2018/06/22 by Kevin Drakulich, Eric Rodriguez‐Whitney · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis #Crime Patterns and Interventions #Policing Practices and Perceptions
paper · doi:10.1002/9781119113799.ch1
openalex publication_date 2018/06/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The chapter provides an overview of theory and research concerning race and justice. The chapter begins by covering what is known, in particular describing the extreme racial inequalities in contact with the actors and institutions of the criminal justice system. Following this is a discussion of three broad explanations for the disparities—differential offending, systemic and policy bias, and bias on the part of individual actors—using the history of race in the United States and the state of knowledge about the meaning and impact of race to contextualize each explanation. The chapter concludes with a discussion of key theoretical, methodological, and substantive challenges facing work in the field, as well as potentially fruitful future directions.