As racial disparities in the criminal context persist, studies of factors that might plausibly contribute likewise persist. One such inquiry, arising most notably in the death penalty context, considers the potential impact of cross-race defendant and victim effects on prosecutors' decisions to seek the death penalty. Relatively under-studied, however, includes potential cross-race defendant and prosecutor effects on conviction rates.
In a recent paper, Do Prosecutor and Defendant Race Pairings Matter? Evidence from Random Assignment, CarlyWill Sloan (USMA--econ) exploits quasi-random case assignments to prosecutors and misdemeanor case data (N=75,666) drawn from New York County's Early Case Assessment Bureau. Key results indicate variation across race and crime types and note "significant cross-race effects on conviction outcomes for property crimes, but not for drug, person, or other offenses. Specifically, Black defendants charged with property crimes are convicted at a rate 5 percentage points higher when assigned to a white prosecutor rather than a Black one (65 percent vs. 61 percent). White defendants, by contrast, show similar conviction rates regardless of prosecutor race."