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Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Charges in Washington State Trial Courts
This dashboard describes disparity in chances of court-involvement for people grouped according to race, ethnicity, and gender. Disparity is presented in two sections:
Disparity Measures
- Case filings relative to population: This chart shows disparity in court involvement measured as the ratio of a demographic group (e.g., White females) share of those with cases filed to group share of state population aged 18 to 65. Values of 1 indicate equal representation, while values greater than 1 indicate group overrepresentation among those with cases filed in criminal courts.
- Caseload reduction targets: This chart shows the percentage by which cases filed in an overrepresented group would need to have been reduced in order for group chances of a case filing to be on par with that of the state’s White population.
Both measures can be filtered to view disparity and reduction targets by quarter, county, court level (i.e., municipal, district and/or superior), and gender (in binary, due to data limitations).
Disparity Drivers
- Which charges are driving disparity? This chart shows group overrepresentation in case filings as the number of people charged exceeding the point of parity (i.e., the difference between the number of people actually charged and the number of people who would have been charged if group chances of being charged were on par with that of the White population) for specific charge types.
- How do counties compare? This chart allows for comparison of county-level disparities in criminal case filings, showing the number of people exceeding the point of parity relative to local population.
Both charts can be filtered to view charge and county-level magnitudes of disparity by quarter, county, court level (i.e., municipal, district and/or superior), and gender (in binary).
If you have any questions about the statewide dashboard, please contact Karl Jones at karl.jones@courts.wa.gov.