CLS Speaker Series featuring Dr. Ojmarrh Mitchell
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 11:15 AM to 1:00 PM EST
Online Location, Now virtual due to inclement weather!
CLS is excited to welcome Dr. Ojmarrh Mitchell to campus on Wednesday, February 12th. He will be giving a guest lecture as part of the CLS Speaker Series. The talk is open to all George Mason faculty, grad students, and staff.
There will be a catered lunch for CLS department members following his presentation where attendees can discuss Dr. Mitchell’s presentation and other research interests.
The talk is scheduled for 11:15-12:00, with lunch to follow from 12:00-1:00. Both will be held in Enterprise 318.
For more information regarding RSVPs, please reach out to Rachel Morgan (rmorga5@gmu.edu).
Title:
“Assessing Two Proposed Strategies for Ameliorating Ethnoracial Disparities in Felony Case Outcomes"
Abstract:
Ethnoracial disparities in sentencing outcomes have long been documented by empirical research. Prevailing solutions to these inequities have typically focused on reducing the discretionary powers of court actors as a means of promoting fairness in court case outcomes. However, discretion reduction has shown limited long-term success in addressing inequities in criminal courts. This study assesses the effectiveness of two strategies proposed as solutions to racial and ethnic disparities in court outcomes: (1) employing racially diverse court workgroups and (2) electing “progressive” chief prosecutors. Unlike most existing research, which examines only sentencing outcomes—a potentially biased subset of all cases—this study evaluates outcomes from arrest to disposition. The findings reveal that while one of the strategies is highly effective in reducing disparities, the other shows no discernible effect on case outcomes.
Presenter Bio:
Ojmarrh Mitchell is a professor in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine. He earned his Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland, with a doctoral minor in Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation. His research focuses on criminal justice policy, particularly in the areas of drug control, sentencing and corrections, and racial fairness in the criminal justice system.
Dr. Mitchell’s recent work investigates prosecutorial discretion and its impact on case processing, case outcomes, and ethnoracial disparities. His contributions to the study of racial and ethnic issues in the criminal justice system have been recognized with the W.E.B. Du Bois Award from the Western Society of Criminology and the National Institute of Justice’s W.E.B. Du Bois Fellows and Scholars awards.
Dr. Mitchell has served in various advisory roles, including positions with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Science Advisory Board, New York City’s Pretrial Research Advisory Council, and Philadelphia’s Pretrial Reform Advisory Council. He currently serves as Vice President of the American Society of Criminology and as Editor-in-Chief of Criminology & Public Policy.
