Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Prison Admissions Across Counties: An Evaluation of Racial/Ethnic Threat, Socioeconomic Inequality, and Political Climate Explanations

Previous macro-level studies of racial and ethnic disparities in prison admissions have focused narrowly on differences in offending and have limited their analyses to national- and state-level data. This study explores three alternative explanations for inequality in prison admissions for Blacks and Latinos compared to Whites: racial/ethnic threat, socioeconomic inequality, and the political and legal climate. I analyze data from multiple county- and state-level sources and employ hierarchical linear modeling techniques to examine the role of both county- and state-level factors in producing inequality in county-level prison admission rates. Findings indicate that Black–White disparities are lower in jurisdictions with greater shares of Black citizens; however, the reverse is true for Latino–White inequality. For both comparisons, political conservatism is associated with less inequality. Results also indicate that counties with greater parity in income and employment across race/ethnicity and that are located in the South have reduced racial/ethnic disparities in prison admissions. I argue that the presence of large shares of African Americans and of Republican voters, in addition to southern location, are likely better indicators of total prison admission rates than of racial/ethnic disparities in prison admissions.