The effect of skin tone on criminal justice sanctions

• In Event: Using Longitudinal Data to Study The Causes and Consequences of Criminal Justice Contact Over the Lifecourse.

Abstract

Research on criminal justice sanctions has long recognized the importance of race and ethnicity. Typically, race and ethnicity are represented as distinct categories in this research, ignoring the social construction of race/ethnicity and within-category variation in skin tone. We assess the impact of interviewer-rated skin tone on criminal justice sanctions in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997. Specifically, across and within race/ethnicity categories, using random effects models, we assess the impact of skin tone on the probability of arrest, conditional on self-reported criminal behavior and other important covariates. Second, conditional on having been convicted, we assess the impact of skin tone on incarceration.

Authors

• Mario Cano, Kansas State University

• Gary Sweeten, Arizona State University