Abstract: Baumgartner will discuss a book he is co-authoring with Marty Davidson and Kaneesha Johnson. The book is about whether the observed racial disparities in the criminal justice system are a sign of a broken system, or of a system working the way the legislature designed and expected it to work. They document various racial disparities and isolate certain parts of the criminal code that generate the largest ones. Then it goes to the historical archives to look at the legislative process generating those laws to assess the intent of the legislature. Results suggest that the system is not producing unintended consequences; rather, it is working as designed.

About the speaker: Frank R. Baumgartner holds the Richard J. Richardson Distinguished Professorship in the Department of Political Science at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is one of the country's leading scholars of the policy process and, with Bryan Jones, developed the punctuated equilibrium theory of policy change, a widely used concept in the field. His work has mostly focused on the US but many publications have used comparative perspectives. In recent years, he has focused on statistical studies of criminal justice issues, including the death penalty, racial disparities in traffic stop outcomes, and other issues. He is currently working on a number of projects relating to race and criminal justice outcomes. He was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017 and named a Guggenheim Fellow for the 2023-24 academic year.

This presentation will offer some observations on how researchers might manage tensions between the expectations of traditional ethics frameworks and a research approach that enacts community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles of respect, relationships, and reciprocity.

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