Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

Across American societal institutions, a punitive culture of control and surveillance has manifested in a variety of ways, including exponential growth in incarceration rates and school suspension rates over the last four decades. To date, much of the scholarship exploring the relationship between criminal justice outcomes and school-based outcomes has focused primarily on how school punishment is consequential for future involvement in the justice system. What remains unclear, however, is whether an alternative relationship exists. That is, does a culture of control foster an environment where punitiveness in the criminal justice system is mirrored by punitiveness within schools? Drawing on carceral perspectives and place-based stratification theories and analyzing a random sample of Florida middle and high schools combined with school district data, several key findings emerge. Specifically, Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be suspended in places with higher incarceration rates; all students are more likely to be suspended in places with greater concentrated disadvantage; and Black and Hispanic students are significantly more likely to be suspended when attending schools in places with high incarceration rates and greater concentrated disadvantage. These findings highlight the interconnectedness of place and social control in the school setting.

Missouri has been a part of the national discussion on racial profiling for several years—most recently with the NAACP’s issuance of a statewide travel advisory warning Black motorists of high disproportionality in vehicle stops. In their annual reports of stop data, agencies can submit a response to explain their numerical data. This study inductively analyzes the content of these written responses (N = 806), which were submitted between 2001 and 2019. Findings indicate that agency responses contain rationales in accordance with a sense of group position, with explanations for stops, searches, and arrests of motorists of color framed in terms of outsiders as a problematic influx upon insider spaces. The responses also show that the explanations are more about policing place than a legitimate effort at maintaining safety of the jurisdiction. The results of this study have several important implications for research, theory, and policy.

Racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system have been well documented in prior research. Despite this, few studies have explored the extent of disparities after accepting a plea bargain compared with proceeding to trial. The distinction between plea bargaining and going to trial is highlighted because judicial officials are more constrained by the law when making punitive decisions following a trial. Thus, there should be fewer disparities in punitive outcomes among defendants who went to trial. Using Florida Sentencing Guidelines data from 2010 to 2017 combined with county-level data from the 2010 United States Census, the current study contributes to prior research by investigating whether the size of the Black and Latino populations influences disparities in punitive outcomes among Black, White, and Latino defendants after accepting a plea bargain and going to trial. The results suggest that Blacks sentenced in counties with a growing Black population are less likely to receive a jail sentence but more likely to receive a prison sentence after accepting a plea bargain. However, they are less likely to receive a prison sentence after proceeding to trial when sentenced in areas with a larger share of Black residents. In contrast, Latino defendants who accept a plea bargain are more likely to receive a jail sentence but less likely to be sentenced to prison in areas with a growing ethnic presence. Furthermore, Black defendants sentenced in areas with a change in Black populations receive shorter sentences after accepting a plea bargain. Our analyses provide an intricate story about race/ethnicity, place, and threat in the state of Florida. Overall, the results show that the social context matters, but differently pertaining to punishment outcomes disposed of by plea bargains and trials.

Social science theory and research have linked racial diversity to both positive and negative outcomes for communities. Research has also demonstrated that the effects of demographic indicators sometimes vary across space and time. This complex web of results calls for examinations of the spatial and temporal elements at play in this relationship. Using spatial lag models, I analyze the relationship between racial diversity—both as a static measurement and as the 20-year change—and crime in four distinct neighborhood clusters in Philadelphia, PA. I first find evidence of spatial heterogeneity—that racial diversity predicts lower crime rates in one community, but higher crime rates in another. Second, the change in racial diversity influences crime in ways that differ from the static diversity measure. These results provide support for both competing hypotheses regarding the racial diversity–crime connection while also underscoring the role of spatiotemporal contexts in illuminating the dynamism of neighborhood processes.