Race, Ethnicity, and Discrimination in Criminal Justice

Race is

A social construct, not based on biology

Official categories of race compiled by who, and is required for all federal agencies

U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

Official Race categories

American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic or latino, Native Hawaiin or Pacific Islander, White (also north african, middle eastern)

BIPOC

Black, Indigenous, Person of Color

Ethnicity

Differences within racial groups of people based on cultural customs and/or national origins

Is Hispanic/Latinx a race or ethnicity?

Officially considered an ethnic group

Latino = based on what

Geography

Hispanic = based on what

Language

White tend to identify with the term,

White

Hispanics tend to identify with what

National origin

African americans tend to identify with what term

Black

Native americans identify with what term

tribal identifiers (cherokee, yokut)

Asians tend to identify with what

national origin

Pacific islanders/native Hawaiians tend to identify with what

national origin

What is the best predictor of crime?

Sex and Age

Minorities are over represented for most criminal justice _____, but not necessarily ______

outcomes (arrests, stops, searches, corrections), criminal behavior (crime)

Bias

Having a preference for or against someone, something, place, can be positive or negative

Prejudice

pre-judging or forming an opinion about someone, a place, a thing, based on a characteristic but without having any true knowledge. + or -

Bigotry

similar to prejudice, but always negative, more severe

Racism

race specific form of prejudice and/or bigotry which functions in a structural power dynamic to allow discrimination.

Discrimination

differential treatment of an individual because of extra legal factors, and not due to differences in offending behavior

extra legal factors

Race, skin color, religion, class, education

Legal factors

seriousness of crime, criminal record, agravating or mitigating circumstances

Discrimination is prohibited by what amendment?

14th amendment, and title 7 of the 1964 civil rights act

Disparity

difference in outcomes for an individual or group of individuals because of differential offending behavior and not because of differences in extra legal factors.

Disparity and Discrimination

can both be confused for each other

Why is it hard to determine if something is discrimination or disparity

we must know the offending behavior first

Pure discrimination

No disparity, only discrimination

Systemic/institutionalized discrimination

based on historical/established policies

Contextual discrimination

only in certain situations/with certain people

Individual discrimination

only by individual cj officials/representatives

pure justice/disparity

No discrimination, only disparity

The New Differential Processing (TNDP)

crime control policies that are created without bias or prejudice and are based in good faith through research and data but still may result in discriminatory outcomes.

Hispanics in federal race reporting

only recieved federal recognition starting in 90's and 2000's

Examples of the new differential processing in policing

Hotspot policing (heat map), mandatory arrest laws

Examples of the new differential processing in courts

posting bail, mandatory sentencing policies

Examples of the new differential processing in corrections

Parole risk assessment, death penalty

Discriminatory outcomes

procedures that consistently produce unfair outcomes will eventually be viewed as unfair itself even if it wasn't intended to be unfair.

Crisis of legitimacy

cjs-community relations worsen, increased allegations of racism, racial profiling

When did the fbi create a category for hispanics?

2014

Most people processed through the CJ system have their race or ethnicity ____

officially identified by CJ officials, may rely on stereotypes

Disjunction between official identification and self identification can artificially increase or decrease what

crime rates for some races/ethnicities