In this paper, I study the effects of race on incarceration rates from 1997 through 2013. Currently, there exists a racial disparity in the United States criminal justice system. With over 2.2 million people currently... [ view full abstract ]
In this paper, I study the effects of race on incarceration rates from 1997 through 2013. Currently, there exists a racial disparity in the United States criminal justice system. With over 2.2 million people currently incarcerated in the United states, the US houses one in every four prisoners in the entire world, making the US the leading country in incarceration rate per capita worldwide. Statista reports that, of the US population, African Americans make up 12.38%, Hispanics 17%, Whites 61.72%, and Mixed Race 2.05% (Statista, 2018). However, in the US prison system, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that African Americans make up 34% of the population where Caucasians make up 47% and Hispanics 16% (Minton, Todd D., et al., 2015). African Americans are over overrepresented in the prison population by nearly 22%, where whites are underrepresented by 14%. The literature on this topic identifies some key variables that may also explain this disparity in the US incarceration rate, of which I have controlled for in my OLS regression.These variables include the individual's level of education, previous arrest history, household location, parent's incarceration history, parent's presence in the household and race of the individual. I observe individuals from the 1997 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and their history as it relates to specific family, community, and individual characteristics as well as the individual’s race, as mentioned previously, to assess whether race is a significant variable as it relates to incarceration. While my results have shown that the model I have created does not identify all of the variables with significance to this topic, I show that race is a significant variable at the 5% level.
