Prosecuting for the In-Group: Victim and Defendant Race Bias from Random Assignment

• In Event: Legal Representation and Justice Outcomes

Abstract

This paper investigates how racial dynamics between prosecutors, defendants, and victims jointly influence prosecutorial decisions and criminal case outcomes. While prior research has documented same-race favoritism between prosecutors and defendants in certain crime categories, existing studies typically examine only two parties in isolation. This paper contributes to the literature by being the first to systematically analyze the three-way interaction between prosecutor, defendant, and victim race. By doing so, it uncovers how these intersecting racial identities jointly shape the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

Leveraging detailed administrative data from a large district attorney’s office where prosecutors are quasi-randomly assigned to cases, this study isolates the causal effects of the prosecutor-defendant-victim triad on charging decision and case outcomes.

The findings shows evidence of same-race favoritism that extends beyond the binary prosecutor-defendant relationship. While White prosecutors are 7%–20% more likely to dismiss charges when the defendant shares their race and the victim does not (relative to the average dismissal rate), the presence of a same-race victim significantly alters this tendency. When both the victim and defendant share the prosecutor’s race, the likelihood of dismissal drops by 15%–23%. These patterns underscore a hierarchy in racial favoritism, with prosecutors exhibiting stronger biases in favor of same-race victims than same-race defendants.

Crucially, these biases are not just procedural but outcome-relevant: same-race favoritism among prosecutors leads to a 17% decrease in convictions when defendants share their race, but a 29% increase when victims do. These results suggest that prosecutorial behavior is sensitive not just to the racial identity of the accused, but also to that of the complainant—revealing a deeper, more complex structure of racial preference in criminal justice decision-making.

By jointly examining the race of all three key parties in the criminal process, this paper offers novel empirical evidence on how racial dynamics operate in prosecutorial discretion. The findings have important implications for understanding inequality in the criminal justice system and designing institutional safeguards against bias.

 

Author

• Jiusi Xiao, Saint Mary's College of California
  Presenting Author