Racial Impact Statements, Knowledge-Based Criminology, and Resisting Color Blindness

• Author: Justin M. Smith
• DOI: 10.1177/2153368716661223
• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Racial Impact Statements,

Knowledge-Based

Criminology, and Resisting

Color Blindness

Justin M. Smith

1

Abstract

This project addresses the problem of ostensibly race-neutral policies that increase

sentence lengths in the United States. In order to contribute to addressing this

problem, this analysis theoretically frames racial impact statements around color-blind

racism and racial structure. Since sentence lengths are most directly determined at the

state level, this analysis focuses on one state, Michigan. Similar to many states,

Michigan underwent marked reforms in sentencing in the 1990s, and this research

examines the impact on sentence lengths for violent offenses. Findings coincide with

past statements on the influence long sentences exert upon high prison populations

and durable racial disproportionality within. Ultimately, theoretical and empirical

evidence offer support for the application of racial impact statements as a mechanism

to address racially uneven sentencing outcomes.

Keywords

critical race theory, race and sentencing, sentencing guidelines, race and corrections,

African/Black Americans

Racial Impact Statements

This analysis examines the racial impact of sentencing guidelines for violent offenses.

It concentrates on those violent offenses that carry the longest sentences—murder,

armed robbery, criminal sexual conduct, and assault with intent to murder. As

1

Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant,

MI, USA

Corresponding Author:

Justin M. Smith, Department of Sociology, Anthropology, & Social Work, Central Michigan University,

135 Anspach Hall, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, USA.

Email: smith61j@cmich.edu

Race and Justice

2017, Vol. 7(4) 374-397

ªThe Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permission:

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DOI: 10.1177/2153368716661223

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researchers have ecently argued, we must reconsider how we react to these most

condemnable acts and not simply nonviolent offenders in order to redress the durable

problems of our prison population and its racial disproportionality (Pfaff, 2015;

Tonry, 2011). In Michigan, the focus of this study, assaultive offenders make up 69%

of the prison population while drug offenders make up 8%. And much like national

trends, non-Whites make up 56%(24,205 individuals) of the prison population

(Michigan Department of Corrections, 2014).

1

Racial impact statements are modeled after fiscal and environmental impact

statements to offer an assessment of policies that often entail racial disparity (London,

2011). Their development came out of the office of American Legal Institute as a way

to include racial disparity into the calculation for policy evaluation. Currently, three

states have created legislation to mandate impact statements (Connecticut, Oregon,

and Iowa), legislators have proposed themin several states (see sentencingproject.com),

and the Minnesota Sentencing Guideline Commission provided a template when they

assessed racial impact during their evaluation of proposed sentencing practices

(Mauer, 2009). Impact statements hold importance on at least two levels. First, they

have practical, policy-relevant application to evaluating systemic outcomes, and

second, they bring race explicitly into the discussion of policy. Now, without the first

the second is largely symbolic and without much impact toward shaping political

dialogue and action. In the current political climate, the glaring racial unevenness in

the criminal justice has acquired some measured recognition (Horwitz, 2015; Lawler,

2015). After decades of tireless efforts, researchers and advocates have captured a

growing recognition that society must address racial disparity in criminal justice.

Using data from Michigan on serious violent offenses—four offense types with the

longest sentences—this project seeks to combine empirical evidence with the need to

significantly address racial justice and how racial impact statements fit into mean-

ingful change.

Racial impact statements bear witness to the extent of racially disparate conse-

quences of instituting crime control practices such as sentencing and mandatory

minimums, ‘‘stop and frisk’’ policing, and capital punishment—the ability to locate

policy with racially disparate outcomes but also those with no discernible unwanted

differences. Impact statements range from fairly simple descriptive statistics from one

source (i.e., how racial composition of correctional populations may change following

proposed legislation) to more comprehensive statistical approaches that offer law-

makers information from a variety of sources (i.e., how multiple stages of criminal

justice could be affected; for a review, see London, 2011). A promising aspect of this

strategy is that data are becoming more available to perform impact statements.

Although the measurement of race has historically entailed many limitations (Mosher,

Miete, & Phillips, 2002), as data collection improves we can better estimate prison

admissions, sentence length, parole, and total length of stay. Additionally, past

initiatives provide guidance to work through their challenges and potentials.

During the development of policy within the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines

Commission in 2008 (Mauer, 2009), where this type of analysis was considered, the

intentions and potential influence of inquiries of racial outcomes are well illustrated.

Smith 375