CJUS 703-Race Disparityin Crime Charges and Criminal Fairness A Literature Review-assign.docx

Race Disparity in Crime Charges and Criminal Fairness: A Literature Review

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Race Disparity in Crime Charges and Criminal Fairness: A Literature Review

Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2018). The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves: Racial

Disparities and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Justice System.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0963721418763931

Concerning racial disparities and criminal charges in the United States, Hetey

& Eberhardt (2018) present research seeking to statistically verify the trend of

unfairness in the criminal system. In the literature, the authors cite that despite the

belief by the majority of researchers and activists that the fight against racial

dissimilarity can be taken a notch higher if the groups were enlightened about the

disparities, they find it ironical. Instead of fighting disparity, awareness about the

inequality is believed to compel individuals to support the very policies creating the

disparity. The emphasis of the authors in proving the point is based on incarceration

under the criminal justice. The authors argue that creating awareness about the

existing racial disparity concerning incarcerations imposes the black community to

become more victims of crime-related stereotypes. Instead, the research suggests

using available statistics about the existing racial disparity with the criminal justice

system in terms of incarceration. Since the study is likely to spur contradicting

opinions, the study presents ways to be more effective in presenting findings

highlighting racial differences. The approaches are; the presentation needs to be

contextual, test associations, and bring to light organizations.

Hayle, S., Wortley, S., & Tanner, J. (2016). Race, Street Life, and Policing: Implications for

Racial Profiling. Volume 58 Issue 3 pp. 322-353

https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.2014.E32

Further reiteration of racial disparity in criminal justice is presented by Hayle

et al. (2016). The study sought to ascertain the probable cause and reason behind

alleged racial profiling in policing. The research seeks to settle the debate of whether

or not most searches done by police on the minority groups are based on

functionalism or due to their sidelined status explained under the conflict theory. The

research conducts a statistical comparison of police relations with a sample of over

3,000 high school learners with close to 400 youths living in shelters and highways of

Ontario. The collected data is analyzed through logistics regression. The demonstrated

results with controlled factors related to demographics and behavior, the category of

students of African American origin interact most times with the police through stops

and searchers, which implies that they are targets of racially discriminatory policing.

Compared to the counterparts living in shelters, the police interaction is equal to a

phenomenon explaining the perception of street children and their involvement in

criminal behavior. Thus, the researchers settle that, concerning consensus theory, it is

evident the reasons why youths live in shelters while the racially prejudiced policing

can be explained by conflict theory.

Gaston, S. (2018). Enforcing Race: A Neighbourhood-Level Explanation of Black-White

Differences in Drug Arrests. Crime and Delinquency.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0011128718798566

In the case of this article, Gaston (2018) seeks to ascertain where the

disparities in drug-related arrests among African Americans and whites emanate.

Therefore, the researcher carries out tests in the neighborhoods by using hypotheses to

scrutinize policing different from the racial prejudice type of policing. The sample

size is seventy-eight drug-related arrests carried out in St. Louis in 2009 and five

years later. The study outcome is analyzed with the help of binomial regression, and it

confirms the inclination that the arrests were made based on racial prejudicing

policing. According to the article, it is evident that the racial make-up of a community

determines how drug-related law enforcement is implemented, the extent of violence

in the community, property crime levels, among other factors. The article discusses

the findings in-depth. The suggestions include; police involved in racial profiling

considered out of order is usually when the suspected victim is dissimilar to the

prevailing racial setting of the community.

Fernandes, D., & Crutchfield, R. D. (2018). Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice. Fifty Years

Since the Challenge of Crime in a Free Society. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-

9133.12361

In this article, Fernandes & Crutchfield (2018) present an article highlighting

race, misconduct, and criminal justice dating back over five decades. According to the

researchers, the Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice

during the reign of president Johnson rarely uttered race and cultural originality in its

debates concerning the criminal justice system and related commendations. On the

contrary, the article highlights the tons of issues the commission discussed concerning

misconduct and race. The commission carried out a majorly built study around the

rates of arrests along the racial line. After the study analysis, the team decided that the

African American community mainly engages in crime due to their living conditions,

with the majority of the black communities residing in slums, areas believed to highly

trigger unlawful behavior. In response, the commission endorsed the Great Society

programs of Johnson's War on Poverty. Unknowingly, the procedures taken decades

ago sparked debates among criminologists about the factors behind the distribution of

misconduct behavior and race, real reasons behind the occurrence of crimes, and the

most appropriate policies to cut down race and crime-related discrepancies.

According to the researchers, the debate that has prevailed was least expected; much

of the arguments are concerning the extent to which race-related disproportionality

occurs in the criminal justice system, what leads to its emergence, and its effects.

Also, the article attributes the prolonged criminal justice racial inequality to the

various policies resulting in mass incarceration. Notably, Fernandes & Crutchfield

(2018) highlight the extent of the inconsistency of the policies with the

commendations in the 1967 Challenge of Crime in a Free Society, which was enacted

to upend the chase of a reasonable and just structure.

Donelly, E. A. (2016). The Politics of Racial Disparity Reform: Racial Inequality and

Criminal Justice Policymaking in the States. Am J Crim JustG42,1–27?

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-016-9344-8

This article presents a study on the racial disparities in criminal justice and the

issues policymakers come across. Based on the article, past research argued that

political leaders enact punishing, racially discriminatory criminal justice practices

because of politics, fear, and racial anxieties. However, the evident gap shown by

researchers is that studies are yet to enlighten the means and reasons elected officials

to take care of problems related to race in criminal procedures. Thus, Donelly (2016)

presents an outline of policymaking that is linked to racial inequality. The author

defines racial disparity reform as a program aimed at reducing disparities in the

treatment of racial groupings by criminal justice agencies. The ideologies of the

various elected administrators form the foundation for them to go after the policies.

Other drivers include; the inclination of the individual’s interests in terms of politics

and their ideas as far as civil rights are concerned. The research method uses primary

data catalogs containing policy enactments; part of the presented content is the

distribution of reform measures and varieties implemented in every state from 1998 to

2011. That is followed by examining explanations for the time legislatures and

executives of respective states implemented racial inequality reforms from both a

social and political perspective. The study cites those rising racial disparities in

criminal processing, Democratic dominance of elected branches, and the

unavailability of judicial initiatives to restore racial equality within a state's judicial

system foreshadow policy implementation. Parallel mechanisms support the

emergence of various policy measure kinds. Such ideological and problem-solving

explanations for racial inequality reform suggest that elected authorities have the

power to create more racially equitable criminal justice policies.

Clair, M. & Alix S. W. (2016). How Judges Think About Racial Disparities: Situational

Decision-Making in the Criminal Justice System. Criminology 54 (2):332–359.

In this article, Clair and Alix's (2016) study about judges' take on the issue of

racial disparity concerning the criminal justice system. To challenge the widely spread

theory by a group researcher about how judges reach their decisions impacts the

unequal availability of the minority groups within the criminal justice system. The

article employs a sample size of fifty-nine interviews involving state judges. Part of

the task involves describing and tracing the insinuations of the comprehension of

judges regarding racial differences throughout the routine court procedures from

arraignment to punishing of the criminal. Based on the model, the majority of the

judges to some extent, attribute inequalities to the form of handling they alongside

similar criminal justice administrators experience only a smaller section of the judges’

link inequality to the unequal effect of poverty and the variances in offending levels.

The article discusses the methods judges use in addressing inequalities which are the

interventionist and the noninterventionist approach.

Noninterventionist approaches are limited to a judge's disparate handling. In

contrast, the interventionist approach is tasked with the potential uneven treatment of

other players and the disparate impact of poverty and seemingly neutral regulations.

The article also highlights instances in which judges deploying the noninterventionist

approach unknowingly repeats inequalities. In general, based on the researchers’

comprehension of racial inequalities during court proceedings, the paper improves

comprehension of American racial injustice and proposes a contextual approach

toGinstitutional decision-making.

References