Latino Crime and Latinos in the Criminal Justice System: Trends, Policy Implications, and Future Research Initiatives

With exponential growth in the Latino population over the past decade, both social scientists and politicians have directed
their attention toward understanding Latino behavior(s) ranging from purchasing power and marketing to voting. Less is known,
however, about the extent to which Latino population growth might be associated with patterns of criminal justice or violent
criminal outcomes. One objective of this research is to provide a contemporary overview of the Latino experiences with the
criminal justice system by highlighting racial/ethnic disparities in incarceration and sentencing. Using racial-/ethnic-specific
homicide victimization data provided by the Centers for Disease Control, we also examine the impact of Latino concentration
on levels of group-specific homicide, both regionally and nationally. Results from our negative binomial multivariate analyses
indicate that the concentration of Latinos tends to be associated with lower levels of homicide victimization, a finding that
holds across racial/ethnic groups and geographic specification. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of these
findings with an eye toward future research in this area.