Research and statistics on racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal legal system
Below, we've curated a list of virtually all the research about race and the U.S. criminal justice system that is available online.
Racial discrimination in housing,sentencing, and policing frequently explains why data show stark disproportionalities in justice involvement for people of color, particularly Black people. The research below goes into more detail as to how — and why — people of color are overrepresented in jails, prisons, and non-carceral forms of punishment.
You can also see a selection of our best original research on this topic on our Racial Justice page.
Bias, Distrust, and Trauma Racial Disparities in Boston Residents' Experiences with Law Enforcement and Related Outcomes Sandra Susan Smith, May, 2024“With few exceptions, Black Bostonians experience disparate treatment by law enforcement within categories of gender, age, educational attainment, neighborhood of residence, and income status.”
"They Need to Go in There": Criminalized Subjectivity among Formerly Incarcerated Black Men Lucius Couloute, January, 2024“When explicitly asked about what they would say to powerful state officials, these Black men argued for (1) increased criminal justice transparency, (2) improved prison conditions, (3) additional reintegrative supports...”
One in Five: Racial Disparity in Imprisonment -- Causes and Remedies (Part 3) Sentencing Project, December, 2023“Extreme sentences for violent crimes and reliance on criminal histories as a basis for determining prison sentences are drivers of racial disparities in imprisonment.”
One in Five: Ending Racial Inequity in Incarceration (Part I) Sentencing Project, October, 2023“As national and local politics resume the politicization of crime and drug policies, it is crucial to take stock of the progress that must be defended and built upon.”
Racial Differences in Self-Report of Mental Illness and Mental Illness Treatment in the Community: An Analysis of Jail Intake Data Narcissa Plummer, Rubeen Guardado, Yvane Ngassa, et al., September, 2023“In a Massachusetts jail, Hispanic, Black (NH), Asian/Pacific Islander (NH), other race/ethnicity people were less likely to report a history of mental illness at jail intake, and less likely to report receiving psychiatric medications in the community.”
Violent Victimization by Race or Hispanic Origin, 2008-2021Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 2023“The rate of robbery victimization for black (2.8 per 1,000) and Hispanic persons (2.5 per 1K) was higher than for white persons (1.6 per 1K), but the rate of simple assault was higher for white persons (13.3) than black (11.3) or Hispanic (10.6) persons.”
Racial Injustice Report: Disparities in Philadelphia's Criminal Courts from 2015-2022 Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, June, 2023“Black individuals account for 69% of police stops and 62% of individuals arrested; white people accounted for only 18% of police stops and 21% of arrests, despite the fact that Black and white people make up similar shares of the city's population.”
Criminal Convictions in New York State, 1980-2021Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College, May, 2023“Relative to their representation in the residential population, the conviction rate in 2019 for Black people statewide was 3.1 times higher than for white people.”
Racial disparities in diversion: A research roundup Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2023“Diversion decisions are often highly subjective, leaving candidates vulnerable to the racial biases held by police, prosecutors, judges, or other decisionmakers.”
A Racial Disparity Across New York That Is Truly JarringNew York Civil Liberties Union, December, 2022“In Manhattan -- one of the wealthiest and least equal places in the country -- courts convicted Black people of felonies and misdemeanors at a rate 21 times greater than that of white people over the past two decades.”
Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the CommonwealthFormer Special Legislative Commission on Structural Racism in Correctional Facilities of the Commonwealth and African American Coalition Committee Structural Racism Commission, December, 2022“Structural racism in Corrections systems produces or perpetuates unfair treatment and impacts by race and other intersecting identities...it can be dismantled with intentional partnership between the Legislative and Executive branches.”
Reducing Racial Inequality in Crime and JusticeNational Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, November, 2022“This report offers an account of the research evidence that can inform the public conversation and the policy discussion over reducing racial inequality in the criminal justice system and advancing racial equity.”
Racial Disparities in the Administration of Discipline in New York State PrisonsState of New York Offices of the Inspector General, November, 2022“Of DOCCS employees who issued 50 or more Misbehavior Reports during the period reviewed, 226 employees issued them to only non-White incarcerated individuals, including 114 employees who issued them to only Black or Hispanic incarcerated individuals.”
Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States, 2022National Registry of Exonerations, September, 2022“Innocent Black people are 19 times more likely to be convicted of drug crimes than innocent whites--a much larger disparity than we see for murder and rape-- despite the fact that white and Black Americans use illegal drugs at similar rates.”
Racial equity in eligibility for a clean slate under automatic criminal record relief lawsPaywall :(Alyssa C. Mooney, Alissa Skog, and Amy E. Lerman, August, 2022“In California, one in five people with convictions met criteria for full conviction relief under the state's automatic relief laws. Yet the share of Black Americans eligible for relief was lower than White Americans...”
Racial Equity in Montana's Criminal Justice System: An Analysis of Court, Corrections, and Community Supervision Systems The Council of State Governments Justice Center, July, 2022“Once incarcerated, American Indian people remain in secure or alternative facilities for an average of 27.4 days longer than similarly situated White people.”
Over-Incarceration of Native Americans: Roots, Inequities, and Solutions Safety and Justice Challenge, July, 2022“Interventions meant to address over-incarceration of Native people should start at the tribal level. Tribes could impact disparity on a national level by providing supportive and restorative services for those involved in their own justice systems.”
The competing effects of racial discrimination and racial identity on the predicted number of days incarcerated in the US: A national profile of Black, Latino/Latina, and American Indian/Alaska Native populations George Pro, Ricky Camplain, Charles H. Lea III, June, 2022“Black respondents with low discrimination exposure had 42 predicted days incarcerated, whereas Black respondents with high discrimination exposure had 130 predicted days incarcerated, or an increase of 209%.”
Racial Bias and Prison Discipline: A Study of North Carolina State Prisons Katherine M. Becker, April, 2022“Holding other variables constant, a Black person incarcerated in North Carolina was 10.3% more likely than a similarly situated white person to receive at least one disciplinary write-up in 2020.”
The Proliferation of Criminal Background Check Laws in the United StatesPaywall :(David McElhattan, January, 2022“Panel analyses provide the strongest support for a model of racial classification, with the rate of background check adoption increasing as African-Americans represent larger shares of state criminal record populations.”
The U.S. criminal justice system disproportionately hurts Native people: The data, visualized Prison Policy Initiative, October, 2021“We're lucky when criminal justice data is broken down by race and ethnicity enough to see how Native populations are criminalized and incarcerated. Here's a roundup of what we know.”
Losing Years Doing Time: Incarceration Exposure and Accelerated Biological Aging among African American Adults Paywall :(Mark T. Berg et al, October, 2021“Incarceration exposure predicted accelerated aging, leaving formerly incarcerated African American individuals biologically older than their calendar age.”
Racial and Ethnic Disparities throughout the Criminal Legal System: A Result of Racist Policies and Discretionary Practices Urban Institute, August, 2021“Racial biases are so deeply embedded in the criminal legal system that disparities based on race exist at each decision point, impacting subsequent decision points and resulting in negative outcomes for Black people and other people of color.”
Black Disparities in Youth IncarcerationSentencing Project, July, 2021“Black youth are more than four times as likely to be detained or committed in juvenile facilities as their white peers. In 2015, Black youth's incarceration rate was 5.0 times as high as their white peers, an all-time peak.”
Untangling Eviction, Disadvantage, Race, and Social Processes: Neighborhood Factors Influencing Crime Paywall :(Eileen M. Kirk, April, 2021“Eviction is likely concentrated in neighborhoods vulnerable to crime, but the connection between eviction and neighborhood violent crime has not yet been examined...this Boston-based study is a first step in filling this knowledge gap.”
ALC Court Watch Docket Report #02 Maintaining Apartheid: Arrest and Cash Bail in Allegheny County Abolitionist Law Center, April, 2021“In a county that is less than 13% Black, 56% of all arrests between Aug 14 and Dec 31 of 2020 were of Black residents.”
The American Racial Divide in Fear of the PoliceJustin Pickett, Amanda Graham, and Frank Cullen, April, 2021“Most Whites felt safe, but most Blacks feared the police even more than crime, being afraid both for themselves and for others they cared about.”
Racial Equity and Criminal Justice Risk AssessmentUrban Institute, March, 2021“Practitioners and policymakers must determine how (or whether) to balance the use of risk assessment as a component of evidence-based practice with pursuing goals of reducing racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system.”
Better for Everyone: Black Descriptive Representation and Police Traffic Stops Leah Christiani et al., March, 2021“Even though increased black representation would not eliminate racial disparities, it may be an important part of reducing the amount of negative police contact that individuals experience.”
The Legacy of Slavery and Mass Incarceration: Evidence from Felony Case Outcomes Aaron Gottlieb and Kalen Flynn, March, 2021“We find that a criminal charge in a county with high levels of slavery in 1860 increases the likelihood of pretrial detention, the probability of a sentence of incarceration, and the length of incarceration sentences.”
Research roundup: Violent crimes against Black and Latinx people receive less coverage and less justice Prison Policy Initiative, March, 2021“In a 2018 Washington Post analysis of nearly 50,000 homicides around the country, the authors found that an arrest was made in 63 percent of murders of white victims, compared to 48 percent of those with Latinx victims and 46 percent with Black victims.”
Who Controls Criminal Law? Racial Threat and the Adoption of State Sentencing Law, 1975 to 2012 Scott W. Duxbury, February, 2021“Results illustrate that states adopted sentencing laws in direct and indirect response to white public punitive policy support and the size of the black population.”
Trends in Issuance of Criminal Summonses in New York City, 2003-2019Data Collaborative for Justice, December, 2020“Almost half of all marijuana possession summonses were issued to Black people (45.5%). Over 40% of summonses issued for disorderly conduct, public consumption of alcohol, and violations of transit authority rules were issued to Black people.”
ALC Court Watch Docket Report #01 Cash Bail, Arbitrary Detention and Apartheid in Allegheny County Abolitionist Law Center, November, 2020“Black residents of Allegheny County are more likely to be arrested, charged, and have monetary bail imposed against them.”
Measuring Racial Discrimination in Bail DecisionsDavid Arnold, Will Dobbie, and Peter Hull, October, 2020“Our most conservative estimates from NYC show that approximately two-thirds of the observed racial disparity in release decisions is due to racial discrimination, with around one-third due to unobserved racial differences in misconduct risk.”
Institutionalizing inequality in the courts: Decomposing racial and ethnic disparities in detention, conviction, and sentencing Paywall :(Marisa Omori and Nick Petersen, September, 2020“Our findings indicate that inequality is, in part, institutionalized through legal case factors, suggesting these factors are not "race neutral" but instead racialized and contribute to inequalities in court outcomes.”
Racial Disparities in the Massachusetts Criminal SystemThe Criminal Justice Policy Program, Harvard Law School, September, 2020“The Commonwealth significantly outpaced national race and ethnicity disparity rates in incarceration, imprisoning Black people at a rate 7.9 times that of White people and Latinx people at 4.9 times that of White people.”
Trauma, Healing, and Justice: Native Hawaiian Women in Hawaii's Criminal Justice System Paywall :(Toni Bissen, September, 2020“Native Hawaiian women comprise 21% of the female population in Hawaii but account for 40% of the jail and prison population.”
Revolving Doors: Examining the Effect of Race and Ethnicity on Discretionary Decision-Making in Parole Revocations Tri Keah S. Henry, August, 2020“Findings suggest that race/ethnicity significantly influences parole revocation outcomes.”
Reducing Racial Disparities in Crime VictimizationAnna Harvey and Taylor Mattia, July, 2020“We find that successful litigation over racially discriminatory practices substantially reduced both absolute and relative Black crime victimization, without increasing white victimization.”
The Complexities of Race and Place: Childhood Neighborhood Disadvantage and Adult Incarceration for Whites, Blacks, and Latinos Steven Elias Alvarado, June, 2020“Blacks, the findings suggest, experience the weakest neighborhood associations with incarceration, suggesting that residential mobility for blacks does not protect against incarceration as much as it does for whites and Latinos.”
Illinois Failing Key Pillar of COVID-19 Response: Prisons Remain Crowded While Early Releases Exacerbate Racial Inequity Restore Justice, June, 2020“White people are being released from prison at much higher rates--and much earlier--than their Black and Latino peers. While white people comprise just 32 percent of the Illinois prison population, they account for nearly half of all early releases.”
Race and Reasonableness in Police KillingsJeffrey Fagan and Alexis Campbell, May, 2020“Black suspects are more than twice as likely to be killed by police than are persons of other racial or ethnic groups; even when there are no other obvious circumstances during the encounter that would make the use of deadly force reasonable.”
A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform ACLU, April, 2020“On average, a Black person is 3.64 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, even though Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates.”
Since you asked: What data exists about Native American people in the criminal justice system? Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2020“Problems with data collection - and an unfortunate tendency to group Native Americans together with other ethnic and racial groups in data publications - have made it hard to understand the effect of mass incarceration on Native people.”
Racial Inequities in New York Parole SupervisionKendra Bradner and Vincent Schiraldi, March, 2020“Black and Latinx people are significantly more likely than white people to be under supervision, to be jailed pending a violation hearing, and to be incarcerated in New York State prisons for a parole violation.”
Driving While Black and Latinx: Stops, Fines, Fees, and Unjust Debts New York Law School Racial Justice Project, February, 2020“Traffc debt suspensions disproportionately harm New Yorkers of color, and will continue to do so if the current law remains unchanged.”
Trends in Correctional Control by Race and SexThe Council on Criminal Justice, December, 2019(For Black individuals, increases in length of stay, admissions per arrest, and arrests per offender offset the 3% decline in offending rates for rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.)
The Effect of Scaling Back Punishment on Racial Disparities in Criminal Case OutcomesJohn MacDonald and Steven Raphael, September, 2019“The findings from this study suggest that policy reforms that scale back the severity of punishment for criminal history and active criminal justice status for less serious felony offenses may help narrow racial inequalities in criminal court dispositions”
State Supreme Court DiversityBrennan Center for Justice, July, 2019“Twenty-four states currently have an all-white supreme court bench, including eight states in which people of color are at least a quarter of the state's general population.”
Racialized Re-entry: Labor Market Inequality After Incarceration Bruce Western and Catherine Sirois, June, 2019“Qualitative interviews suggest that whites more than blacks and Hispanics find stable, high-paying jobs through social networks.”
Prosecutorial Misconduct: Mass Gang Indictments and Inflammatory Statements Babe Howell, May, 2019“Inflammatory narratives which improperly attribute carnage and enormous amounts of violence to large groups of young men of color play into three pressing problems of society--racism, wrongful convictions, and mass incarceration.”
More Black than Blue: Politics and Power in the 2019 Black Census The Black Futures Lab, May, 2019“More than half (55 percent) of respondents have personally had a negative interaction with the police at some point, and 28 percent have had at least one negative interaction in the last 6 months.”
Racial Disparities in D.C. Policing: Descriptive Evidence From 2013-2017 ACLU of the District of Columbia, May, 2019“From 2013 to 2017, Black individuals composed 47% of D.C.'s population but 86% of its arrestees. During this time, Black people were arrested at 10 times the rate of white people.”
At the Intersection of Health and Justice: How the Health of American Indians and Alaska Natives Is Disproportionately Affected by Disparities in the Criminal Justice System Bette Jacobs, Mehgan Gallagher, and Nicole Heydt, February, 2019“Issues related to unemployment, substance abuse, and systemic legal disparities are precursors to many cases leading to disability and death. Incarceration affects one's life course and, consequently, one's health.”
The State of Black ImmigrantsBlack Alliance for Just Immigration, January, 2019“Black immigrants are disproportionately represented among immigrants facing deportation in immigration court on criminal grounds.”
Testifying while black: An experimental study of court reporter accuracy in transcription of African American English Taylor Jones, Jessica Rose Kalbfeld, Ryan Hancock, and Robin Clark, 2019“Here, we demonstrate that Philadelphia court reporters consistently fail to meet this level of transcription accuracy when confronted with mundane examples of spoken African American English.”
Racial Profiling in Louisiana: Unconstitutional and Counterproductive Southern Poverty Law Center, September, 2018“For example, in 2016, black people were 2.9 times as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana possession in Louisiana, despite evidence that black people and white people use marijuana at similar rates.”
Unequal Treatment: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Miami-Dade Criminal Justice ACLU Florida Greater Miami, July, 2018(This report finds that from arrest to sentencing, racial disparities exist at each decision point in the Miami-Dade County's criminal justice system.)
An Unjust Burden: The Disparate Treatment of Black Americans in the Criminal Justice System Vera Institute of Justice, May, 2018(This brief presents an overview of the ways in which America's history of racism & oppression continues to manifest in the criminal justice system, & a summary of research demonstrating how the system perpetuates the disparate treatment of black people.)
Racial Bias in Bail DecisionsDavid Arnold, Will Dobbie, and Crystal S. Yang, April, 2018“Estimates from Miami and Philadelphia show that bail judges are racially biased against black defendants, with substantially more racial bias among both inexperienced and part-time judges.”
Criminalizing Race: Racial Disparities in Plea-Bargaining Carlos Berdejo, April, 2018“Efforts to mitigate racial disparities in sentencing and incarceration rates should consider disparities in the plea-bargaining process and initial charging decisions.”
One War. Two Races. Bias Reigns in Florida's War on Drugs Herald Tribune, January, 2018“Blacks represent 17 percent of Florida’s population but have accounted for 46 percent of the state’s felony drug convictions since 2004.”
New poll shows mass incarceration is a Latinx issuePrison Policy Initiative, January, 2018“The majority of Latinxs favor rehabilitation over more punitive responses to crime, such as added police or prisons.”
An Analysis of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Case Dispositions and Sentencing Outcomes for Criminal Cases Presented to and Processed by the Office of the San Francisco District Attorney John MacDonald & Steven Raphael, December, 2017(This study finds substantial racial & ethnic disparities in criminal justice outcomes that disfavor Black people in particular. These disparities are primarily due to case characteristics related to arrest charges, pre-trial detention, & criminal history.)
Jails in Indian Country, 2016Bureau of Justice Statistics, December, 2017“An estimated 2,540 inmates were held in 80 Indian country jails at midyear 2016, a 1.2% increase from the 2,510 inmates held in 76 facilities at midyear 2015.”
The parallel epidemics of incarceration & HIV in the Deep SouthPrison Policy Initiative, September, 2017“HIV disproportionately impacts communities that are already marginalized by poverty, inadequate resources, discrimination -- and mass incarceration.”
It Matters If You're Black or White: Racial Disparities in the Handling of Complaints against North Charleston Police Officers NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., July, 2017“Although 60 percent of the citizen complaints against NCPD officers were filed by Black residents, their complaints were much less likely to be sustained by NCPD than complaints filed by White residents.”
Hate Crime Victimization, 2004-2015Bureau of Justice Statistics, June, 2017“In 2015, the rate of violent hate crime victimization was 0.7 hate crimes per 1,000 persons age 12 or older.”
Paying More for Being Poor: Bias and Disparity in California's Traffic Court System Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, May, 2017“The available county-level data shows that African-American people in particular are four to sixteen times more likely to be booked on arrests related to failure to pay an infraction ticket.”
Evaluating the Role of Race in Criminal Justice Adjudications in DelawareJohn M. MacDonald and Ellen A. Donnelly, University of Pennsylvania, September, 2016“African American-White disparities in incarceration sentences are largely explained by differences in most serious of arrest charge, type of arrest charge, detention between arrest and final disposition, and county location.”
Who Pays for Government? Descriptive Representation and Exploitative Revenue Sources Michael W. Sances and Hye Young You, September, 2016“We find municipal governments with higher black populations rely more heavily on fines and fees for revenue. Further, we find that the presence of black city council members significantly reduces - though does not eliminate - this pattern.”
Racial Profiling in Hiring: A Critique of New National Employment Law Project, August, 2016“Ban-the-box is working, both by increasing employment opportunities for people with records and by changing employer attitudes toward hiring people with records.”
The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in State Prisons The Sentencing Project, June, 2016“This report documents the rates of incarceration for whites, African Americans, and Hispanics, providing racial and ethnic composition as well as rates of disparity for each state.”
Race and the Jury: How the Law is Keeping Minorities off the Jury Stephanie Adamakos, May, 2016“Federal statute requires that registered-voters lists be used as source lists, but many states supplement with Department of Motor Vehicle records of people with licenses...whites are more likely to be included in both of these source lists.”
Racial Disparities in Florida Safety Belt Law EnforcementACLU, February, 2016“American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) analysis of the most recent seatbelt citation data confirms that the Florida Safety Belt Law has been applied more often to Black motorists than white motorists.”
Federal Sentencing Disparity: 2005-2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics, October, 2015“Federal Sentencing Disparity, 2005-2012, examines patterns of federal sentencing disparity among white and black offenders, by sentence received, and looks at judicial variation in sentencing since Booker vs. United States, regardless of race.”
Diversity on the Force: Where Police Don't Mirror Communities Governing, September, 2015“Despite efforts to improve diversity, minorities remain largely underrepresented in many local police departments.”
In prisons, Blacks and Latinos do the time while Whites get the jobsPrison Policy Initiative, July, 2015“Stark racial and ethnic differences between incarcerated people and staff members continue to persist in Attica, New York State, and across the national prison landscape”
Say Her Name: Resisting Police Brutality Against Black Women African American Policy Forum, July, 2015(The failure to highlight and demand accountability for the countless Black women killed by police over the past two decades leaves Black women unnamed and thus underprotected in the face of their continued vulnerability to racialized police violence.)
Investigation of the Ferguson Police DepartmentDepartment of Justice Civil Rights Division, March, 2015“This investigation has revealed a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law.”
In Brief: Examining the Changing Racial Composition of Three States' Prison Populations CSG Justice Center, March, 2015“In each of these cases, closer inspection of the data shows that these states experienced considerable reductions in the overall number of people being admitted to prison, and that the decline in admissions has been steepest for blacks and Hispanics.”
Stop and Frisk in ChicagoACLU of Illinois, March, 2015“Black Chicagoans were subjected to 72% of all stops, yet constitute just 32% of the city’s population.”
Native Lives MatterLakota People's Law Project, February, 2015“Native American men are admitted to prison at four times the rate of white men and Native women at six-fold the rate of white women.”
Black Lives Matter: Eliminating Racial Inequity in the Criminal Justice System Sentencing Project, February, 2015(The report identifies four key features of the criminal justice system that produce racially unequal outcomes, beyond the conditions of socioeconomic inequality that contribute to higher rates of some crimes in marginalized communities.)
Where Do We Go from Here? Mass Incarceration and the Struggle for Civil Rights Economic Policy Institute, January, 2015“In other words, society chose to use incarceration as a welfare program to deal with the poor, especially since the underprivileged are disproportionately people of color.”
Applying a racial equity lens to fines and fees in the District of ColumbiaD.C. Policy Center, 2015“Fixed fines and fees can disproportionately harm families of color, both due to discriminatory practices in issuing fines and fees and in the systemic issues of income and wealth inequities that make it more difficult for these families to pay”
Incorporating Racial Equity into Criminal Justice ReformSentencing Project, October, 2014“Reform strategies that do not directly tackle racial disparity ignore the multifaceted ways in which public safety is produced. Key among these is the perception of the criminal justice system by the community.”
Race and Prosecution in ManhattanVera Institute of Justice, July, 2014(Blacks and Latinos were particularly likely to be held in pretrial detention for misdemeanor person offenses, followed by misdemeanor drug offenses. Blacks and Latinos were also most likely to have their cases dismissed for misdemeanor drug offenses.)
Illusion of Justice: Human Rights Abuses in US Terrorism Prosecutions Human Rights Watch and Columbia Law School, July, 2014“This report documents the significant human cost of certain counterterrorism practices, such as aggressive sting operations and unnecessarily restrictive conditions of confinement.”
Shadow Report of The Sentencing Project to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System Sentencing Project, July, 2014(Our report documents continuing disparities in incarceration, the imposition of juvenile life without parole, the death penalty, and felony disenfranchisement.)
Collatoral Damage A Roadmap to Restore Rights and Status After Arrest or Conviction National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, May, 2014“NACDL recommends a broad national initiative to construct a legal infrastructure that will provide individuals with a criminal record with a clear path to equal opportunity.”
The Color of Corporate Corrections, Part II: Contractual Exemptions and the Overrepresentation of People of Color in Private Prisons Radical Criminology, February, 2014“...this study finds that people of color are overrepresented in private minimum and/or medium security private facilities relative to their public counterparts in each of the nine (9) states examined.”
Prosecution and Racial Justice in New York County Technical Report Vera Institute of Justice, January, 2014(For all offenses combined, compared to similarly-situated white defendants, black and Latino defendants were more likely to be detained, to receive a custodial plea offer, and to be incarcerated; but they were also more likely to benefit from dismissals.)
Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, October, 2013“We have to question why we are using the long arm of the criminal justice system to arrest... black and Latino men who write their name on a wall, or why we arrest kids for pot in a pocket when we don't arrest other kids for pot.”
Report of the Sentencing Project to the UN Human Rights Committee Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System The Sentencing Project, August, 2013“If current trends continue, one of every three black American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino males--compared to one of every seventeen white males.”
Criminal Records, Race, and RedemptionNew York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, 2013“...poor individuals of color disproportionately shoulder the weight of a criminal record.”
The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force Report 2012 The Native Hawaiian Justice Task Force, December, 2012“Implicit, unconscious bias and disparate treatment on the part of workers at all stages of the criminal justice system may explain a portion of the disproportionate representation of Native Hawaiians in the criminal justice system.”
The Disparate Treatment of Native Hawaiians In the Criminal Justice System Office of Hawaiian Affairs, November, 2012“An analysis of data, controlling for age, gender, and type of charge, found that for any given determination of guilt, Native Hawaiians are much more likely to get a prison sentence than almost all other groups, except for Native Americans.”
Do Race and Ethnicity Matter in Prosecution? A Review of Empirical Studies Vera Institute of Justice, June, 2012“Most of the 34 studies reviewed here suggest that defendants' or victims' race directly or indirectly influence case outcomes, even when a host of other legal and extra-legal factors are taken into account.”
Report of Findings: (investigation of allegations of national origin discrimination) Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, March, 2012“...AOC policy does not provide interpreters in child custody hearings; child support hearings, civil no-contact order 50C proceedings, foreclosures, and divorce proceedings”
The Disproportionate Impact of the Criminal Justice System on People of Color in the Capital Region Center for Law and Justice, February, 2012“Statewide, from 2000 to 2011 the number of minorities incarcerated dropped by 29%; in Albany County, the number of minorities incarcerated increased by 60% over the same time period.”
Forensic DNA Database Expansion Growing Racial Inequities, Eroding Civil Liberties and Diminishing Returns Generations Ahead, November, 2011“Given the existing racial bias in other aspects of the criminal justice system, we need to ensure that DNA databases do not unfairly and disproportionately affect communities of color.”
Justice for All? Challenging Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System Sentencing Project, June, 2011“[The] data generated by the U.S. Department of Justice project that if current trends continue, one of every three black males born today will go to prison in his lifetime, as will one of every six Latino males.”
The Racial Geography of the Federal Death PenaltyWashington Law Review Association, December, 2010“Federal death sentences are sought disproportionately where the expansion of the venire from the county to the district level has a dramatic demographic impact on the racial make-up of the jury.”
Separate but Unequal The Federal Criminal Justice System in Indian County University of Colorado Law Review, December, 2010“The”
Comparing Homicides to Capital Cases East Baton Rouge Parish, 1990-2008 Timothy Lyman, November, 2010([T]here is a less than one-in-ten-thousand chance that the prosecuted cases were a racially random sample drawn from the homicide group.)
Stop, Question & Frisk Policing Practices In New York City A Primer Center on Race, Crime and Justice at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, March, 2010“In 2009 alone, Blacks and Hispanics combined were stopped 9 times more than Whites.”
Created Equal: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the US Criminal Justice System National Council on Crime and Delinquency, March, 2009“African Americans make up 13% of the general US population, yet they constitute 28% of all arrests, 40% of all inmates held in prisons and jails, and 42% of the population on death row.”
Compounded Disadvantage Race, Incarceration, and Wage Growth National Poverty Center, October, 2008“Multilevel growth curve models show that black inmates earn considerably less than white inmates, even after considering human capital variables and prior work histories. Furthermore, racial divergence in wages among inmates increases following release...”
Racial Disproportionality in the American Prison Population: Using the Blumstein Method to Address the Critical Race and Justice Issue of the 21st Century Justice Policy Journal, September, 2008“Two key themes are that a national figure of explained racial disparity in imprisonment is not generalizable to the states and that drug offenses consistently have one of the lowest amounts of disproportionality explained by arrest.”
Real Impacts: The actual results of Rhode Island's new policy that charges 17-year-olds as adults Rhode Island Family Life Center, October, 2007“[A]lthough it was not an explicit intention of the bill, one of the most important outcomes is that these juveniles will now have adult records, seriously limiting them as they become adults.”
Analysis of the NYCPD's in the Context of Claims of Racial Bias Andrew Gelman, Jeffrey Fagan, and Alex Kiss, September, 2007“[F]or violent crimes and weapons offenses blacks and Hispanics are stopped about twice as often as whites.”
Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity Sentencing Project, July, 2007
Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties Under Article 40 of the Covenant United Nations - Human Rights Committee, July, 2006(The UN expresses numerous concerns about the state of civil and political rights in the United States)
Law Enforcement and Arab American Community Relations After September 11, 2001: Engagement in a Time of Uncertainty Vera Institute of Justice, June, 2006“Although community members also reported increases in hate victimization, they expressed greater concern about being victimized by federal policies and practices than by individual acts of harassment or violence.”
A Report on Pre- and Post-Katrina Indigent Defense in New OrleansSouthern Center for Human Rights, April, 2006“More than six months after Katrina, a majority of [indigent defendants] remain behind bars, where they have languished on average for over a year without any communication with a defense attorney.”
Human Rights in the Heartland: An assessment of social, economic, civil, and political rights in the Midwest Heartland Alliance, December, 2005“Historically, the U.S. has been a beacon of hope for those seeking safety and opportunity, but our nation falls short of its potential in assuring a full complement of human rights - civil, political, social, economic, and cultural.”
Race & Imprisonment in Texas: The Disparate Incarceration of Latinos and African Americans in the Lone Star State Justice Policy Institute, February, 2005
Don't Mind If I Take a Look, Do Ya? An Examination of Consent Searches and Contraband Hit Rates at Texas Traffic Stops Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, February, 2005(2005 Racial Profiling Report)
Low Level Offenses in Minneapolis: An Analysis of Arrests and their Outcomes Council on Crime and Justice, October, 2004(The diperate treatment of Black and White people is greater at the hand of the police than in the courts.)
Racial disparities in incarceration by state, 2000Prison Policy Initiative, May, 2004(Graphs showing the percentage of each state's total and prison population that is of a particular racial/ethnic group)
Incarceration rates by race, 2001:Prison Policy Initiative, April, 2004(Blacks, Whites, Latinos per 100,000 for each state and the U.S.)
Seeing Black: Race, Crime, and Visual Processing Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2004“Black faces looked more criminal to police officers; the more Black, the more criminal.”
Minnesota Statewide Racial Profiling StudyCouncil on Crime and Justice, September, 2003“Results show that law enforcement officers stopped and searched Black, Latino, and American Indian drivers at greater rates than White drivers, yet found contraband on Blacks, Latinos, and American Indians at lower rates than in searches of White drivers.”
A Department in Denial: The San Francisco Police Department's Failure to Address Racial Profiling ACLU of Northern California, October, 2002
Race and Incarceration in the United StatesHuman Rights Watch, February, 2002“first state-by-state incarceration rates for whites, blacks and Latinos based on actual correctional facility counts”(Note the links to the report and tables on the right)
Color of the Keystone: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Use of Incarceration in Pennsylvania Justice Policy Institute and National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, August, 2001
The brotherhood: Racism and intimidation among prison staff at Indiana Correctional Facility-Putnamville Kelsey Kauffman, July, 2001
Masking the Divide: How Officially Reported Prison Statistics Distort the Racial and Ethnic Realities of Prison Growth National Center on Institutions and Alternatives, May, 2001
Drugs and Disparity: The Racial Impact of Illinois' Practice of Transferring Young Drug Offenders Building Blocks for Youth, April, 2001
Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Leadership Conference Education Fund, 2001(2.5MB)
The Impact of Race and Ethnicity on Charging and Sentencing Processes for Drug Offenders in Three Counties of Washington State Washington State Minority and Justice Commission, December, 1999
American Indians and CrimeBureau of Justice Statistics, February, 1999“American Indians are victims of violent crime at double the rate of the general population”(includes some incarceration statistics)
A Question of Race II: New York and Its Neighbors A Look at the Incarceration of Whites and Minorities in the United States New York State Coalition for Criminal Justice, 1990
A Question of Race Minority/White Incarceration in New York State Center for Justice Education, January, 1987
Disproportionate Imprisonment of Blacks in the United States: Policy, Practice, Impact, and Change Prepared by Scott Christianson for the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, March, 1982“This report seeks to promote a better understanding of the problem of racially differential imprisonment and attempts to offer some specific goals and strategies for reducing racial disparities in American criminal justice.”
