Camacho, G. (2008).
Sentencing young minority males for drug offenses: Testing for conditional effects between race/ethnicity, gender and age during the US war on drugs.
Punishment and Society, 10, 253-277.
Abstract
Using a random sample of Texas felony drug offenders sentenced during the height of
the US War on Drugs, results from the present research show main and conditional
effects of race/ethnicity, gender and age on sentence severity. The probability of receiving prison time was greater and sentences were longer for African Americans, African American males and African American males ages 22–30. The likelihood of going to prison was also higher for Hispanic males, and Hispanic males ages 31–40, but no differences were observed for sentence length. These findings generally support
hypotheses that young minority males will pay a penalty cost at sentencing, and comport with recent research on drug sentences and the conditional effects of race/ethnicity, gender and age on sentencing.
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Wooldredge, J. (2007).
Neighborhood effects on felony sentencing.
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 44, 238-263.
Abstract
The relatively high imprisonment rates of African American men from poor neighborhoods raise a question of whether felony sentences are influenced by ecological factors, separately from or in conjunction with a defendant’s race. To provide insight on the topic, both legal and extralegal effects on imprisonment and sentence length were modeled for nearly 3,000 convicted felons from more than 1,000 census tracts in Ohio. Neighborhood effects were estimated with empirical bayes coefficients as outcomes, derived from hierarchical analyses, to adjust for the small ratio of defendants to tracts. Findings revealed that convicted felons from more disadvantaged neighborhoods were more likely to receive nonsuspended prison sentences, whereas a defendant’s race was unrelated to imprisonment. By contrast, neighborhood disadvantage was unrelated to sentence length for imprisoned defendants, whereas African Americans received significantly shorter terms relative to Whites. The processes through which ecological context may operate to affect sentence severity are discussed.
Chapter 7: The Death Penalty
Baker, D. V. (2008).
Black female executions in historical context.
Criminal Justice Review, 33, 64-88.
Abstract
This article examines the systemic oppression of executed Black women from the earliest periods of American history. The most consistent factor in Black female executions throughout U.S. history is criminal justice authorities’ executions of Black women largely for challenging gendered and racist exploitation. Colonial and antebellum slavery institutionalized the persecution of slave women, who often retaliated against oppressive brutality by killing White masters. White lynch mobs effectively augmented the legal killing of Black women in postbellum society and lowered Black female execution rates. Reduced to a peonage state in the apartheid of Jim Crow, Black women’s crimes of resistance against White brutality paralleled those of slave women decades earlier. And despite the delusional expansion of civil rights and the sovereignty of Black people over the confines of segregation in the modern era, the racialized sexism of American criminal justice has rendered Black women ever more vulnerable to the death penalty.
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Ramsey, R.J., & Frank, J. (2007).
Wrongful conviction: Perceptions of criminal justice professionals regarding the frequency of wrongful conviction and the extent of system errors.
Crime & Delinquency, 53, 436-470.
Abstract
Drawing on a sample of 798 Ohio criminal justice professionals (police, prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges), the authors examine respondents’ perceptions regarding the frequency of system errors (i.e., professional error and misconduct suggested by previous research to be associated with wrongful conviction), and wrongful felony conviction. Results indicate that respondents perceive system errors to occur more than infrequently but less than moderately frequent. Respondents also perceive that wrongful felony conviction occurs in their own jurisdictions in .5% to 1% of all felony cases, and in the United States in 1% to 3% of all felony cases. Respondents, however, specify an acceptable rate of wrongful conviction to be less than .5%. Findings thus indicate that criminal justice professionals perceive an unacceptable frequency of wrongful conviction
and associated system errors and suggest that programs aimed at reducing system errors and improving professional conduct would be broadly accepted among criminal justice professionals.
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Stauffer, A. Smith, M.D., Cochran, J.C., Fogel, S.J., Bjerregaard, B. (2006).
The interaction between victim race and gender on sentencing outcomes in capital murder trials: A further exploration.
Homicide Studies, 10, 98-117.
Abstract
This study extends previous research on the interactive effects of victim race and gender
on death sentence outcomes reported byWilliams and Holcomb (2004). They report an
interactive effect between victim race and victim gender on Ohio death sentencing outcomes, such that killers of White women are especially at risk of receiving death sentences. The study here seeks to determine if theWilliams and Holcomb finding holds for a sample of murder cases in North Carolina for which the state sought the death penalty. Initial results of a descriptive analysis suggest a White female victim effect, but the introduction of control variables via logistic regression equations yields no gender or race interactions as predictors of sentencing outcomes. Reasons for the different outcomes are explored, and topics requiring further exploration are discussed.
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Unnever, J., & Cullen, F.T. (2007).
Reassessing the racial divide in the support for capital punishment: The continuing significance of race.
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 44, 124-158.
Abstract
This project investigates the racial divide in support for capital punishment. The authors examine whether race has a direct effect on support for capital punishment and test whether the influence of race varies across class, being a native southerner, confidence in government officials, political orientation, and religious affiliation. Using data drawn from the General Social Survey, they find a substantial racial divide, with African Americans much less likely to support the death penalty. Furthermore, the analysis revealed little support for the “spurious/social convergence” hypothesis; shared factors that might be expected to bring African Americans and Whites together—class, confidence in government, conservative politics, regional location, and religious fundamentalism— either did not narrow African American-White punishment attitudes or, at best, had only modest effects. The Results suggest that the racial divide in support for capital punishment is likely to remain a point of symbolic contention in African American-White conceptions of criminal injustice in the United States.
Chapter 8: Corrections
Brewer, R.M., & Heitzeg, N.A. (2008).
The racialization of crime and punishment: Criminal justice, color-blind racism, and the political economy of the prison industrial complex.
American Behavioral Scientist, 51, 625-644.
Abstract
The current explosion in criminalization and incarceration is unprecedented in size, scope, and negative consequences—both direct and collateral—for communities of color. These macro systems exist in relationality to the micro dynamics of living in the midst of police scrutiny, economic marginalization, and political disenfranchisement. Critical race theory is a guide for pedagogy and praxis in exploring the racist and classist foundations of current micro and macro injustices. Using Supreme Court opinions and the voices of political prisoner/prisoners of conscience as evidence of the dominant text and the dissent, this article explores the following issues: the roots of U.S. law, criminal justice, and mass imprisonment in classism and racism; the political economy of the criminal justice system and the prison industrial complex; the intersectionality of injustices rooted in micro and macro systems; and the role of prisoners of conscience/political prisoners in inspiring resistance to micro and macro injustice.
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Trulson, C.R., Marquart, J.W., Hemmens, C., Carrol, L. (2008).
Racial desegregation in prisons.
The Prison Journal, 88, 270-299.
Abstract
This article examines the history, law, and research on racial desegregation in American prisons. It focuses on the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case of Johnson v. California, in which the Court held that prison administrators cannot racially segregate inmates unless under extraordinary circumstances to maintain the security of inmates, staff, and institutions. This article also examines evidence on attitudes and outcomes of racial desegregation in prisons. It ends with a discussion of racial desegregation mandates and policy change in prison organizations.
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Vezzola, M.A. (2007).
Harmony behind bars.
The Prison Journal, 87, 195-210.
Abstract
As prison populations swell across the country, lawmakers and prison officials must face difficult questions concerning how to accommodate growing numbers of inmates. Aside from where to house them and what kind of medical care to provide, decision makers must also consider the constitutional rights of prisoners to practice their religion behind bars as guaranteed under the First Amendment. This is no simple task, however. Native American spirituality comes in many forms, ranging from traditional ceremonies such as
the Sun Dance to organizations modeled after Christian sects. But which ceremonies and practices are permissible for Native Americans to practice behind bars remains unclear. Courts have applied various tests to balance these interests with the security concerns of individual prisons, leaving many Native prisoners without a spiritual outlet, which is neither constitutional nor constructive. This article assesses the health of Native American spirituality in prison and reports its well-being in various jurisdictions.
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Weidner, R.R., Frase, R.S., Schultz, J.S. (2005).
The impact of contextual factors on the decision to imprison in large urban jurisdictions: A multilevel analysis
Crime & Delinquency, 51, 400-424.
Abstract
This study examines the influence of social and legal contextual factors on the processing
of individual felony cases in large urban jurisdictions for 1998. Results of hierarchical
logistic regression analyses that control for the effects of individual case-level factors
show that three jurisdictional characteristics—use of sentencing guidelines, level of
crime, and racial composition—influence the decision to imprison. These findings suggest that the type of sentence one receives and the reason one receives it partially depend on where it is meted out. This research demonstrates the importance of accounting for case-level factors in studies of cross-jurisdictional differences in punitiveness.
Chapter 9: Juvenile Justice
Guevara, L., Herz, D., & Spohn, C. (2008).
Race, gender, and legal counsel: Differential outcomes in two juvenile courts.
Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 6, 83-104.
Abstract
This study examines the influence of race, gender, and type of legal counsel on juvenile court outcomes. Data from a sample of juvenile court referrals from two midwestern juvenile courts indicate that the effect of these factors varied by court location. The severity or leniency of the disposition outcome was determined by race, gender, type of legal counsel, and court location. This study clearly demonstrates the need for an approach that considers the interplay between legally relevant and legally irrelevant factors on juvenile justice decision making.
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Leiber, M.J., & Fox, K.C. (2005).
Race and the impact of detention on juvenile justice decision making.
Crime & Delinquency, 51, 470-497.
Abstract
In recent years, the growing number of minority youth disproportionately confined in
secure detention facilities has led to a search for a better understanding of this occurrence. Explanations vary but tend to center on either differential offending or selection bias. The present study examines the extent both may explain decision making by specifically assessing the effect of race on detention and the degree that race and detention influence further court processing in one juvenile court jurisdiction in the state of Iowa. Multivariate analyses using juvenile court data (1980 through 2000) show that although legal factors account for some of the decision making and minority overrepresentation, so too does race. Evidence is presented that, through detention, race has direct, interaction, and indirect effects that often work to the disadvantage of African American youth relative to White youth. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.
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Makarios, M.D. (2007).
Race, abuse, and female criminal violence.
Feminist Criminology, 2, 100-116.
Abstract
Gender-specific research on the relationship between childhood abuse and delinquency in
females is an important emerging topic in criminology. Feminist criminologists have pointed toward childhood abuse as a key turning point in young girls’ lives that leads toward delinquency but have yet to empirically address how this relationship varies along racial lines. This study uses prospective cohort data to test for interactions among child
abuse, race, and violent criminal arrest in females. In doing so, it addresses the differences in the effects of abuse across gender and across race in females. Results provide some support for feminist literature finding that although all abused children were more likely to be later arrested for a violent offense, the effects were significantly stronger for abused girls than boys. Still, race and gender interactions reveal no racial differences in the effects of abuse on females.
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Piquero, A.R., & Brame, R.W. (Onlinefirst).
Assessing the race-crime and ethnicity –crime relationship in a sample of serious adolescent delinquents.
Crime & Delinquency.
Abstract
Official record studies consistently show that Blacks exhibit higher levels of involvement in criminal offending than Whites do. Although self-report studies suggest somewhat lower levels of Black overrepresentation in criminal offending activity (especially with less serious forms of crime), there appears to be considerable evidence that Blacks are disproportionately involved in serious crime. Yet most of this evidence is based on data from broad crosssections of the general population. To date, there is little evidence on which to base inferences about the relationship between race and criminal involvement
within serious offender populations. In this article, the authors use both official record and self-report data on samples of serious adolescent offenders in Philadelphia and Phoenix to reach a better understanding of the relationship between race and criminal activity. The analysis suggests that consistent race differences of the kind normally seen in the criminological literature are not evident in our sample of serious offenders.