Mechanisms of Racial Inequality and Punishment "Hotspots" in Miami-Dade's Criminal Justice System

• In Event: Innovative Perspectives in Modeling Sentencing Disparities

Abstract

Many scholars have written about how mass criminalization has impacted communities of color (Roberts, 2004). As Bonilla-Silva (1997, 2006) suggests, however, empirical studies of racial inequality should move beyond simply demonstrating these inequalities to investigating the mechanisms that produce them. Using six years of criminal justice data from Miami-Dade County, we examine mechanisms of racial inequality in Miami Dade's criminal justice system at the neighborhood level. Specifically, we specify mechanisms of inequality both within the system, such as proactive policing of low-level crimes, overpolicing, prosecutorial toughness, and pretrial detention as an incentive to plea, as well as structural mechanisms of racial inequality, such as neighborhood racial composition and economic "disadvantage." We use these measures to statistically model racial and ethnic inequality in disposition (including no file, nolle pros, dismissals, pleas, and adjudication withheld decisions) and sentencing (prison, jail, probation, credit time served) outcomes. This study moves beyond individual-level studies of sentencing outcomes alone to examine early institutional decisions and structural characteristics that produce community-level racial inequality.

Authors

• Marisa Omori, University of Miami

• Nick Petersen, University of Miami