Shackled to the Scarlet Letter: The Legacy of Historic Redlining on Contemporary Rates of Incarceration

• In Event: Racially-Motivated Extremism, Discrimination, and Other Bias Outcomes

Abstract

Much research has been dedicated to uncovering the contemporary ramifications of historic redlining, particularly regarding disparities related to race, economics, health outcomes, urban planning, and crime. However, no studies to our knowledge have investigated the relationship between historic redlining and contemporary criminal justice outcomes, specifically incarceration. Given the intrinsic racialized nature of both historical restrictive housing practices and contemporary criminal justice sanctioning, it stands to reason that these processes are related. As such, this study draws on social disorganization theory and racial threat theory to establish an association between historic redlining and contemporary incarceration practices using aggregated data from four sources: 1) Historic Redlining Scores for 2010 and 2020 US Census Tracts; 2) Prison Policy Initiative; 3) the American Community Survey; and 4) the Uniform Crime Report. Results indicate a positive association between redlining and incarceration, such that census tracts with worse redlining scores experience more incarceration, even when controlling for social disorganization variables and violent crime rate. These findings have important policy implications for community reinvestment strategies and decarceration efforts.

Authors

• Maeve Donnelly, Florida State University

• Marin R. Wenger, Florida State University