Racial Disparities in the Iowa Criminal Justice System

Overview
The ratio of black citizens to white citizens incarcerated in Iowa has Results Conclusion
remained stable at about 13:1 since 1999, which is more than twice As my findings show, black citizens are incarcerated and placed into county jails at a rate
the national average of 6:1. During that time, nearly 24% of Iowans of up to 314 times more than white citizens. The average rate is 23:1 (shown in Chart 2).
Image 1
incarcerated have been black even though only 2% of the total Iowan As illustrated in Image 1, at least twenty counties incarcerate blacks at a rate of 16 to 314
population is black. In a 2010 ACLU report, black Iowans were reported times more than whites. I also found that incarceration rates and poverty rates are not
to be arrested eight times more than their white counterparts for correlated, as the correlation coefficient is .0703, and a low correlation requires a
marijuana possession despite equal usage rates. This research tracks coefficient of at least .3. This means racial disparities cannot be due to the income status
the ratio of black to white incarceration rates of Iowa citizens in the of blacks in Iowa, a common argument offered by those who are skeptical that racial
county jail system in order to continue the conversation of racial disparities are significant.
disparities in the Iowa Criminal Justice System. This research also
examines the relationship between poverty rates and incarceration
rates in Iowa.
Correlation Coefficient Chart 1 Additional Information
Research Design • bwpovr bwir Black Alone Poverty and
To collect data for this research study, I gathered information on: Image 2 • ------------------------------- Incarceration Rates in Iowa
• the total number of people in each county jail and their racial bwpovr 1.0000
demographics • Image 4
• the political ideologies of each county based on the percentage of bwir 0.0703 1.0000
votes given to Barack Obama and Mitt Romney • 0.5603
• the total number of black and white citizens living in poverty in
each county Note: bwpovr = black to white poverty rate and
• the total county populations, including counts of how many of bwir = black to white incarceration rate
them are black and white Summary Statistics Chart 2
Research Method
• To analyze racial disparities, we create a ratio between black and Image 3 • Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
white incarceration rates in county jails, as mapped in Image 1. • ---------------------------------------------------------------------
• This Ratio tells us what counties have larger disparities. • bwir 71 23.0745 54.11589 0 314.6786
As the ratio gets larger, more blacks are arrested for every Image 5
one white person. Note: bwir = black incarceration rate
• To analyze the relationship between poverty rates and incarceration
rates, we correlate the two variables, as displayed in Image 3.
• Correlations are used to understand whether a change in
one variable directly affects the change in another.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Associate Professor Rene Rocha and Graduate
Teaching Assistant Elizabeth Maltby from the Political Science
Department for their valuable guidance throughout the research and
data collection process.

Presented by: Austin James Dyami Adams, Class of 2018