Prevailing Over the Penology of Racial Innocence: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations of Race in Prosecution and Sentencing

• In Event: Beyond a Simple Regression: The Less Visible Disparities in Sentencing Outcomes

Abstract

Although research has been dedicated to the large-scale racial inequalities in mass incarceration, Murakawa and Beckett (2010) argue that researchers allow the criminal justice system to maintain its “racial innocence.” We explore how the penology of racial innocence is often maintained in quantitative sentencing research both empirically and theoretically. Using case processing data from adults arrested for felonies in Miami-Dade County from 2012-2015 (N≈95,000), we explore three scenarios of racial innocence in the courts. Specifically, we examine models with samples of people who are already convicted relative to those who are arrested; models assuming that case characteristics are race-neutral versus racially unequal; and models controlling for various (and potentially redundant) case characteristics may lead to minimizing racial inequalities. We find that estimating models with samples of people who are convicted differ from those who are arrested, and models with case characteristics as race-neutral differ from when they are presumed to be race-specific, and models with several case characteristics leads to different results. We conclude that quantitative scholarship often minimizes racial inequalities. Accordingly, sentencing scholars are largely reluctant to explain disparities through explanations of institutional racism. We also discuss how these empirical and theoretical methods of racial innocence are tied together.

Authors

• Marisa Omori, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Alessandra Early, University of Missouri - St. Louis

• Luis C. Torres, University of Missouri - St. Louis