Scientific research is a critical tool for successfully navigating our complex world. Without it, we would be forced to rely solely on intuition, other people’s authority, and blind luck. While many of us feel confident in our abilities to decipher and interact with the world around us, history is filled with examples of how very wrong we can be when we fail to recognize the need for evidence in supporting claims. At various times in history, we would have been certain that the sun revolved around a flat earth, that the earth’s continents did not move, and that mental illness was caused by possession. It is through systematic scientific research that we divest ourselves of our preconceived notions and superstitions and gain an objective understanding of ourselves and our world.

Specifically in the field of criminal justice, research is critical because it provides a scientific and evidence-based approach to understanding and addressing the complex problems and issues that arise in the justice system. Through research, criminal justice professionals can gain a better understanding of the root causes of crime, the effectiveness of different intervention programs, and the impact of various policies and practices on public safety and community well-being.

In addition, research helps to identify and address biases and disparities in the criminal justice system. Through rigorous and objective research, criminal justice professionals can better understand the factors that contribute to disparities in policing, sentencing, and other aspects of the justice system and develop evidence-based solutions to address these issues. Overall, research is critical in the field of criminal justice because it helps to promote evidence-based practices, improve outcomes, and ensure that the justice system operates fairly and equitably for all.

Statistics on “Other Groups”

Conducting research relies on gathering accurate and reliable data. When analyzing inequities within the Criminal Justice System, race and ethnicity are two of the variables gathered and considered in the research. However, how race and ethnicity are represented in the research can skew the data and cause challenges. For example, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB, n.d.) separates race into the following categories:

• American Indian or Alaska Native
• Asian
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
• White

And ethnicity into the following categories:

• Hispanic or Latino
• Not Hispanic or Latino

Simply using these categories can, in and of itself, cause inaccuracies in how one self-identifies, in that not everyone feels they fit into these groupings. Over the years, the OMB has conducted reviews of race and ethnicity categories and has made some changes, and yet many still do not feel they fit within these prescribed groups. For example, someone may identify with the ethnicity of Hispanic or Latino but may not identify with any of the prescribed race categories. Thus, if they chose to leave the race category blank the data would be incomplete, or if the race category was a required field, the person may feel compelled to just choose one of the options, even if they didn’t identify as it, thus providing inaccurate information.

Although researchers have the ability to expand these categories, if they so choose, this too can cause misinformation as some research may have more disaggregated data than others. Researchers are also not required to expand these categories, except in a few specific situations, like those in the state of New York, in which in December 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul signed New York State Law S.6639-A/A.6896-A. The law requires state agencies, boards, departments, and commissions to include more disaggregated options for Asian races, including Korean, Tibetan, and Pakistani, as well as more disaggregated options for Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander races to include Samoan and Marshallese (Governor Hochul Signs Package of Legislation to Address Discrimination and Racial Injustice, 2021).

This has led to a number of researchers including “other” categories, allowing individuals to thus choose if they don’t feel they identify with one of the specific categories. Some researchers have also included the fill-in-the blank model in which respondents then check the “other” box and specify their self-identified race. These two options, although more inclusive of self-identification, can lead to additional data reporting issues, in which researchers are not able to total the data due to too many variations in responses. This same concern can be applied in additional data collection categories as well when the category options are limited and thus have the potential to exclude certain individuals.

Statistics on Native American and Latinx

According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report in 2012, Native Americans were incarcerated at a rate that was 38% higher than the national average (Flanagin, 2015). More recent data suggest that in jails, 9,700 American Indian/Alaskan Native people—or 401 per 100,000 population—were held in local jails across the country as of late June 2018. That’s almost twice the jail incarceration rates of both white and Hispanic people (187 and 185 per 100,000, respectively) (Zen, 2018). In 19 states, they are more overrepresented in the prison population compared to any other race and ethnicity (Sakala, L., 2010). Between 2010 and 2015, the number of Native Americans incarcerated in federal prisons increased by 27% (Flanagin, 2015). In Alaska, data published by the 2010 US Census revealed that 38% of incarcerated people are American Indian or Alaskan Native despite the fact that they make up only 15% of the total population (Sakala, 2010). Native youth are highly impacted by the U.S. prison system, despite accounting for 1% of the national youth population, 70% of youth taken into federal prison are Native American (Lakota People’s Law Project, 2015). Native American men are admitted to prison at four times the rate of white men, and Native American women are admitted at six times the rate of white women (Lakota People’s Law Project, 2015).

Latinos are incarcerated at a rate about two times higher than non-Latino whites and are considered one of the fastest-growing minority groups incarcerated (Kopf & Wagner, 2015).

Licenses and Attributions for Impact on People’s Lives

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“Impact on People’s Lives” is adapted from “2.1 Why is Research Important – Introductory Psychology” by Kathryn Dumper, William Jenkins, Arlene Lacombe, Marilyn Lovett, and Marion Perimutter in Introductory Psychology, which is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Modifications by Trudi Radtke and Megan Gonzalez, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, include building on previous content.