Racial Inequality in the Military

MPRC faculty associate David Segal (Sociology) argues that ignoring military employment has ramifications for understanding racial inequality both inside and outside the military. Currently, the military is the single largest employer in the U.S. Over 1.4 million people serve in the military, and the military provides benefits for an additional 1.9 million dependents.

In his Population Bulletin, published by the Population Reference Bureau, Segal documents the disproportionate presence of racial and ethnic minorities in the military with African American men being over-represented in the military by a factor of 2, and women by a factor of 3. While African Americans remain under-represented in the officer class, there has been growing equality in rank between African Americans and whites in the military. Segal argues that the military is seen as one of the few employers in the U.S. with relative equality in economic outcomes. This has attracted increasing number of African Americans, and more and more African Americans with higher levels of skills. In more recent work, Segal considers what effect the increasing presence of African Americans in the military has on estimates of racial disparities on civilian labor force statistics such as racial differences in young adult unemployment rates. He finds that the skimming of more talented African Americans into the military over the past 35 years accounts for a substantial amount of the rise in measured racial differences in unemployment rates in the civilian labor force statistics.

Racial Disparity in the Application of the Death Penalty

In an important study, MPRC faculty associate Raymond Paternoster (Criminology) investigated racial disparity in the application of the death penalty in Maryland. Surprisingly, he found that the race of the defendant plays little role in death penalty decisions. However, the race of the victim was of paramount importance, even after controlling for a host of factors known to be correlated with race and the application of the death penalty. The study found that prosecutors were more likely to seek the death penalty against those who killed whites than against those who killed nonwhites, and that prosecutors were less likely to compromise on a penalty other than death. Further, jury behavior was not influenced by the race of the victim. Prosecutorial discretion in seeking the death penalty created an effect that held up through sentencing. Then-Governor Glendening instituted a moratorium on the death penalty in Maryland based on these findings. These results are summarized in Paternoster’s forthcoming book, America’s Experiment with the Death Penalty (co-authored with fellow MPRC faculty affiliates Robert Apel and Shawn Bushway.