Race and Justice in 2025

• Published date: 01 January 2025
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/21533687241302180
• Author: Deena Isom
• Date: 01 January 2025
• Subject Matter: Editorial

Race and Justice in 2025

Deena Isom

For 15 years, Race and Justice has highlighted inclusive and progressive research that

examines factors through a lens that centers racialized lived experiences and the role of

a stratif‌ied social structure as related to criminal behaviors, deviance, violence, victim-

ization, and entanglement with the criminal legal system and other crime-producing

institutions across the globe. This scholarship matters—today, tomorrow, and for

thereafter—advancing knowledge, questions, issues, and concerns of historical,

social, political, and cultural signif‌icance for, by, and about those that have been his-

torically marginalized and oppressed—especially in relation to the criminal legal

system. In this current moment, such work is needed now more than ever and will

persist and continue to make a difference.

In this issue, authors investigate the racialized impacts of policies, perceptions, and

systems across a range of justice and social contexts. Willits et al. begin by assessing

the persistence of racial disparities in cannabis arrests post-legalization in Colorado

and Washington, f‌inding that while overall arrests have declined, substantial dispari-

ties remain, particularly in Colorado. Seffrin and Teeple then explore the unintended

consequences of the War on Drugs, revealing that the differential legal treatment for

violence and drug use among Black men may inadvertently heighten risks associated

with drug use. Thomas examines the racialized consequences of jail incarceration on

local labor markets, demonstrating signif‌icant disparities in employment impact for

communities with varying Black population densities. Reeds et al. build on this by

testing racial threat theory, f‌inding that economic threat is negatively associated

with incarceration disparities, particularly in counties with larger Black populations.

Baranauskas and Stowell investigate how negative affect and ethnocentrism shape per-

ceptions of immigrants as a criminal threat, while Chenane explores public opinion on

immigration law enforcement and f‌inds signif‌icant differences based on 2016 U.S.

presidential candidate choice. Collectively, these studies underscore the complex

and deeply embedded racial dynamics shaping justice and public opinion.

These are just a few examples of the signif‌icant works that grace the pages of Race

and Justice.RAJ will continue to be an outlet of knowledge that seeks to understand

and dismantle inequalities and give voice to those that are far-too-often overlooked or

silenced.

Onward,

Deena Isom, Editor

Editorial

Race and Justice

2025, Vol. 15(1) 3

© The Author(s) 2024

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DOI: 10.1177/21533687241302180

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