Eric Baumer, Allen E. Liska Professor of Criminology, received a two year grant from the National Science Foundation for a project entitled “A Temporal and Spatial Analysis of Sex, Race, and Ethnic Disparities in the Probability of Incarceration.” The accumulated social science evidence suggests that black and Hispanic convicted defendants tend to be significantly more likely than white defendants to receive a sentence of imprisonment, and that convicted females are significantly less likely to be sentenced to prison than males.

This project focuses on whether these demographic disparities in the probability of incarceration have changed during the past two decades in American urban areas and whether any observed changes are associated with other social, economic, and political shifts that have occurred during the same period.

The results will illuminate the social conditions and public policies that characterize places in which racial, ethnic, and gender disparities are smaller and where they have declined most significantly during the past two decades.