Crime rates have dropped, and new laws and changes in the social structure of America have taken place, yet jails and prisons are still crammed with people of color in disproportionate numbers. Recently, The Sentencing Project provided a new report that attempts to provide answers on why racial disparity is still so prevalent:
Reevaluating Explanations for Racial Disparities
Darnell F. Hawkins attempts to sort through explanations for the racial disparities present in the American criminal justice system in light of declining crime rates, and criticizes academics for failing to make significant progress in producing cogent theories.
In Things Fall Apart: Revisiting Race and Ethnic Differences in Criminal Violence amidst a Crime Drop he argues that the presence of constant racial disparities in the criminal justice system despite drops in crime rates and changes in social conditions has undermined many theories meant to explain racial disparities. Much of this, according to Hawkins, is due to the tendency of researchers to rely heavily on quantitative skills and narrow variables and subjects.
The use of more encompassing theories, such as Robert Blauner's internal colonialism framework, is offered as a possible path forward in answering longstanding questions about racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
Source: The Sentencing Project
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