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Contagious Animosity in the Field: Evidence from the Federal Criminal Justice System

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Listed:
  • Brendon McConnell
  • Imran Rasul

Abstract

We investigate whether increased animosity toward Muslims after 9/11 had spillover effects on Black and Hispanic individuals in the federal criminal justice system. Using linked administrative data tracking defendants from arrest through sentencing, we find that after 9/11, sentence and presentence outcomes for Hispanic defendants significantly worsened. Outcomes for Black defendants were unchanged. The findings are consistent with judges and prosecutors displaying social preferences characterized by contagious animosity from Muslims to Hispanics. Our findings provide among the first field evidence of contagious animosity, indicating that social preferences across out-groups are interlinked and malleable.

Suggested Citation

  • Brendon McConnell & Imran Rasul, 2021. "Contagious Animosity in the Field: Evidence from the Federal Criminal Justice System," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(3), pages 739-785.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlabec:doi:10.1086/711180
    DOI: 10.1086/711180
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    Cited by:

    1. Tabellini, Marco & Fouka, Vasiliki, 2020. "Changing In-Group Boundaries: The Effect of Immigration on Race Relations in the US," CEPR Discussion Papers 14590, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Kyra Hanemaaijer & Nadine Ketel & Olivier Marie, 2024. "Minority Salience and Criminal Justice Decisions," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 24-065/V, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Simone Bertoli & Morgane Laouenan & Jérôme Valette, 2022. "Border Apprehensions and Federal Sentencing of Hispanic Citizens in the United States," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) hal-03818735, HAL.
    4. repec:osf:osfxxx:2z3kw_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Vasiliki Fouka & Soumyajit Mazumder & Marco Tabellini, 2019. "From Immigrants to Americans: Race and Assimilation during the Great Migration," Development Working Papers 445, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    6. Brendon McConnell, 2022. "Racial Sentencing Disparities and Differential Progression Through the Criminal Justice System: Evidence From Linked Federal and State Court Data," Papers 2203.14282, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2022.
    7. Francesco Giavazzi & Felix Iglhaut & Giacomo Lemoli & Gaia Rubera, 2020. "Terrorist Attacks, Cultural Incidents and the Vote for Radical Parties: Analyzing Text from Twitter," NBER Working Papers 26825, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Andrew W. Nutting, 2023. "Geographic earnings inequality by race, 1960–2016," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 290-339, March.
    9. Pauline Grosjean & Federico Masera & Hasin Yousaf, 2023. "Inflammatory Political Campaigns and Racial Bias in Policing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 138(1), pages 413-463.
    10. Bindler, Anna Louisa & Hjalmarsson, Randi & Machin, Stephen Jonathan & Rubio, Melissa, 2023. "Murphy's Law or luck of the Irish? Disparate treatment of the Irish in 19th century courts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121339, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Ulrika Ahrsjö & Susan Niknami & Mårten Palme, 2024. "Identity in Court Decision-Making," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 16(4), pages 142-164, November.
    12. Brodeur, Abel & Wright, Taylor, 2019. "Terrorism, immigration and asylum approval," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 168(C), pages 119-131.
    13. Anna Bindler & Randi Hjalmarsson & Stephen Machin & Melissa Rubio-Ramos, 2026. "Disparate Treatment of the Irish in 19th Century English Courtrooms," Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers 0087, Berlin School of Economics.
    14. Omry Yoresh & Weijian Zou, 2026. "The lifecycle of judicial bias," IFS Working Papers W26/12, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    15. Mazumder, Soumyajit, 2019. "From Immigrants to Americans: Race and Assimilation during the Great Migration," OSF Preprints eka5y, Center for Open Science.
    16. McConnell, Brendon & Tan, Kegon Teng Kok & Zapryanova, Mariyana, 2024. "How do parole boards respond to large, societal shocks? Evidence from the 9/11 terrorist attacks," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    17. Samantha Bielen & Peter Grajzl, 2021. "Prosecution or Persecution? Extraneous Events and Prosecutorial Decisions," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), pages 765-800, December.
    18. Vasiliki Fouka & Soumyajit Mazumder & Marco Tabellini, 2018. "From Immigrants to Americans: Race and Assimilation during the Great Migration," Harvard Business School Working Papers 19-018, Harvard Business School, revised Jun 2019.
    19. Daniel L. Chen & Markus Loecher, 2022. "Mood and the Malleability of Moral Reasoning: The Impact of Irrelevant Factors on Judicial Decisions," Working Papers hal-03864854, HAL.
    20. Forestra, Alessandra & Megalokonomou, Rigissa & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2026. "Crisis Narratives and Judicial Enforcement: Evidence from the Greek Fiscal Crisis," IZA Discussion Papers 18489, IZA Network @ LISER.
    21. Omry Yoresh & Weijian Zou, 2026. "The lifecycle of judicial bias," CEP Discussion Papers dp2159, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    22. Ria Ivandic & Tom Kirchmaier & Stephen Machin, 2024. "International Terror Attacks and Local Out-Group Hate Crimes," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 67(3), pages 589-610.
    23. Renate Lorenz, 2025. "A Changing Ethnic Landscape? The Effect of Refugee Immigration on Inter-ethnic Group Relations and Identities of Previous Immigrants," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1225, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    24. Meier, Armando N. & Levav, Jonathan & Meier, Stephan & Avnaim, Liora G., 2025. "Early Release via Parole and Recidivism," IZA Discussion Papers 18076, IZA Network @ LISER.
    25. Yang, Xiaoliang & Zhou, Peng, 2025. "Unveiling citation bias in economics: Taste-based discrimination against Chinese-authored papers," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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