Juvenile correctional boot camps seek to transform youth labeled "at-risk" into productive members of society. While these military-style programs have been in decline since the early 2000s, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), one of the largest agencies in the country, continues to embrace them as a key disciplinary practice and vestige of the "get tough" era in U.S. juvenile justice reform. Contemporary transformative programs have been linked to Progressive Era juvenile social control, and scholars are beginning to show that, historically, racial exclusion has been a central function. The goals of this research are to interrogate the treatment of boot camp participants by police and demonstrate how racial exclusion remains central to juvenile social control. Drawing on collaborative ethnographic fieldwork, this study shows how police stigmatize Black and Latino parents, adopt the role of disciplinary authority in the family, and infuse formal control processes into domestic life. Youth face stigmatizing encounters through degradation and punitive physical training as part of the camp’s disciplinary regime. This research suggests that youth intervention programs built on liberal ideals are the most recent in a long line of racialized social control systems in the United States that seek to stigmatize and confine youth of color.
Fiery nationwide protests in response to a recent string of dubious police killings of unarmed Black men have sparked a renewed social movement, drawing increased attention to fragile police–minority relations and allegations of racial bias in the criminal justice system. A wealth of research exists concerning African American youths’ accounts of poor treatment at the hands of police. To a lesser extent, prior scholarship reveals the importance of looking beyond citizens’ direct police experiences to family, peer, and mainstream media accounts of negative police encounters. Scholarly examinations of social media regarding how individuals make sense of their own and others’ experiences with, and attitudes toward police are limited, however. This is surprising given that social media has become especially important for youths and represents a new mechanism for the American public to learn about unsettling police behaviors. Moreover, social media represents a largely untapped, but potentially rich data source for researchers and policy makers. Special consideration is given to the role that the Black Lives Matter movement plays for obtaining improved understandings of police–minority relations and informing criminal justice.
Colleges and universities are required by the Clery Act to issue crime alerts to members of the campus community. Issuing agencies have significant discretion in the timing and information included in crime alerts, including the perpetrator descriptors. The inclusion of perpetrator/suspect descriptions in the crime alert is intended to maximize public safety. Race descriptors may have negative consequences through the repetition of minority suspect information. To address the issue of demographic use in crime alerts, a mixed method approach was employed. A summary review of several years of crime alerts issued by a large urban university was conducted to assess the role of demographics. Qualitative data were collected through a series of focus groups and interviews addressing the balance of public safety and potential negative perceptions (perpetuated by crime alerts). Reviewed crime alerts indicate that they are largely posted for violent crimes, particularly robbery, armed robbery, and aggravated assault. Perpetrators are overwhelmingly male and largely Black. It is reasonable to question whether repeated descriptions of crime acts committed by Black males could raise, foster, or enhance negative stereotypes. Recommendations for model crime alerts and campus events are included. Consideration of stereotype impacts may influence crime alerts but circumstances and public risk may supersede these concerns.
In 2002, the reauthorization of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974 required that states participating in the Formula Grants Program must put forth a good faith effort at addressing juvenile delinquency and the presence of minority youth at all decision-making points of the juvenile justice system without the use of numerical quotas. The last decade has brought about increases in states’ efforts at identifying and assessing the extent of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) across juvenile court contacts. Many states have already implemented or are currently implementing intervention and prevention efforts at reducing DMC. However, the segments of identification, assessment, and intervention are only three of the five phases of the DMC mandate. In light of the progression of the DMC mandate since its original implementation in 1988, the purpose of this essay is to spark discussion on the future of examining DMC in the juvenile justice system through a researcher’s perspective. Various topics that relate to DMC are presented as ideas for readers to consider, as they progress with their research agendas.
Social scientists have long known that crime is higher in minority versus White neighborhoods. Predominant accounts of this pattern invoke a racial invariance thesis, which posits that (1) accounting for inequalities in structural disadvantages substantially diminishes ethno-racial gaps in neighborhood crime and (2) key predictors operate uniformly across neighborhoods of different ethno-racial types. Unfortunately, little work examines the second assertion of racial invariance, leaving conclusions about the thesis tentative. We address this omission with unique data from the National Neighborhood Crime Study that includes information on neighborhood levels of property and violent crime for majority White, Black, Latino, minority, and integrated neighborhoods nested within a representative sample of 87 large cities. Findings show notable similarity in the influence of key predictors of both violent and property crime across the five ethno-racial neighborhoods. When differences are detected, they are due generally to magnitude and not direction. On the whole our work provides healthy support for a perspective that traces ethno-racial disparity in crime across neighborhoods to the structural underpinnings of urban inequality.
Arrest and interaction with the criminal justice system can have negative impacts to health and socioeconomic status. In the United States, Latinos are disproportionately arrested and jailed, when compared to their non-Latino peers. However, Latinos are not a homogeneous group. For example, generation and skin color are two factors that impact the social standing of Latinos in the United States. As a result, the present study tested if the effects of skin color on odds of arrest depended on generation among Mexican-origin Latinos living in the Greater Los Angeles County Area using data from the Immigration and International Mobility in Metropolitan Los Angeles (IIMMLA) survey (N = 1,226). Unadjusted analyses showed that arrest rates increased with generation. Multivariate results revealed that darker skin color was associated with higher odds of arrest, but only for the second generation. These findings suggest that the likelihood of being arrested for Mexican-origin Latinos is not uniform. Observed differences could set the stage for disparities in health and socio-economic status.
The current study draws on two cohorts of African American youths from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, Longitudinal Cohort Study to examine whether perceived racial discrimination directly and indirectly affects juvenile delinquency. The analyses reveal that racial discrimination may foster offending by increasing (1) the likelihood that African American youths will drop out of school and (2) the degree to which they associate with delinquent peers. Evidence supporting the pathway between racial discrimination, associating with delinquent peers, and offending was found after introducing controls for demographic, social, and individual trait factors. In a society that remains racialized, it thus appears that a full explanation of African Americans’ offending should take into account the ways in which racial subordination may place African American youths on pathways that lead toward criminal involvement.
Much research on race and sentencing utilizes broad racial categories to estimate the effect of race on sentencing outcomes; however, more nuanced conceptualizations of race have begun to appear in the literature. Specifically, a small but growing body of literature has assessed the role of discrimination based on Black stereotypicality of facial features, or Afrocentric facial feature bias, on sentencing outcomes for convicted males. By using Department of Corrections data from Black females and males incarcerated in Oregon, paired with experimentally derived facial feature ratings, this study extends past research by conducting both sex and race analyses in a new locale. These analyses are theoretically contextualized in feature-trait stereotyping and the focal concerns perspective—two previously unrelated literatures. The regression of sentence length on Afrocentric facial features, other extralegal factors, and legally relevant factors suggests that Afrocentric facial features do not explain sentence length for females. Afrocentricity predicts sentence length for males in the univariate and extralegal models, but significance is diminished with the inclusion of legally relevant variables. In interactional models, the sentence lengths of Black females and males do not vary in relation to one another either before or after the inclusion of legal factors. These findings are discussed in light of sentencing mechanisms in the state of Oregon, possible stereotype bias at earlier stages in the court process, and the racialized nature of offense histories and seriousness ratings.
The present study examined the impact of criminal justice contact on experiences of everyday discrimination among a national sample of African American men. African American men have a high likelihood of being the targets of major discrimination as well as experiencing disproportionate contact with the criminal justice system. Few studies, however, examine everyday discrimination (e.g., commonplace social encounters of unfair treatment) among this group. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, we provide a descriptive assessment of different types of everyday discrimination among African American men. Specifically, we examined differences in everyday discrimination among men who have never been arrested, those who have been arrested but not incarcerated, and men who have a previous history of criminal justice intervention categorized by type of incarceration experienced (i.e., reform school, detention, jail, or prison). Study findings indicated overall high levels of reported everyday discrimination, with increased likelihood and a greater number of experiences associated with more serious forms of criminal justice contact. However, in many instances, there were no or few differences in reported everyday discrimination for African American men with and without criminal justice contact, indicating comparable levels of exposure to experiences with unfair treatment.
This project addresses the problem of ostensibly race-neutral policies that increase sentence lengths in the United States. In order to contribute to addressing this problem, this analysis theoretically frames racial impact statements around color-blind racism and racial structure. Since sentence lengths are most directly determined at the state level, this analysis focuses on one state, Michigan. Similar to many states, Michigan underwent marked reforms in sentencing in the 1990s, and this research examines the impact on sentence lengths for violent offenses. Findings coincide with past statements on the influence long sentences exert upon high prison populations and durable racial disproportionality within. Ultimately, theoretical and empirical evidence offer support for the application of racial impact statements as a mechanism to address racially uneven sentencing outcomes.
We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data to examine the association of cumulative trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and substance use disorder (SUD) with the probability of arrest in a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged African American and Latino mothers (N = 158). Results revealed that 34% of the sample had a history of arrest. Logistic regression revealed that cumulative trauma was significantly and positively associated with the likelihood of arrest. Exposure to increasing numbers of traumas contributed to greater odds of arrest, as much as 62% for each additional trauma exposure. Moreover, binary mediation analyses revealed that PTSD and SUD exerted an intervening influence on the pathway between cumulative trauma and the probability of arrest. Women with a lifetime history of PTSD or SUD were 5–6 times more likely to be arrested than women without either disorder. Lifetime PTSD and lifetime SUD were partial mediators of the association between cumulative trauma exposure and arrest, accounting for 63% of the variance. These findings have important implications for intervention efforts geared toward helping young racial/ethnic minority mothers, especially those with PTSD and SUD, manage the distress and impairment that may contribute to criminal justice involvement.
The changing composition of race and ethnic group size has been noted for Western nations over the last 15 years. Analysis of this change has linked fear of crime and attitudes toward immigrants and prejudice. Changes in ethnic composition are associated with movement of White residents out of traditionally White communities, rising ethnic tension as the ethnic mix shifts, and a heightened sense of injustice regarding the justice system. (Mis)perceptions of ethnic groups size shape attitudes toward minority groups, as well as policy, practice, and individual behavior in the context of the community. This study seeks to understand the extent of such misperceptions in the Australian context and whether misperceptions of race and ethnic composition are associated with beliefs and attitudes toward formal and informal social control. Utilizing Blalock’s racial threat hypothesis, this study analyzes whether perceived relative ethnic group size is associated with self-reported willingness to cooperate with police as a way to minimize perceived threat. Findings suggest that respondents overestimate the size of minority populations while underestimating the majority White composition and that these misperceived distortions in ethnic group size have consequences for informal and formal social control.
Empirical studies have established that Blacks and Hispanics are two of the most violently victimized racial/ethnic groups in the United States, but the mechanisms that underlie these disparities in victimization risk are not well understood. This study tests a mediation model developed from criminal opportunity theories that may explain the disparities. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the results show that Black and Hispanic adolescents were twice as likely as their White counterparts to be violently victimized, and these disparities remained after controlling for demographic characteristics and prior victimization. As to the hypothesized sources of these disparities, there was mixed evidence regarding the mediation model. Although risky lifestyles were significantly related to violent victimization and eliminated all disparities between Black and White youth, they failed to eliminate victimization disparities between Hispanics and White youth. The implications of these findings are discussed in light of theory and victimization prevention.
Using survey data from a sample of White, Black, and Hispanic male offenders (n = 311), this study examines whether the relationship between procedural justice and obligation to obey the law is substantiated among a sample of offenders. Further, this study explores the impact that sharing the race/ethnicity of the defense attorney, prosecutor, and judge in their most recent conviction has on male offenders’ perceptions of court procedural justice and their perceived obligation to obey the law. The findings reveal that male offenders who perceive the courts as more procedurally just report a significantly greater obligation to obey the law. In addition, Black and Hispanic offenders who shared the race/ethnicity of the prosecutor in their case perceived the courts as significantly more just. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
While scholars have noted that The War on Drugs has disproportionately impacted Black and Latino communities, we have little understanding as to how spatial patterns of prosecution and sentencing drive these inequalities. This article explores the geography of race in drug prosecutions by examining the role of neighborhood racial/ethnic and other demographic characteristics on sentencing outcomes for drug defendants in Sacramento, CA. We examine both the rate and length of sentences by block group. Specifically, we first estimate models for the number of prison, jail, and probation or fine sentences as rates per population and as rates per filing. We find that felony drug defendants in Black neighborhoods are penalized after filing through an increased rate of prison sentences per filing, although they do indicate a higher but not statistically significant rate of sentences per population as well. On the other hand, initial patterns of filing primarily drive sentencing in Latino neighborhoods. While the rate of prison and probation sentences differs based on the racial and ethnic neighborhood composition, it largely does not impact sentence length.
Do the intersections between officer race and driver race/ethnicity influence the frequency in citizens’ reports of receiving a traffic ticket during a routine traffic stop in 1999 and 2008? To fully grasp the importance of traffic ticket outcomes, we must first understand how extralegal factors, particularly the intersections between officer race–driver race/ethnicity and the number of vehicle occupants, impact these outcomes. Thus, the current study utilizes the 1999 and 2008 Police–Public Contact Survey to assess the relationship between extralegal factors and traffic ticket receipt during routine traffic stops. Findings illustrate that according to citizens’ reports, extralegal factors, including the intersections between officer race–driver race/ethnicity and the number of vehicle occupants, differentially impact traffic ticket receipt in both the years.
A large and growing body of research finds racial disparities in discretionary searches of drivers during traffic stops with Black drivers disproportionately involved in these investigations. Among the explanations for these disparities is the deployment hypothesis which suggests that as police departments increasingly adopt hot spots policing strategies, proactive traffic stops and discretionary searches may spatially cluster around crime hot spots contributing to racial disparities. The present study builds on the existing research literature by identifying hot spots using reported crime data from a police department and examining whether these crime hot spots function as a mediating factor to the relationship between driver race and discretionary searches. Findings provide partial support for the deployment hypothesis. While nearly half of all traffic stops transpired within one quarter mile of hot spots and more frequently involved Black drivers, stops involving Black drivers remained more likely to include discretionary searches and increased concomitantly with distance from the nearest hot spot.
While prior research has uncovered racial disparities in the administration of death sentences, little attention has been devoted to earlier stages in the capital punishment processes. To understand the locus of racial bias within death penalty institutions, this study examines the entry of homicide cases into Los Angeles County’s criminal justice system during a 5-year period. This two-part analysis seeks to answer the following research questions: (1) Does victim/defendant race influence homicide clearance and death penalty charging decisions? and (2) if so, does the likelihood of clearance mediate the effect of victim race on death penalty charges? Logistic regressions indicate that cases involving Latino victims are less likely to be cleared. Moreover, cases with Black and Latino victims are less likely to be prosecuted with a death penalty–eligible charge. Racial disparities accumulate across these stages, with clearance patterns influencing subsequent death penalty charging decisions. Results underscore the cumulative nature of racial within criminal justice institutions. By linking police and prosecution outcomes, these findings also highlight the interrelationship between criminal justice agencies.
The present study was an intragroup examination of noncitizen Latino drug traffickers convicted in the federal courts from 2006 to 2014. Drawing upon focal concerns theory and Sayad’s state-centered perspective on the role of governments in framing the crime–immigration debate, this study assessed whether offenders’ national origin conditions the effects of immigration status on the odds of receiving a downward departure (lenient sentencing) and the magnitude of the sentence discount imposed. Particular attention was paid to whether any effects worked to the detriment of Mexicans relative to non-Mexicans. The findings revealed that the effect of immigration status was contingent on offenders’ national origin for the departure decision, but not the sentence discount. While being undocumented served to decrease the odds of a downward departure regardless of national origin, the effects were greater for Mexicans than for non-Mexicans. These findings indicate that contrary to the goals of the U.S. sentencing guidelines to reduce unwarranted disparities surrounding national origin, the current federal sentencing structure allows them to thrive.
Research testing the sexual stratification hypothesis has reached mixed conclusions about the relationship between victim and offender race and sexual assault case outcomes. Using data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System, we examine the relationship between the victim–suspect racial dyad and the odds of sexual assault case clearance, and whether the case was cleared via arrest versus an exceptional means clearance for reasons of declined prosecution or victim non-cooperation. The findings indicate little support for the sexual stratification hypothesis. Under certain circumstances, the victim–suspect racial dyad has a modest relationship with the odds of clearance and the manner in which cases are cleared. When the victim and offender are strangers, an arrest is less likely in White-on-Black assaults versus Black-on-White assaults. Further, an arrest is less likely in Black-on-Black family assaults because victims in these cases are less likely to cooperate with police, implying that Black victims’ reluctance or inability to cooperate with police plays an important and overlooked role in producing racial disparities in clearance and arrest outcomes in certain types of cases.
Recent research has demonstrated an "immigrant paradox": a parallel between assimilation and increased engagement in adolescent delinquency. Although evidence has suggested that social control and differential association contribute to the criminological understanding of the immigrant paradox, not many studies have simultaneously incorporated measures of social control and differential association to explore delinquency across immigrant generations. Based on a sample of nationally representative adolescents (N = 13,121) from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), this study investigates whether and how social control (i.e., family control and school control) and differential association (i.e., delinquent friends association) explain the relationship between immigrant generation and delinquency. Results indicate that delinquent friendships play a more important role and account for much of the difference in delinquency across generations. Moreover, within each generation, delinquent friendships have a more consistent effect on delinquency. However, family control and school control are stronger predictors of delinquency for the third-plus generation than for earlier generations.
A long-standing finding in criminology is that structural disadvantage is a robust predictor of violence. Aligned with this finding is the racial invariance thesis, which states that the causes of violence are similar across racial/ethnic groups and that, in particular, disadvantage should be associated with higher rates of violence for all groups. Yet, a growing body of research on the Latino paradox challenges this assumption in finding that disadvantage has muted effects on Latino violence compared to other groups, while related literature qualifies this by suggesting that Latino experiences with violence qualitatively differ depending on the destination types in which Latinos settle. As such, the goal of this study is to reassess the Latino paradox in context of new patterns of Latino settlement. Highlighting differences in "contexts of reception," we evaluate whether the relationship between disadvantage and Latino violence varies between established and emerging Latino destinations. Using 2001–2004 arrest data from a multistate database, we find that structural disadvantage is positively associated with Latino homicide and that this relationship is consistent across both emerging and established locales. Additionally, we find the relationship between disadvantage and homicide to be invariant across racial/ethnic groups regardless of the context of reception.
Racial and ethnic disparities in criminal justice have received increasing scrutiny recently. Little attention, however, has been directed toward understanding inequality in the area of probation. The current study addresses this dearth through two analyses of 14,365 probation cases. The first involves a logistic regression analysis, which examines race/ethnicity against probation failure. Using probation success as a control outcome, the second analysis uses a multinomial regression to examine the effects of race and ethnicity across four types of probation failure—administrative failure and revocations resulting from technical violations, new felonies, and new misdemeanors. Across both models, racial/ethnic categorization were found to be significantly and positively associated with probation failure outcomes. In addition, the standardized coefficients indicate that Black and Hispanic racial/ethnic categorization presented a moderate to strong effect sizes across outcomes studied. The strongest effect sizes for these two variables were found in the multinomial model within the administrative failure outcome. Across both models, other racial categorization (Asian/Pacific Islander or Native American/Alaskan Native) was statistically significant but consistently produced some of the weakest effect sizes. Potential explanations for these findings are offered along with a discussion of study limitations, future research suggestions, and policy implications.
Extant research suggests that police involvement with hate crimes and bias incidents may be affected by case- and community-level characteristics. Triggering events, such as the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 (9/11), or the recent heated debates concerning illegal immigration, may also mediate this relationship. The present study builds on prior research by replicating the work of Wilson and Ruback (2003), which explored whether historical events, case characteristics, and community demographics are significantly associated with police involvement and response to bias-motivated offenses. The goals of this study were twofold: (1) to determine if the level of police response to bias-motivated incidents changed significantly post-9/11 and (2) to determine the extent to which case- and community-level factors are associated with police involvement. The findings illustrate that a significant increase in police response to hate crimes and bias incidents occurred post-9/11, and that both case- and community-level characteristics affect police involvement.
Despite numerous tests of routine activities theory, attempts to explain the relationship between Hispanic immigration and victimization are quite minimal. As such, this study seeks to determine whether differences in violent victimization between native-born Hispanic and foreign-born Hispanic youth are attributable to variations in target suitability and emotional guardianship. This study expands routine activities theory’s concept of capable guardianship by basing its operationalization on measures related to family ties and is thus termed emotional guardianship. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), the results show native-born Hispanic youth were more likely to be violently victimized than their foreign-born Hispanic counterparts. However, once components of routine activities theory and neighborhood safety were entered into the model, the Hispanic youth’s birth status was no longer significant. Prior delinquency also had the strongest direct effect on violent victimization and served to mediate the relationship between emotional guardianship and violent victimization.
Race and policing research has identified both macro-level structural factors and micro-level racial meanings that contribute to racial disparities in policing outcomes. However, prior research has not examined how the various features of communal contexts shape officers’ construction of racial meanings. The current study, which is based on ethnographic ride-along interviews with and observations of 52 officers in three suburban communities of varying racial, ethnic, and class diversity in a northeastern state, weds symbolic interactionist and macro-level studies by examining how communal contexts shape both the meanings that police officers attach to Latinos in relation to other pan-ethnic groups and officers’ patrolling of Latinos. The author finds that communal features and processes condition officers’ racial schemas and patrolling practices in significant, variable ways across the three communities. How officers perceived and approached Latinos not only varied across the three towns but differed from that of other pan-ethnic groups. Variability in the communal features and processes influencing officers’ racial schemas and patrolling of racial minorities across these towns suggests the need for a theoretical approach that treats officers’ racial meanings and patrolling approaches as communally situated.
Analyzing the National Survey of American Life, which includes 3,570 Blacks, this research is the first to test core hypotheses of Unnever and Gabbidon’s Theory of African American Offending. A core assertion of Unnever and Gabbidon’s theory, which specifically and only focuses on Blacks, is that their offending is associated with the degree to which they encounter racial injustices. This article focuses on two forms of racial injustice that are prominently highlighted by Unnever and Gabbidon—racial discrimination and racist stereotypes. The results reveal that Blacks who experience racial discrimination and "buy into" the pejorative stereotype that they are violent are more likely to offend, as they experience heightened states of low self-control, anger, and depression. The data also show that experiences with racial injustices increase the likelihood that Blacks will become dependent on substances/alcohol. These findings were generated while including other correlates of arrests, including demographic characteristics, whether Blacks identify with other Blacks, the number of relatives in jail or prison, and strength of family bonds. The theoretical importance of these findings is discussed.
Postsecondary correctional education (PSCE) is witnessing a revitalization, offering the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated an important source of human and social capital. Yet, opportunities for higher education among this population are patterned by larger structural exclusions based on race, class, and place. In this article, we investigate the impact of race and class inequalities among students in a program for formerly incarcerated individuals at a large state university. Specifically, we draw from 34 in-depth interviews with past and present program participants to examine how pre- and postcarceral financial, familial, community, and social network contexts shape postsecondary experiences after incarceration. Research participants came from community contexts with vastly different resources, with consequences for social identities, educational preparedness, and embeddedness in crime preincarceration. These circumstances differentially prepared students for university studies postrelease. In addition, during the postcarceral period, study participants had disparate access to familial supports, were unequally burdened by financial difficulties and familial responsibilities, and differentially exposed to risks for reoffending. These patterns were closely tied to race, social class, and neighborhood characteristics. Our work highlights the import of attention to such disparities for PSCE, to facilitate its equitable access among incarcerated and formerly incarcerated populations.
African Americans often live in crime-ridden communities, where the need to deter crime is high. They are also likely to be unjustly stopped by law enforcement authorities, arrested, incarcerated, and sentenced to death by the criminal justice system. This research argues that these competing pressures increase the complexity of choices African Americans must make when forming their preferences toward the death penalty. African Americans who are cross-pressured by insecurity (i.e., fear of victimization) and discrimination (i.e., fear of racial biases within the criminal justice system) exhibit more variation in the range of death penalty laws they find acceptable. Support for this claim is provided by cross-sectional survey data (N = 514) of African Americans within the United States. A heteroscedastic item response theory model using these data shows that cross-pressured African Americans demonstrate high response variability (i.e., inconsistencies) in their acceptance of death penalty laws. Subsequently, the unique experience that African Americans have with the criminal justice system contributes to complex policy opinions that are rarely reflected in public policy or opinion polls.
In criminal proceedings across the United States, rap music lyrics are being introduced as evidence of a defendant’s guilt. In this article, we draw attention to this disturbing practice, what we call "rap on trial," and explore its context, describe its elements and contours, and consider its broader significance. We first offer historical context, demonstrating that although the widespread use of rap lyrics in criminal trials may be a relatively recent phenomenon, it resides within a long tradition of antagonism between the legal establishment and hip-hop culture, one that can be traced back to hip-hop’s earliest roots. We then offer examples of recent cases in which rap music has been used as evidence in trials against amateur rappers, almost all of whom are young men of color, in order to illustrate the specific ways that prosecutors present the music to judges and juries, as well as to highlight the devastating effects it can have on defendants. In the final section, we consider the elements of rap music that leave it vulnerable to judicial abuse and the artistic, racial, and legal ramifications of using this particular genre of music to put people in jail. We conclude with recommendations for further research in this area, pointing out specific areas where scholarship would most effectively expose what it means to put rap on trial.
This research examines prosecutorial decision making at the initial charging stage in Chicago homicide cases during the late 1990s. The objectives of this investigation are to determine whether African Americans were prosecuted more severely than similarly situated White and Latino defendants in Chicago homicide cases prior to the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois and to identify the factors that affected how severely prosecutors prosecuted defendants during that time. The study participants are adults who were identified by the Chicago Police Department as suspects in homicide incidents during the years of 1994 and 1995 and whose cases were selected for prosecution. Other relevant factors that may have influenced charging decisions include the defendant–victim relationship, the homicide circumstances, and the number of victims in a particular homicide incident. General linear regression modeling is used to determine the factors that affected how severely prosecutors prosecuted Chicago homicide defendants. Charge severity is measured by the number of charges of Class M felony murder that were filed against a defendant. The results indicate that prior to the moratorium on the death penalty in Chicago, all defendants studied (regardless of the race/ethnicity of their victims) were charged with fewer counts of murder (prosecuted less severely) than African American defendants who were charged with killing White victims. This direct and significant relationship persists even after adding defendant–victim relationship and homicide circumstance interaction terms to the analysis.
Labeled the model minority, Asian Americans have been seen as less discriminated against than other racial/ethnic minorities in the different aspects of American society. Sentencing scholarship also revealed robust evidence that Asian offenders were not treated differently from White offenders in judicial decision making. Some research even found the most favorable sentencing outcomes for Asian offenders. However, it is unclear whether the model minority hypothesis is validated when only the criminal sentencing of noncitizen offenders is at issue. Using the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s sentencing data for fiscal years 2006–2007, the present study, with a focus specifically on immigration offenses, seeks to challenge this hypothesis by examining the extent to which an offender’s national origin and race/ethnicity affect sentencing outcomes. Findings reveal strong support for our argument that the model minority advantage is offense-specific and that it is not applicable to all types of offenses. Specifically, there is no model minority advantage for non-U.S. citizens’ immigration offenses.
Most research investigates the effect of a defendant’s race on severity of imposed legal sanction at only one of several decision points that comprise the criminal justice system. This myopic focus on what can be termed episodic discrimination is problematic because racial discrimination evinced at one decision point may be amplified, negated, or even reversed at other decision points. Here we synthesize estimates of a defendant’s race on the severity of imposed legal sanction at each of the decision points encountered by a defendant as he or she progresses through the criminal justice system. Although initial results show that the effect of race on severity of outcome depends on the specific decision point analyzed, a synthesis of these race estimates in a meta-analysis reveals that the odds of receiving a severe sanction is approximately 42% higher for a Black defendant even after controlling for prior record and other legal and extralegal variables. Thus, although the influence of a defendant’s race on the severity of sanction is statistically discernible at just two of the eight criminal justice decision points, a substantive cumulative racial discriminatory effect is evident when all the individual decision points are considered in their totality.
Elijah Anderson’s subcultural explanation for the adoption of the "code of the street" has directed scholarly attention toward specific cultural norms and scripts that encourage or sanction violence in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. We provide an explicit test of the general assumption that the code of the street is predominantly endorsed by youth residing in urban communities. Using data on 2,183 juvenile offenders committed to the State of Georgia’s Department of Juvenile Justice between July 2002 and December 2003, we examine youths’ strength of endorsement of code-specific attitudes. Importantly, these delinquent youth formerly resided in Georgia zip codes of varying degrees of urbanism, from highly urbanized to isolated rural areas. The findings suggest a considerable generalizability in strength of endorsement of the street code among delinquent youth residing in very distinctive types of territorial units. These analyses illustrate that the contemporary preoccupation among criminologists with an urban-based theory of the code may be misguided; the street code has broader reach than the inner city and is, in general, neither race-specific nor more strongly endorsed among delinquent youth in highly urbanized areas.