Social control and neglect at a crossroads
Unpacking the interactive effects of residential segregation and violence on pretrial detention
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12664941 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paige E Vaughn (0000-0003-4886-0870, University of South Carolina, corresponding author), Joshua H Williams (0000-0003-3280-4268, University of Minnesota, Duluth) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Punishment & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1462-4745 • E-ISSN: 1741-3095 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/14624745261433556 |
| OpenAlex | W7139982401 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 71 |
Racial segregation and violent crime are both important predictors of jurisdiction-level criminal justice outcomes, yet little research has examined their influences on front-end detention patterns and how they may interact to shape local punishment practices. The current study uses official sources and Vera Institute of Justice data spanning 1496 decennial county-years (374 counties from 1980 to 2010) to examine the independent and combined effects of county-level racial segregation and violent crime on pretrial detention rates. Drawing on group threat and minority neglect arguments, we find that high segregation levels are associated with neglect, especially in violent areas. Reduced segregation between Black and White populations, however, is linked with increased punishment, particularly in areas with high levels of violence
Criminal justice · Economic Justice · Neglect · Punishment (psychology · Social control · Unpacking · Violent crime · White (mutation · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
Stuck in Place
Judges and Their Audiences
A Multilevel Test of Minority Threat Effects on Sentencing
Justice by Geography
Concentrated Disadvantage and the Incarceration of Youth
Elucidating the Role of Place in Health Care Disparities
A Caution Regarding Rules of Thumb for Variance Inflation Factors
Revisiting the Minority Threat Perspective
The Pretrial Detention Penalty
Social Threat and Social Control
Punished
Benefits of Segregation for White Communities
Segregation as a Source of Contextual Advantage
Neo-Institutional Analyses of Criminal Legal Organizations and Policies
How do county-level ethno-racial composition and residential segregation influence pretrial decisions? Results from a multi-level, multi-decade study
Power to the people
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States
Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing Declined
How Long are Exposures to Poor Neighborhoods? The Long-Term Dynamics of Entry and Exit from Poor Neighborhoods
A Research Note on Trends in Black Hypersegregation
The effects of devaluation and solvability on crime clearance
Conflict theory and racial profiling
The impact of neighborhood crime levels on police use of force
The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing
The Multilevel Context of Criminal Sentencing
Racial Composition of Neighborhood and Fear of Crime
Racial Threat, Concentrated Disadvantage and Social Control
Bilevel Disparities in Court Dispositions for Intimate Assault
Disproportionate Black and Hispanic Unemployment in U.S. Metropolitan Areas
Structural Variations in Juvenile Court Processing
Violent-Crime Rates and Racial Composition
Public Opinion and Federal Judicial Policy
Police Are Our Government
The Political Context of Sentencing
Segregation and Crime
Racial Segregation and Black Urban Homicide
Criminal Justice in Rural and Urban Communities
A Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship between Labor Surplus and Pretrial Incarceration
Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime
Race, Segregation, and the Concentration of Disadvantage
An Integration of Theories to Explain Judicial Discretion
The Social Contexts of Racial Discrimination in Sentencing
Macrostructural Analyses of Race, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime
The Effects of Racial/Ethnic Segregation on Latino and Black Homicide
Does Race Matter in Neighborhood Preferences? Results from a Video Experiment
Segregation, Racial Structure, and Neighborhood Violent Crime
Less Crime, More Punishment
American Apartheid
Jurisdictional context and the (over)use of pretrial detention
Patterns of local segregation
Structural bias in the sentencing of felony defendants
Racial diversity and change in metropolitan neighborhoods
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |