Racial-Ethnic Disparities in Police and Prosecutorial Drug Charging: Analyzing Organizational Overlap in Charging Patterns at Arrest, Filing, and Conviction

• In Event: Sentencing Outcomes: Cumulative Disadvantage and Punishment

Abstract

Drawing from cumulative disadvantage and organizational research, we examine racial disparities in drug charging trajectories from arrest to conviction. Specifically, we analyze disparities in charging severity across arrest, filing, and conviction for drug offenses in Miami-Dade County between 2010-2015 (N=40,765) using a “distance traveled” approach. We find that police charge Black Latinx people with drug crimes that are 2.5 times more severe, and Black non-Latinx people with drug crimes that are 2 times more severe than White non-Latinx people at arrest. These inequalities are maintained throughout the charging trajectory. Greater charge reductions occur between arrest and filing than between filing and conviction, pointing to the importance of police in charging trajectories. We do not find substantive disparities in charge reductions across charging stages, however. Examining charging at arrest is critical to understanding racial-ethnic disparities in charging trajectories, where unequal arrest charges become institutionalized throughout the charging process. Organizational dynamics between police and prosecutors may lead to drug charging practices that systematically disadvantage Black people in Miami-Dade County.

Authors

• Oshea Johnson, University of Miami

• Marisa Omori, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Nick Petersen, University of Miami