Extensive research challenges the assertion that racial disparities in police stops and searches are adequately explained by aggregate crime rates, attributing these discrepancies to flawed methodological assumptions and self-perpetuating enforcement patterns.
Newly released traffic stop data from the Vallejo Police Department, compiled under the California Racial and Identity Profiling Act (RIPA), indicates that Black drivers continue to be subjected to disproportionately higher rates of police stops compared to other racial and ethnic groups, renewing concerns regarding racial disparities in local policing practices.
A recent report issued by The Sentencing Project contends that felony murder statutes significantly contribute to mass incarceration and racial disparities within the U.S. criminal legal system, thereby prompting renewed calls for nationwide policy reform.
Analysis of the United States foster care system indicates a structural design that financially incentivizes the removal of children from their biological families. This framework directs taxpayer funds towards foster care agencies and foster parents, while providing no direct financial assistance to biological parents seeking to maintain family unity. This incentive structure, according to observers, prioritizes child removal and prolonged placement within the system over efforts toward family reunification.
A recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI) details the historical role of race in South Carolina’s capital punishment system. The findings indicate that the state’s death penalty administration has disproportionately affected Black defendants for over 150 years, citing systemic racial disparities.
The Vera Institute of Justice launched its Motion for Justice campaign, which convenes prosecutors’ offices and system-impacted communities to pilot or expand community-centered diversion programs designed to promote racial equity and reduce mass incarceration.
A report by the Texas Defender Service found that Tarrant County is an outlier in Texas for its aggressive pursuit of death sentences, particularly against racial and ethnic minorities, with 92% of death sentences sought by Tarrant County prosecutors since 2012 being against minorities.
The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation released a research brief finding that approximately 75,000 people in the US were shot by a criminal assailant in 2024, yet police failed to arrest the shooter in almost two-thirds of those shootings, calling for urgent reforms to how law enforcement investigates gun violence.
A new report from the Policing Project at NYU Law School argues that traffic safety policy in the US should focus on evidence-based infrastructure and design interventions, rather than relying heavily on police enforcement, as the latter has failed to significantly reduce fatalities and can exacerbate existing inequities.
Police body-worn cameras have been shown to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system by increasing transparency and accountability, according to a North Carolina study from 2014 to 2019.
The Institute to End Mass Incarceration published a forum essay arguing that the ambiguous and racialized categorization of people with felony convictions, and their exclusion from possessing firearms, is unethical and perpetuates violence and death.
The Prison Policy Initiative has published data showing rising prison populations, disproportionate growth of women’s incarceration rates, racial disparities, and the vast number of people affected by the punishment system, highlighting the need for policies that will permanently reduce prison populations.
Studies summarized by the Death Penalty Information Center indicate that the race of a victim plays an important role in death penalty sentencing outcomes, with cases involving white victims more likely to result in capital charges and death sentences than cases involving nonwhite victims.
New York has dramatically reduced drug arrests, convictions and incarceration over the last two decades, but racial disparities and unequal access to treatment alternatives still persist.
The Prison Policy Initiative report reveals that 5.5 million people in the US are under some form of correctional control, with the majority on probation or parole, and that these systems often lead to reincarceration rather than true alternatives.
A new report from The Sentencing Project finds that restorative justice diversion programs consistently produce better outcomes than traditional juvenile court processing, reducing reoffending, improving victim satisfaction and fostering more meaningful accountability.
The California Civil Rights Department has released data showing that significant pay disparities persist across gender and racial lines in California, particularly among large private-sector employers.
The modern-day implications of California’s 1994 “three strikes” law were highlighted in an arraignment of an elderly, wheelchair-bound man facing two new charges, demonstrating the racial disparities and outdated nature of the law.
Judge Scott Millington held the accused in the attempted murder case to all six counts, including attempted murder, while criticizing San Francisco in-custody policies and making comments that prompted concern in a separate case.
The Sentencing Project’s article cites evidence that increasing prison sentences based on criminal history does not improve public safety and disproportionately harms people of color, and proposes that criminal records should account for no more than 10% of sentence lengths for 10-year or longer sentences.