Disparity in Criminal Justice

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INTRODUCTION: WHY IS THE "HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH" QUESTION IMPORTANT? Race differences in criminal involvement and racial pattems in the criminal justice system have been important topics since the beginning of American criminology.' The question of whether there are meaningful racial disparities in the justice system has been important since the 1960s.^ In recent decades, a considerable literature focused on racial profiling by police and racial differences in imprisonment, sentencing, and other areas of criminal and juvenile justice processing has grown. There are both studies that report no significant racial differences in criminal justice processing and studies that report substantial differences. Taken together, how meaningful are observed differences? Wilbanks concludes that they are not.' He maintains that even in the studies that report statistically significant racial differences in criminal justice outcomes, the effect sizes are too small to really matter. In other words, Wilbanks argues that these ' Robert Crutchfield is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. His research focuses on labor market participation and crime, and racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system. April Femandes is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the fear of crime, neighborhood policing, and incarceration. Jorge Martinez is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. His research focuses on immigration and crime, prison and street gangs, and deviance and social control. ' Hans von Hentig. Criminality of the Negro, 30 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 662 (1940); F. Emory Lyon, Race Betterment and the Crime Doctors, 5 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 887 (1915); Booker T. Washington, Negro
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