The Core Curriculum: Module 3

Racial Capitalism—Race, Crime and Incarceration Policy in the United States

Morgan C. Williams Jr.
This module examines the role of crime, incarceration policy, and institutions in driving contemporary discussions on criminal justice reform through the prism of race.

Description

Recent momentum behind criminal justice reform permitted new discussions concerning incarceration policy and punishment in the United States. However, some of these reform efforts are being questioned in the wake of (perceived) post-pandemic changes in criminal behavior.
This module examines the role of crime, incarceration policy, and institutions in driving contemporary discussions on criminal justice reform through the prism of race. The module will provide students with an opportunity to critically examine how behaviors such as racial stereotypes and stigma influence a variety of issues at the center of criminal justice reform—including racial disparities in crime, law enforcement strategy, sentencing outcomes, and prisoner reentry into the labor market. Students will ultimately learn that even as a pure social construct, race plays a vital role in shaping both social policy and outcomes related to criminal justice reform. 

Topics/ Learning Objectives

Learning objectives for this module include: 

  • Demonstrating their proficiency in prominent research existing at the intersection of race,  crime, and criminal justice. 
  • Assessing, presenting, and writing on high-quality academic research spanning the social sciences concerning race, crime, and criminal justice. 
  • Evaluating and critiquing contemporary public discourse on topics related to race, crime, and criminal justice.

Required Material

Race, Incarceration, and American Values by Glenn C. Loury (MIT Press, 2008)

Find Online, or your local library

The Anatomy of Racial Inequality by Glenn C. Loury (Harvard University Press, 2009)

Find on Bookshop, Online, or your local library

The Economics of Race in the United States by Brendan O’Flaherty (Harvard University Press, 2015)

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The Nature, Detection, and Avoidance of Harmful Discrimination in Criminal Justice by Brendan O’Flaherty, Rajiv Sethi, & Morgan Williams Jr. (2024).

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Shadows of Doubt: Stereotypes, Crime, and the Pursuit  of Justice by Brendan O’Flaherty and Sethi Rajiv (Harvard University Press, 2019)

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Punishment and Inequality in America by Bruce Western (Russell Sage Foundation, 2006)

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Readings and Assignments Schedule

Reading:

Loury, Glenn C. The Anatomy of Racial Inequality. Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 1-54.  Your local library

Darity Jr, William A. “Position and Possessions: Stratification Economics and Intergroup  Inequality.” Journal of Economic Literature 60, No. 2 (2022): 400-426. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

O’Flaherty, Brendan, Rajiv Sethi, and Morgan Williams Jr. “Profiling in Criminal  Justice.” Available at SSRN 4178428 (2022). Your local library

Small, Mario L., and Devah Pager. “Sociological Perspectives on Racial  Discrimination.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 34, No. 2 (2020): 49-67. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Assignment due: Short paper 1

Reading:

Heller, Sara B., Brian A. Jacob, and Jens Ludwig. “Family Income, Neighborhood Poverty,  and Crime.” Controlling Crime: Strategies and Tradeoffs, pp. 419-459. University of  Chicago Press, 2010. Your local library

Sampson, Robert J. and William Julius Wilson (1995). “Towards a Theory of Race, Crime,  and Urban Inequality”. In: ed. by John Hagan and Ruth D. Peterson. Stanford, CA: Stanford  University, Press. Chap. 2, pp. 37–56. Your local library

O’Flaherty, Brendan, and Rajiv Sethi. Shadows of Doubt: Stereotypes, Crime, and the Pursuit  of Justice. Harvard University Press, (Chapter 4) pp. 63-76, 2019. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

Freedman, Matthew, Emily Owens, and Sarah Bohn. “Immigration, Employment  Opportunities, and Criminal Behavior.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 10,  No. 2 (2018): 117-51. Your local library

Butcher, Kristin, and Anne Piehl. “Why are Immigrants’ Incarceration Rates So Low?  Evidence on Selective Immigration, Deterrence, and Deportation.” No. w13229, National  Bureau of Economic Research (2007). Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

Chalfin, Aaron, Benjamin Hansen, Emily K. Weisburst, and Morgan C. Williams Jr. “Police  Force Size and Civilian Race.” American Economic Review: Insights 4, No. 2 (2022): 139- 58.  Your local library

Ba, Bocar A., Dean Knox, Jonathan Mummolo, and Roman Rivera. “The Role of Officer  Race and Gender in Police-Civilian Interactions in Chicago.”Science 371, No. 6530 (2021):  696-702. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Assignment due: Short paper 2

Reading:

Pierson, Emma, Camelia Simoiu, Jan Overgoor, Sam Corbett-Davies, Daniel Jenson, Amy  Shoemaker, Vignesh Ramachandran et al. “A Large-Scale Analysis of Racial Disparities in  Police Stops Across the United States.” Nature Human Behaviour 4, No. 7 (2020): 736-745.  Your local library

Fox‐Williams, Brittany N. “The Rules of (Dis) Engagement: Black Youth and Their  Strategies for Navigating Police Contact.”Sociological Forum, Vol. 34, No. 1, (2019): 115- 137.

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

Loury, Glenn C. The Anatomy of Racial Inequality. Harvard University Press, pp. 55-107,  2009. Your local library

Feigenberg, Benjamin, and Conrad Miller. “Racial Divisions and Criminal Justice: Evidence  From Southern State Courts.” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 13, No. 2  (2021): 207-40.  Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Assignment due: Short paper 3

Reading:

Arnold, David, Will Dobbie, and Crystal S. Yang. “Racial Bias in Bail Decisions.” The  Quarterly Journal of Economics 133, No. 4 (2018): 1885-1932.  Your local library

Anwar, Shamena, Patrick Bayer, and Randi Hjalmarsson. “The Impact of Jury Race in  Criminal Trials.”The Quarterly Journal of Economics 127, No. 2 (2012): 1017-1055. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

Pfaff, John. “Chapter 5: The Man Behind the Curtain.” Locked In: The True Causes of Mass  Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform. Basic Books, 2017. Your local library

Rehavi, M. Marit, and Sonja B. Starr. “Racial Disparity in Federal Criminal  Sentences.”Journal of Political Economy 122, No. 6 (2014): 1320-1354. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

Loury, Glenn C. “Self-Censorship in Public Discourse: A Theory of “Political Correctness” and Related Phenomena.” Rationality and Society 6, No. 4, (1994): 428-461. Your local library

Noelle‐Neumann, Elisabeth. “The Spiral of Silence a Theory of Public Opinion.” Journal of  Communication 24, No. 2 (1974): 43-51. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Assignment due: First Draft of Final Paper

Reading:

Ludwig, Jens, and Sendhil Mullainathan. “Fragile Algorithms and Fallible Decision-Makers:  Lessons from the Justice System.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 35, No. 4, (2021): 71- 96. Your local library

Angwin, Julia, Jeff Larson, Surya Mattu, and Lauren Kirchner. “Machine Bias.” ProPublica,  May 23, 2016.

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Reading:

Pager, Devah. “The Mark of a Criminal Record.” American Journal of Sociology 108, No. 5,  (2003): 937-975. Your local library

Agan, Amanda, and Sonja Starr. “Ban the Box, Criminal Records, and Racial  Discrimination: A Field Experiment.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 133, No. 1  (2018): 191-235. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Assignment due: Final Paper

Reading:

Loury, Glenn C. The Anatomy of Racial Inequality. Harvard University Press, 2009, pp. 109- 169. Your local library

Bell, Monica C. “Next-Generation Policing Research: Three Propositions.”Journal of  Economic Perspectives 35, No. 4, (2021): 29-48. Your local library

See helpful resources for supplemental readings

Expectations and Assessments

Class Attendance and Participation 

Students are expected to attend, and be active participants in, all sessions. In order for us all to  contribute to a lively classroom environment throughout

the module, students are fully expected  to have completed all of the required readings and should come prepared to answer questions  throughout that section’s lecture. 

Grading Rubric for Assignments

1. Discussion Leadership and Participation (20%) 

2. Short Paper Assignments (40%) 

3. Final Paper (40%) 

Discussion Leadership and Participation: 

All students are fully expected to have completed, and be ready to discuss, the required readings  each week. However, each session one student will be responsible for leading our discussion of that  sessions’s topic based on the required readings and scholarly (yet supplementary) materials that they  might wish to incorporate into our discussion. Discussion leadership will take the form of a formal presentation (25-30 minutes each) and unambiguously should not be a summary of the required readings. Instead, all discussion leader presentation slides should contain the following: 

• Brief summary of the readings (2 slides)

• Identification of central themes (3-4 slides) 

• Critique of the readings (3 slides) 

• Discussion and Context (2-3 slides) 

• Proposal of 2-3 discussion questions (1 slide) 

Discussion assignments will be made available very early in the semester and discussion leaders  should consult with me at least one before their assigned week to chat about your proposed  questions for the class that week. 

Short Paper Assignments: 

During the first half of the semester, students will prepare three short papers (3-4 pages) on a given  topic chosen by the professor. A prompt for each short paper will be provided before each due date. In preparing your submission, students are strongly encouraged to consult other scholarly work from the list of helpful resources (i.e., peer reviewed publications and technical reports not formally  discussed in the course). Please abstain from citing  any anecdotal evidence, personal experiences, or referencing any other form of non-scholarly  work. 

Final Paper: 

During the second half of the semester, students will complete a final paper (10-12 pages) on a  topic of their choosing that is relevant to the course. All students must consult and receive approval  from the instructor during the first half of the semester before proceeding with a desired topic.

Suggested Structure

Seminar-style to facilitate small group conversations.

Suggested Assessment Tools

  • Discussion Leadership and Participation 
  • Short Paper Assignments  
  • Final Paper

Helpful Resources

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See Resources
Student Syllabus
Description
Topics/ Learning Objectives
Required Material
Readings and Assignments Schedule
Expectations and Assessments
Materials for Instructors and Facilitators
Suggested Structure
Suggested Assessment Tools
Helpful Resources