Offending and Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Criminal Justice

• Author: Daniel P. Mears,Joshua C. Cochran,Andrea M. Lindsey
• Published date: 01 February 2016
• Date: 01 February 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1043986215607252
• Subject Matter: Articles

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2016, Vol. 32(1) 78 –103

© The Author(s) 2015

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DOI: 10.1177/1043986215607252

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Article

Offending and Racial and

Ethnic Disparities in Criminal

Justice: A Conceptual

Framework for Guiding

Theory and Research and

Informing Policy

Daniel P. Mears1, Joshua C. Cochran2,

and Andrea M. Lindsey1

Abstract

Scholars and policy makers have expressed concern that observed minority differences

in processing (e.g., arrest, detention, conviction) and sentencing stem not from the

legal merits of cases but rather from intentional or unintentional discrimination. An

additional concern is that there may be disparities in society that lead to offending

differences among racial and ethnic groups, and that these differences may be

amplified by disparities that minorities experience in and through the criminal justice

system. In this article, we identify the dimensions along which information is needed

to document minority disparities in criminal justice processing and sanctioning and

to guide interventions to reduce them. We conclude that research to date has not

systematically documented the true prevalence of minority disparities in criminal

justice processing or sanctioning or the causes of them. We then argue that social

structural disparities faced by minorities warrant comparable attention to that given

to criminal justice disparities. Documentation of these disparities and their causes

will be necessary to shed light on the exercise of formal social control. It also can

contribute to efforts to understand offending and how most effectively to reduce

crime and unfair sanctioning.

1Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

2University of South Florida, Tampa, USA

Corresponding Author:

Daniel P. Mears, College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida State University, 112 South

Copeland Street, Eppes Hall, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1273, USA.

Email: dmears@fsu.edu

607252CCJXXX10.1177/1043986215607252Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeMears et al.

research-article2015

Mears et al. 79

Keywords

race, ethnicity, disparity, inequality

Concerns about unfair, or disparate, treatment of minorities emerged as a prominent

policy issue in the latter half of the 20th century (Blumstein, 1982; Kutateladze,

Andiloro, Johnson, & Spohn, 2014; Mitchell, 2005; Tonry, 1995). In recent decades,

particular attention has focused on the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minori-

ties in all stages of criminal justice processing (Baumer, 2013; Mears & Bacon, 2009;

Sampson & Lauritsen, 1997). Observed differences in the numbers or rates of minori-

ties arrested, convicted, or sentenced to prison frequently are taken as evidence of

disparity. When such differences exist, disparity in fact may be at play. If so, policies

that target the causes of any identified disparities should be addressed. The situation,

however, is complicated due to conceptual confusion about the meanings of “differ-

ence,” “disproportionality,” and “disparity,” and their salience for understanding the

causes of and solutions to unfair treatment of minorities.

In this article, we argue that knowledge about disparities in the processing and

sanctioning of minorities is limited. In particular, there is a lack of comprehensive and

systematic empirical research on the prevalence of minority differences, dispropor-

tionalities, and disparities in criminal justice decision making and their respective

causes. As a result, the current state of knowledge amounts to the functional equivalent

of a country in darkness with a few scattered lights briefly illuminating parts of par-

ticular cities or towns. That is, in some places and for some years, we know a little

about the prevalence or causes of minority-specific crime and justice disparities, while

in other places and for different years, we know next to nothing.

This situation is problematic for several reasons. One is that any effort to reduce and

prevent unfair treatment of certain groups requires conceptual clarity and valid mea-

sures of disproportionalities and disparities. It also requires understanding their causes.

A second is that efforts to understand and reduce offending require illumination of how

criminal justice processing and sanctioning may contribute to rather than reduce offend-

ing (e.g., Unnever & Gabbidon, 2011). Scholarship in recent years suggests that the

latter possibility is far from hypothetical. Studies of sanctioning suggest, for example,

that incarceration may be criminogenic (see, for example, Cochran, Mears, & Bales,

2014; Nagin, Cullen, & Jonson, 2009). In addition, some accounts, such as Unnever

and Gabbidon’s (2011) theory of African American offending, highlight ways in which

racism and prejudice can contribute to crime. Such accounts directly implicate dis-

criminatory criminal justice system decision making as a potential factor that influ-

ences offending. The greater application of formal social control for these groups thus

creates a potential vicious cycle, one in which efforts to control crime may worsen it

while simultaneously engendering less actual or perceived justice.

Here, we identify some of the most prominent dimensions along which this situa-

tion ideally would be corrected as localities and states work to improve their data col-

lection and assessment efforts to reduce minority disparities in criminal justice.

(“Criminal justice” here includes juvenile justice; differences exist between the two,