The Effect of Judicial Elections on Racial Disparity in Incarceration Rates

• In Event: Poster Session: Public Administration & Law and Courts
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Law and Courts: Issues in Judicial Politics and Judicial Behavior

Abstract

Racial minorities in the U.S. experience the criminal justice system differently than Whites. Blacks receive longer sentences than Whites and represent a disproportionate share of prison populations, compared to their share of the general population. Does the mechanism by which states select trial judges play any role in creating these inequities? Judges who stand for election must behave in a way that will win them favor with punitive and racially biased electorates, potentially leading to greater racial disparities in states with elected trial judges. Using a dataset previously unused in political science and time-series linear regressions, this paper explores the relationship between judicial elections and racial incarceration disparity in the states and finds that states with trial judges retained via partisan elections have lower racial disparities than states without judicial elections, while states with uncontested retention elections or non-partisan elections have no discernable effects on the racial disparities observed.

Author

• Travis N. Taylor, University of Kentucky