The University of Chicago Law School
Professor Miles, a criminal justice scholar, shares his findings about the impact of racial diversity among judges on the outcomes of judicial decisions, and how The University of Chicago Law School hopes to contribute to a diverse and inclusive future profession.
Before I became dean, I did research on the behavior of judges. We studied panels of three judges considering voting rights cases, most of which involved racial claims. Even after controlling for a variety of other background factors, we found that the presence of an African American judge affected how the white judges voted, when we compared how the white judges had voted in previous voting rights cases. We found that when there was an African American judge on the panel, the other judges were more likely to find that there was a violation of voting rights. Our conclusion was that the presence of an African American judge affected how the other two judges thought about the case – that an African American judge brought a different perspective.
Appellate judges sitting on these cases are really at the pinnacle of the legal profession and, for us, it highlighted the importance of diversity within the profession. If we don’t achieve sufficient diversity of perspectives, of thought, and of background within the legal profession, the profession as a whole will be lesser for it.
