Alexander Roehrkasse

Racial and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration in the Early Twenty-First Century

December 1, 2021 • Scholarly Publications • By Christopher Muller and Alexander Roehrkasse

Oxford Academic, December 2021. [accordions] [accordion title="Abstract" load="hide"] The relative importance of racial and class inequality in incarceration in the United States has recently become the subject of much debate. In this paper, we seek to give this debate a stronger empirical foundation. First, we update previous research on racial and class inequality in people’s likelihood of being imprisoned. Then, we examine racial and class inequality in people’s risk of having a family member imprisoned or living in a high-imprisonment neighborhood. We find that racial inequality in prison admissions has fallen in the twenty-first century, while class inequality has surged. However, in recent years, Black people with high levels of education and income were more likely than white people with low levels of education and income to experience the imprisonment of a family member or to live in a neighborhood with a high imprisonment rate. These seemingly contradictory conclusions can be reconciled by the fact that enduring structures of racial domination have made class boundaries among Black people more permeable than they are among white people. Imprisonment in the United States is increasingly reserved for the poor. But because Black Americans are disproportionately connected to the poor through their families and neighborhoods, racial inequality exceeds class inequality in people’s indirect experiences with imprisonment. [/accordion] [/accordions]

Racial and Class Inequality in U.S. Incarceration in the Early Twenty-First Century

December 2, 2020 • Working Papers • By Christopher Muller and Alexander Roehrkasse

Abstract The relative importance of racial and class inequality in incarceration in the United States has recently become the subject of much debate. In this paper, we seek to give…

The Causes of Fraud in Financial Crises: Evidence from the Mortgage-Backed Securities Industry

October 1, 2015 • Working Papers • By Alexander Roehrkasse and Neil Fligstein

Abstract The financial crisis of 2007-2009 was marked by widespread fraud in the mortgage securitization industry. Most of the largest mortgage originators and mortgage-backed securities issuers and underwriters have been…

Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Financialization of Governance at the University of California

August 2, 2013 • Working Papers • By Adam Goldstein, Alexander Roehrkasse, Charlie Eaton, Jacob Habinek, Mukul Kumar and Tamera Lee Stover

Abstract This paper examines the recent changes in the relationships between public research universities and financial markets, using the University of California as a case study. Between 2003 and 2011,…