CJ 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: American Justice, Institutional Racism, Equal Protection Clause
18 Jun 2018
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Is the Criminal Justice System Racist?
American society is becoming more racially and economically polarized. Many poor and
minority citizens subscribe to the discrimination thesis(DT) that the criminal justice system
is racist. A recent Gallup poll showed that nearly two‐thirds of the African‐Americans surveyed
believe that the criminal justice system is rigged against them. Many civil rights advocacy
groups agree, but many conservatives deny that the system is racist.
The criminal justice system is not racist
Criminologist William Wilbanks, who wrote The Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice
System (1987), is the leading apologist for racial disparities in the American justice
system. Wilbanks and others who maintain the system is color blind advance the
following arguments:
1. Most decisions in criminal justice are not based on discrimination. Research
demonstrates that decisions throughout the justice systems are based mainly on
the seriousness of the crime, the amount of legal evidence proving guilt that is
available, and the prior criminal record of the suspect, defendant, or inmate.
2. There is no systematic racism in criminal justice. Wilbanks coined the phrase
“systematic racism” and uses it as an ideal standard against which to measure
American criminal justice. In disproving the discrimination thesis, he wraps the
complex question of racial discrimination into two bundles labeled “The Criminal
Justice System Is Racist” and “The Criminal Justice System Is Not Racist.” He
says either there is discrimination in all parts of the criminal justice system (for
example, in the police, courts, and corrections) and in all stages of the criminal
justice process or there is no racial discrimination in the system. After reviewing
the scholarly literature, Wilbanks concludes that the criminal justice system is not
racist because the evidence fails to prove that racism is present in all parts of the
system during all steps of the criminal justice process.
The criminal justice system is racist
In The Color of Justice (1996), Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn, and Miriam DeLone
avoid what critics see as the mistake of treating the complex problem of racial
discrimination as if it could be divided into two simple extremes. They say
1. “The criminal justice system is neither completely free of racial bias nor
systematically biased.” Drawing from hundreds of studies of race and criminal
justice, Walker and his colleagues take the middle ground. They argue that
racial/ethnic groups are treated more harshly than whites at some stages in the
system but no differently from whites at other stages.
2. Solid evidence of discrimination exists in many stages of the criminal justice
process, including the police use of deadly force and the application of the death
penalty.
3. Drug policies constitute the single most significant factor contributing to racial
disparities in criminal justice. Federal cocaine laws are a prime example of
institutional racism. Under the current law, crimes involving crack cocaine are ‐
punished much more severely than those involving powder cocaine. The federal ‐
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Document Summary
American society is becoming more racially and economically polarized. Many poor and minority citizens subscribe to the discrimination thesis(dt) that the criminal justice system is racist. A recent gallup poll showed that nearly two thirds of the african americans surveyed believe that the criminal justice system is rigged against them. Many civil rights advocacy groups agree, but many conservatives deny that the system is racist. Criminologist william wilbanks, who wrote the myth of a racist criminal justice. System (1987), is the leading apologist for racial disparities in the american justice system. Wilbanks and others who maintain the system is color blind advance the following arguments: most decisions in criminal justice are not based on discrimination. Systematic racism and uses it as an ideal standard against which to measure. In disproving the discrimination thesis, he wraps the complex question of racial discrimination into two bundles labeled the criminal.
