New Research Highlight: RSF-Funded Research on Criminal Justice, Incarceration, and Law Enforcement
RSF has a long history of funding research projects, working groups, and visiting scholars, as well as publishing books and journal issues on criminal justice, incarceration, and law enforcement, with an emphasis on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities. Over the last 20 years, RSF has made about 80 grants that have resulted in over 60 journal publications, six books, and other publications.
RSF has also supported working groups on Law and Legitimacy (2000-2002) and Racial Bias in Policing (2009-2015) and a special initiative on Mass Incarceration (2000-2004). The working groups have helped build a national network of researcher and a series of start-up research projects and contributed to the training of a new generation of scholars. The Law and Legitimacy Working Group examined how policing methods influenced the climate of trust between minority communities and the policy and produced two issues of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences. The Working Group on Mass Incarceration analyzed the social and economic consequences of the surge in incarceration that began in the 1980s. RSF funded a dozen projects by Mass Incarceration working group members, totaling about $1.4 million. Additionally, this group produced six RSF books. The Working Group on Racial Bias in Policing focused on three related topics: the causes and consequences of racial profiling, the implications of requiring local police to enforce immigration laws, and the effects of organizational equity measures of police behavior. RSF provided substantial funding for organizational infrastructure to this working group, including field site visits to police departments and support for an annual research conference.