Race and Men’s Imprisonment in the United States: Religious Conservatism, Political Conservatism and Racial Threat

Black men are overrepresented in United States prisons and the number of Black men incarcerated increased dramatically during America’s “prison boom.” Yet, existing research on male imprisonment rates in the United States has focused on explaining overall rates and has not statistically modeled rates disaggregated by race over time. This study uses seemingly unrelated regression techniques to analyze annual rates of Black and non-Black men incarcerated in state prisons during the period of greatest increase in United States imprisonment rates. The findings show that increasing evangelical religious conservativism is associated with higher Black imprisonment rates and, importantly, this effect is “amplified” when state legislatures are more politically conservative. We also find that as Black populations increase, the punitive effect of religious conservatism is moderated or attenuated, and this holds for the incarceration of Black as well as non-Black men. In addition, consistent with a racial threat perspective, growth in Black populations in states is linked with increases in Black as well as non-Black male imprisonment rates. Together these effects emphasize the importance of examining imprisonment rates disaggregated by race and highlight the joint and conditional effects of religious conservatism, political conservatism, and racial threat for understanding imprisonment in the United States.