Roundtable: Pushing Toward Parity: Examining Racial Disparity Trends in State Imprisonment

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract/Description

The disproportionate representation of people of color in the criminal justice system has received substantial scrutiny from researchers, the media, and others concerned that disparities reflect enduring, systemic race-based bias. Academic literature has produced numerous explanations for racial differences in criminal involvement, from the economic and social legacy of slavery and Jim Crow laws to contemporary discrimination in housing and education systems, bias by criminal justice decision-makers, and the effects of harsher sentencing policies adopted in the 1980s and ‘90s. Disparities in imprisonment have narrowed since 2000—and Pushing Toward Parity research project aimed to understand why.

Participants will present results from four related projects: (1) A national analysis that showed a 40% drop in Black-White imprisonment disparity between 2000 and 2020; a state-level analysis that examined more than 700 statutes adopted in 12 states between 2010 and 2020, seeking to understand how sentencing reforms influenced the reduction in disparity; (3) an examination of imprisonment disparities between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White people using two sources of official data that measure ethnicity in different ways; and (4) a national analysis of racial and ethnic disparities in state imprisonment for female populations.

Sub Unit

• Area XIV. Roundtables

Discussants

• Stephanie C. Kennedy, Council on Criminal Justice

• Thaddeus L. Johnson, Georgia State University

• Cameryn Farrow, Council on Criminal Justice

Organized by a Division or external group?

Council on Criminal Justice