This finding stuck with Allison Harris, leading her to wonder how diversity might influence other, real-world aspects of criminal justice. Allison Harris: Future research is needed to tease out the specific mechanisms at play, but we can make some guesses. Or maybe it’s because criminal judges who see more peers who look like a majority of defendants in their courtroom become more aware of how race affects their judgments. ISPS: You have studied the effect of federal judges’ criminal defense experience on sentencing (finding they are, on average less likely to give out extremely long sentences). But it’s not entirely clear whether, for example, Black judges make different decisions than white judges in the criminal legal system.