The Shifting Color Line

Abstract Relative to the voluminous scholarship on racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system, far less research focuses on colorism, or differential treatment based on skin tone. This is increasingly problematic in a world in which race is understood to be a fluid social construct and intermarriage and immigration trends point to an increasingly diverse U.S. population. Although available studies suggest the color of a person’s skin affects their treatment in the legal system, there are important shortcomings and limitations in this work. This chapter argues that skin tone bias represents an increasingly important dimension of racial and ethnic inequality in the criminal legal system, and it calls for additional empirical research on colorism and punishment. The chapter discusses the historical origins of colorism, considers theoretical arguments for how and why it exists, provides a critical overview of empirical research on the topic, and outlines important directions for future work on the essential role that skin tone plays in the administration of justice in the American criminal legal system.