Work

Complicating Colorism: Race, Skin Color, and the Likelihood of Arrest

Year: 2017

Type: article

Abstract: Both conventional public beliefs and existing academic research on colorism presuppose that variation in skin color predicts social outcomes among minorities but is inconsequential among whites. The authors draw on social psychological research on stereotyping to suggest that in quick, low-information decisions such as an arrest, the opposite may be true. Contrary to findings for longer-term socioeconomic outcomes, the authors find that black men’s probability of arrest remains constant across the spectrum of skin color, while white men’s probability of arrest decreases continuously with lighter skin. Beyond posing an exception to the modern conception of colorism, these results have implications for efforts to ameliorate the epidemic of incarceration among black men, as well as for understanding how elements of visible phenotype may serve as a unique category of predictors in models of social inequality.

Source: Socius Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

DOI: 10.1177/2378023117725611

Authors: Amelia R. Branigan, Christopher Wildeman, Jeremy Freese, Catarina I. Kiefe

Institutions: University of Illinois Chicago, Cornell University, Northwestern University, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Language: English

Topic: Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,000