ryan d. king and brian d. johnson's, "a punishing look: skin tone and afrocentric features in the halls of justice," examines the relationship between afrocentric facial features, incarceration and skin tone. they extend the analysis of these variables to sentence type as well as length.
published in the american journal of sociology, the unique study matched detailed sentencing records from two minnesota counties with over 850 coded bookings of black and white males.
the researchers found afrocentricity, race and skin color were not associated with any significant disparities in lengths of imprisonment. but they influenced whether individuals were sentenced to prison - as opposed to being placed on probation or having their charge adjusted to a misdemeanor. afrocentric appearances also affected white defendants, even after accounting for hispanic surnames.
there is a disproportionate number of people of color who cycle in and out of the criminal justice system. more and more americans can no longer be easily defined by a single racial group. as such, king and johnson note the importance of continuing to further examine facial features and skin tone in the study of unequal punishment.
"if perceived race is becoming amorphous, then skin tone and afrocentric facial features are likely to become even more salient concepts in the future...even subtle differences in the racial appearance of offenders can tilt the scales of justice," researchers wrote.
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