An individual’s interaction with the criminal justice system is not necessarily a random event: Research shows that beginning from birth, various factors including disability, race, gender, and economic status result in disproportionate impact on subpopulations in a way that makes them more likely to engage with the criminal justice system. These factors, and policies that alleviate or compound existing inequities will be examined using the Cradle to Prison Pipeline framework. 

This report examines a concept called the “cradle to prison pipeline.” It is a review of some of the basic statistics at each stage of this pipeline: childhood, school, juvenile justice, early adulthood, and imprisonment. For each stage, we present basic trends and disparities across race, place, gender, and other demographic variables.

Research has shown that highlighting racial disparities can actually increase support for policies that perpetuate inequality, such as “stop and frisk.” With caution, this report maintains a focus on disparities, particularly between Black and white residents, because those are indicative of problems within systems and not the inherent criminality of individuals or populations.