INTRODUCTION: WHY IS THE "HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH" QUESTION
IMPORTANT?
Race differences in criminal involvement and racial pattems in the criminal justice system have been important topics since the beginning of
American criminology.' The question of whether there are meaningful racial disparities in the justice system has been important since the 1960s.^
In recent decades, a considerable literature focused on racial profiling by police and racial differences in imprisonment, sentencing, and other areas of criminal and juvenile justice processing has grown. There are both studies that report no significant racial differences in criminal justice processing and studies that report substantial differences. Taken together, how meaningful are observed differences? Wilbanks concludes that they are not.' He maintains that even in the studies that report statistically significant racial differences in criminal justice outcomes, the effect sizes are too small to really matter. In other words, Wilbanks argues that these
' Robert Crutchfield is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of
Washington. His research focuses on labor market participation and crime, and racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system. April Femandes is a Ph.D. student in the
Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. Her research interests include the fear of crime, neighborhood policing, and incarceration. Jorge Martinez is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Washington. His research focuses on immigration and crime, prison and street gangs, and deviance and social control.
' Hans von Hentig. Criminality of the Negro, 30 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY
662 (1940); F. Emory Lyon, Race Betterment and the Crime Doctors, 5 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L.
& CRIMINOLOGY 887 (1915); Booker T. Washington, Negro Crime and Strong Drink, 3 J.
AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 384 (1912).
^ See generally Donald Black & Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Police Control of Juveniles, 35 AM.
Soc. REV. 63 (1970); Irving Piliavin & Scott Briar, Police Encounters with Juveniles, 69
AM.J. Soc. 206(1964).
' WILLIAM WILBANKS, THE MYTH OF A RACIST CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (1987).
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904 CRUTCHFIELD, FERNANDES & MARTINEZ [Vol. 100 differences are not "too much." Other criminologists have been heard to say that while the difference is statistically significant, it really isn't enough to make a real, cognizable difference in daily life. We cannot help but wonder, though, if the minority driver pulled over a few extra times by profiling officers, or the Latino sentenced to just a bit more time in prison, or the African American with just a slightly higher probability of receiving a capital sentence would agree that small effect sizes can be dismissed as inconsequential. We began this Article by acknowledging that there is a wide range of research results, but we do not concede that only small effect sizes have been observed. Some studies find no racial or ethnic differences." Others find modest differences,' and some report rather substantial racial disparities in criminal justice processing.* Cleariy, if we compare
American criminal justice practices in the last decades of the twentieth century and the first of
