How do county-level ethno-racial composition and residential segregation influence pretrial decisions? Results from a multi-level, multi-decade study
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12664255 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joshua H Williams (0000-0003-3280-4268, University of Minnesota, Duluth, corresponding author), Paige E Vaughn (0000-0003-4886-0870, Spring Hill College), M Vogel (0000-0002-3996-2237, School of Criminal Justice, University of Albany, Albany, NY, USA) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 530-553 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-26 |
| 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 | 10.1177/14624745241308582 |
| OpenAlex | W4405854678 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 86 |
The American criminal legal system is characterized by deeply entrenched racial and ethnic disparities. Given that aggregate criminal legal system outcomes are a function of decisions made by police, prosecutors, judges, and other local actors, it is reasonable to expect that localized punishment decisions are contingent on the racial and ethnic dynamics within a community. However, there is a dearth of research examining the impact of community characteristics on pretrial case-processing outcomes. The current study explores the impact of county-level minority composition and segregation on pretrial decision-making. Drawing from a sample of 31,974 felony defendants across 64 large urban counties, we examine the relationships between community racial and ethnic composition and segregation on release on recognizance, bail denial, and bail amount decisions. Our findings reveal that minority composition and segregation directly influence court case processing, and they operate in contrasting ways across different decision points. The findings underscore the importance of community characteristics above and beyond individual-level factors in determining pretrial decisions
Composition (language · Criminology · Demographic economics · Economics · Ethnic composition · Ethnic group · Geography · Political science · Race (biology · Racial composition · Sociology · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Gender Studies · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Psychology · Urban, Neighborhood, and Segregation Studies
American apartheid
Racial and ethnic disparity in pretrial criminal processing
A Multilevel Test of Minority Threat Effects on Sentencing
A Multilevel Analysis of Community Effects on Criminal Sentencing
Social context and racial disparities in punishment decisions
Prosecutorial Discretion and the Imposition of Mandatory Minimum Sentences
The color of law
Toward a Theory of Minority Group Relations
Disparities in Youth Arrest Across Racial and Ethnic Subgroups
Revisiting the Minority Threat Perspective
The Pretrial Detention Penalty
Group Threat, Same-Sex Marriage, and Hate Crime Based on Sexual Orientation
Impact of risk assessment on judges’ fairness in sentencing relatively poor defendants
Contested Neighborhood Boundaries and Intergroup and Intragroup Violence
Social Threat and Social Control
Building a Black Criminology, Volume 24
Reassessing and Redirecting Research on Race and Sentencing
Recent Developments and New Directions in Sentencing Research
The Effect of Residential Segregation on Black Social and Economic Well-Being
Public Opinion and Criminal Justice Policy
Group Threat and Social Control
Cumulative Disadvantage in the American Criminal Justice System
Bail and Pretrial Detention
Responsive Justice
Neighborhood context and racial/ethnic disparities in judicial processing
Mass incarceration, legal change, and locale
Is the Impact of Cumulative Disadvantage on Sentencing Greater for Black Defendants
Deadly Symbiosis
Thresholds for tolerance
Have Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing Declined
The interaction of residential segregation and employment discrimination
The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing
Examining the Generality of the Unemployment–crime Association
The Multilevel Context of Criminal Sentencing
State Prison Populations and Their Growth, 1971–1991
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Pretrial Release Decisions and Outcomes
Racial Threat, Partisan Politics, and Racial Disparities in Prison Admissions
Racial Threat, Concentrated Disadvantage and Social Control
Sentencing in Context
Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position
Neighborhoods, Criminal Incidents, Race, and Sentencing
How Public Opinion Constrains the U.S. Supreme Court
Accountability and Coercion
A meta-analytic test of intergroup contact theory
Perceptions of Racial Group Competition
Sentencing and State-Level Racial and Ethnic Contexts
How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations
Who Controls Criminal Law? Racial Threat and the Adoption of State Sentencing Law, 1975 to 2012
The Political Context of Sentencing
Segregation and Crime
Racial Segregation and Black Urban Homicide
Perceived Racial and Ethnic Composition of Neighborhood and Perceived Risk of Crime
Toward a Marxian Theory of Deviance
Racial Threat and Social Control
Race and Cumulative Discrimination in the Prosecution of Criminal Defendants
The Changing Face of Racial Discrimination
The Dynamics of Racial Residential Segregation
Segregation and Group Threat
Contested Boundaries
Social Organization, Collective Sentiment, and Legal Sanctions in Murder Cases
Segregation, Racial Structure, and Neighborhood Violent Crime
Community (Dis)Organization and Racially Motivated Crime
Racial Context and Police Force Size
Social Structure and Crime Control Among Macrosocial Units
Structural bias in the sentencing of felony defendants
The typification of Hispanics as criminals and support for punitive crime control policies
Residential segregation in new Hispanic destinations
Are Hispanics the new 'Threat'? Minority group threat and fear of crime in Miami-Dade County
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |