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7 JIJIS 261 (2007)
The Cumulative Effects of Racial Disparities in Criminal Processing

handle is hein.journals/jijis7 and id is 269 raw text is: THE CUMULATIVE EFFECTS OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN CRIMINAL PROCESSING Traci Schlesinger DePaul University Abstract Data from the State Court Processing Statistics Series was used to analyze the cumulative effects of racial and ethnic disparities in criminal processing of men who are charged with felony drug offenses in large urban counties from 1990 to 2002. Estimating a series of models, I find not only that Black and Latino men receive less beneficial sentencing decisions than White men with similar legal characteristics, but also that these disparities are produced through a combination of direct and indirect effects. More particularly, I find that Black and Latino men are less likely to be granted non-financial release, more likely to be denied bail, and are given higher bails than White men with similar legal characteristics; that Black and Latino men are more likely to be adjudicated as felons than White men with similar legal characteristics; and that sentencing outcomes are determined by a combination of current case characteristics, prior record, economic resources and networks, and racially disparate processing-both indirectly through pretrial incarceration and level of adjudication,and directly during sentencing decisions. The Cumulative Effects of Racial Disparities in Criminal Processing acial disparity in punishment has a long history in the United States; Blacks have been disproportionately incarcerated since shortly after the Civil War (Curtin, 2000) and racial disparities increased again during the last quarter of the 20th century (Beckett, 1999). Currently, Blacks are 600% and Latino/as are 50% more likely than Whites to have ever been imprisoned-and disparity is not limited to prisons. Blacks are almost three times more likely than Latinos and five times more likely than Whites to be in jail (Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2006). In 1997, 1 out of every 11 Blacks living in the U.S. was under some form of correctional supervision, compared to 1 out of 50 Whites (BJS, 1998). When this disparity is combined with current prison boom levels of criminal justice intervention, the results are disastrous; by 2001, almost 17% of Black men had been imprisoned at some time in their life. Looking toward the future, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2003) predicts that if imprisonment rates remain unchanged, one in three Black men born in 2001 will go to prison at some point during his life. While racial disparity in punishment is acknowledged, scholars disagree about its sources. Almost undoubtedly, disparity is the result of the interactions between race- salient criminal laws,1 differential offending,2 differential policing,3 and differential For example, federal sentencing guidelines penalties for crack are dramatically more punitive than are those for powder cocaine. Also, many state codes include sentencing enhancements for crimes committed in public housing (Schlesinger, 2006). Direct correspondence to tschlesi@depauL edu © 2007 by the author, published here by permission The Journal of the Institute of Justice & International Studies Vol 7

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