2021/03/01 by Aaron Gottlieb, Kalen Flynn · 1 citation
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems
paper · doi:10.1086/713922
crossref issued 2021/03/01 · crossref published 2021/03/01 · crossref published-print 2021/03/01 · openalex publication_date 2021/03/01 · crossref created 2021/05/06 · crossref deposited 2021/05/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
One common explanation for mass incarceration is that it is the latest in a series of institutions created to enforce the racial hierarchy in the United States. Despite this perspective’s prominence, it has been rarely tested empirically with extensive quantitative data. In this article, we begin to fill this gap by examining whether individuals charged with felonies experience worst-case outcomes when they are charged in counties that had high rates of slavery in 1860. Using multiple regression models that include state-year fixed effects and account for historical county-level factors and contemporary individual characteristics, we find that a criminal charge in a county with high levels of slavery in 1860 increases the likelihood of pretrial detention, the probability of a sentence of incarceration, and the length of incarceration sentences. These results hold for the full sample and for Black and White individuals separately.