Racial and ethnic disparity and criminal justice: How much is too much?

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

Volumn 100, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 903-932

  Crutchfield, Robert D ^a   Fernandes, April ^a   Martinez, Jorge ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 79251640879     PISSN: 00914169     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (166)

1. Hans von Hentig, Criminality of the Negro, 30 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 662 (1940);
2. F. Emory Lyon, Race Betterment and the Crime Doctors, 5 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 887 (1915);
3. Booker T. Washington, Negro Crime and Strong Drink, 3 J. AM. INST. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 384 (1912).
4. See generally Donald Black & Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Police Control of Juveniles, 35 AM. SOC. REV. 63 (1970);
5. Irving Piliavin & Scott Briar, Police Encounters with Juveniles, 69 AM. J. SOC. 206 (1964).
6. WILLIAM WILBANKS, THE MYTH OF A RACIST CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM (1987).
7. Rodney L. Engen & Sara Steen, The Power to Punish: Discretion and Sentencing Reform in the War on Drugs, 105 AM. J. SOC. 1357 (2000);
8. Gary Kleck, Racial Discrimination in Criminal Sentencing: A Critical Evaluation of the Evidence With Additional Evidence on the Death Penalty, 46 AM. SOC. REV. 783 (1981).
9. Traci Schlesinger, Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Pretrial Criminal Processing, 22 JUST. Q. 170 (2005).
10. Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream (Aug. 28, 1963), reprinted in MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., I HAVE A DREAM: WRITINGS AND SPEECHES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD 102 (James M. Washington ed., 1992).
11. Robert D. Crutchfield & Roger Finke, Convict Lease Systems: The Political Economy of Post-Civil War Development (1983), presented at the meetings of the American Society of Criminology, Denver, CO (on file with author).
12. Christopher R. Adamson, Punishment After Slavery: Southern State Penal Systems, 1865-1890, 30 SOC. PROBS. 555, 557-58 (1983).
13. See MICHAEL IGNATIEFF, A JUST MEASURE OF PAIN: THE PENITENTIARY IN THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 1750-1850, at 143-173 (1978).
14. Adamson, supra note 10, at 555.
15. Christopher R. Adamson, Hard Labor and Solitary Confinement: Effects of the Business Cycle and Labor Supply on Prison Discipline in the United States, 1790-1835, in 6 RES. L., DEVIANCE & SOC. CONTROL 19, 19 (Steven Spitzer & Andrew T. Scull eds., 1984).
16. Adamson, supra note 10, at 562-563.
17. Crutchfield &Finke, supra note 8.
18. Adamson, supra note 10, at 558-562.
19. See generally Lyon, supra note 1; James Edward McKeown, Poverty, Race and Crime, 39 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 480 (1948);
20. Julian B. Roebuck, The Negro Drug Addict as an Offender Type, 53 J. CRIM. L., CRIMINOLOGY & POLICE SCI. 36 (1962);
21. von Hentig, supra note 1; Washington, supra note 1.
22. D. A. Dobbins & Bernard M. Bass, Effects of Unemployment on White and Negro Prison Admissions in Louisiana, 48 J. CRIM. L., CRIMINOLOGY & POLICE SCI. 522, 522-525 (1958).
23. Id. at 523.
24. Elliott M. Rudwick, Police Work and the Negro, 50 J. CRIM. L., CRIMINOLOGY & POLICE SCI. 569 (1959).
25. Elliott M. Rudwick, The Negro Policeman in the South, 51 J. CRIM. L., CRIMINOLOGY & POLICE SCI. 273-276 (1960).
26. Piliavin & Briar, supra note 2, at 210.
27. Black & Reiss, supra note 2, at 71.
28. Scott Christianson, Legal Implications of Racially Disproportionate Incarceration Rates, 16 CRIM. L. BULL. 59 (1980).
29. Kleck, supra note 5.
30. Alfred Blumstein, On the Racial Disproportionality of United States' Prison Populations, 73 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 1259-1260 (1973).
31. Id. at 1267-1268.
32. Patrick A. Langan, Racism on Trial: New Evidence to Explain the Racial Composition of Prisons in the United States, 76 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 666, 671-673 (1985).
33. Id. at 679-680.
34. Robert D. Crutchfield, George S. Bridges & Susan R. Pitchford, Analytical and Aggregation Biases in Analyses of Imprisonment: Reconciling Discrepancies in Studies of Racial Disparity, 31 J. RES. CRIME & DELINQ. 166-170 (1994).
35. Both Blumstein, supra note 26, and Langan, supra note 28, aggregated state and federal imprisonment and crime measures for the United States rather than analyzing state-level patterns.
36. Crutchfield, Bridges & Pitchford, supra note 30, at 173.
37. George S. Bridges & Robert D. Crutchfield, Law, Social Standing and Racial Disparities in Imprisonment, 66 SOC. FORCES 699, 709-711 (1988);
38. George S. Bridges, Robert D. Crutchfield & Edith E. Simpson, Crime, Social Structure and Criminal Punishment: White and Nonwhite Rates of Imprisonment, 34 SOC. PROBS. 345, 354-355 (1987).
39. WILBANKS, supra note 3;
40. Kleck, supra note 5.
41. WILBANKS, supra note 3, at 47.
42. Blumstein, supra note 26;
43. Crutchfield, Bridges & Pitchford, supra note 30; Langan, supra note 28.
44. In some states, some consideration of juvenile court records is allowed in adult criminal court prosecutions, and with increased treatment of juveniles as adults, we must consider disparity there, too. See, e.g., WASH. STATE SENTENCING GUIDELINES COMM'N, ADULT SENTENCING MANUAL 2009 SUPPLEMENT 22 (2009), available at http://www.sgc.wa.gov/PUBS/Adult_Manual/AdultSentencingManualSupplement2009.pdf.
45. Crutchfield, Bridges & Pitchford, supra note 30, at 173.
46. Kleck, supra note 5, at 789-792.
47. CHARLES PUZZANCHERA & MELISSA SICKMUND, NAT'L CTR. FOR JUVENILE JUSTICE, JUVENILE COURT STATISTICS 2005, at 20 (2008).
48. In OJJDP data, Hispanic ethnicity is not treated as a separate category. Individuals who identify as Hispanic are included with whites or blacks, and in some instances, there is a separate "ethnicity" item.
49. MICHAEL A. JONES & EILEEN POE-YAMAGATA, AND JUSTICE FOR SOME 28 (Nat'l Council on Crime and Delinq. ed., 2000); NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL & INST. OF MED., JUVENILE CRIME, JUVENILE JUSTICE 34 (Joan McCord, Cathy Spatz Widom, and Nancy A. Crowell eds., 2001).
50. PUZZANCHERA & SICKMUND, supra note 39, at 31.
51. Alex R. Piquero, Disproportionate Minority Contact, 18 FUTURE OF CHILD. 59-60 (2008).
52. Exceptions to this include George S. Bridges & Sara Steen, Racial Disparities in Official Assessments of Juvenile Offenders: Attributional Stereotypes as Mediating Mechanisms, 63 AM. SOC. REV. 554 (2008)
53. Sandra Graham & Brian S. Lowery, Priming Unconscious Racial Stereotypes About Adolescent Offenders, 28 LAW & HUM. BEHAV. 483 (2004).
54. Crutchfield, et al., Racial Disparities in Early Criminal Justice Involvement, 1 RACE & SOC. PROBS. 218-228 (2009).
55. Douglas A. Smith, The Neighborhood Context of Police Behavior, 8 CRIME & JUST. 313-331 (1986).
56. Katherine E. Brown Ray & Leanne Fiftal Alarid, Examining Racial Disparity of Male Property Offenders in the Missouri Juvenile Justice System, 2 YOUTH VIOLENCE & JUV. JUST. 107-108 (2004).
57. Data come from court cases in Missouri juvenile jurisdictions in 1994. Missouri is 85% white and 15% non-white. Id. at 111. Of the non-white population, 11.2% are black and the remaining 3.8% are American Indians, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders combined. Id. Non-violent property crimes included burglary, stealing, tampering, fencing, vandalism, victimless arson, fraud, and trespassing. Id. at 110. The analysis of non-violent offenses will not likely be affected by the violent youth trend that existed between 1986 and 1994. This provides conservative estimates that suggest the possibility of a discriminatory process. Girls and other races were omitted from analysis. Id.
58. Id. at 119.
59. Id. at 116.
60. Id. at 119.
61. Christina DeJong & Kenneth C. Jackson, Putting Race Into Context: Race, Juvenile Justice Processing, and Urbanization, 15 JUST. Q. 487-492 (1998).
62. Id. at 494.
63. Id. at 496-497.
64. Ray & Alarid, supra note 45, at 119.
65. Id. at 119.
66. Christina DeJong & Kenneth C. Jackson, Putting Race Into Context: Race, Juvenile Justice Processing, and Urbanization, 15 JUST. Q, at 497.
67. Michael J. Leiber, Race, Pre- and Postdetention, and Juvenile Justice Decision Making, CRIME & DELINQ. (manuscript at 12) (forthcoming 2011).
68. Id. at 5, 12.
69. Id. at 12.
70. ROBERT W. TAYLOR, ERIC J. FRITSCH & TORI J. CAETI, JUVENILE JUSTICE: POLICIES, PROGRAMS, AND PRACTICES 103 (2006).
71. CHARLES PUZZANCHERA & MELISSA SICKMUND, NAT'L CTR. FOR JUVENILE JUSTICE, JUVENILE COURT STATISTICS 2005, (2008)., at 33.
72. Id. at 35.
73. Id. at 33.
74. Michael J. Leiber, Race, Pre- and Postdetention, and Juvenile Justice Decision Making, CRIME & DELINQ, at 4, 6-7.
75. Five-hundred and fifty juvenile court cases resulting in detention were selected in Black Hawk County, Iowa. For comparison, 449 juvenile court non-detained cases were selected randomly. The total sample size was 927. Id.
76. Id. at 10.
77. Michael J. Leiber & Kristan C. Fox, Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision Making, 51 CRIME & DELINQ. 470-483 (2005).
78. Id. at 481.
79. Michael J. Leiber & Kristan C. Fox, Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision Making, 51 CRIME & DELINQ, at 10.
80. PUZZANCHERA & SICKMUND, supra note 39, at 39.
81. Michael J. Leiber & Kristan C. Fox, Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision Making, 51 CRIME & DELINQ, at 14.
82. PUZZANCHERA & SICKMUND, supra note 39, at 49.
83. Id. at 57.
84. TAYLOR, FRITSCH & CAETI, supra note 60, at 106.
85. PUZZANCHERA & SICKMUND, supra note 39.
86. Michael J. Leiber & Kristan C. Fox, Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision Making, 51 CRIME & DELINQ, at 19;
87. Michael J. Leiber & Joseph D. Johnson, Being Young and Black: What Are Their Effects on Juvenile Justice Decision Making?, 54 CRIME & DELINQUENCY, 560 (2008).
88. Michael J. Leiber & Joseph D. Johnson, Being Young and Black: What Are Their Effects on Juvenile Justice Decision Making?, 54 CRIME & DELINQUENCY, at 570-571.
89. Christina DeJong & Kenneth C. Jackson, Putting Race Into Context: Race, Juvenile Justice Processing, and Urbanization, 15 JUST. Q, at 500-501.
90. Id. at 500.
91. Michael J. Leiber & Kristan C. Fox, Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision Making, 51 CRIME & DELINQ, at 14.
92. Michael J. Leiber & Kristan C. Fox, Race and the Impact of Detention on Juvenile Justice Decision Making, 51 CRIME & DELINQ, at 489.
93. Alex R. Piquero, Disproportionate Minority Contact, 18 FUTURE OF CHILD. 59-60 (2008).
94. Graham & Brian S. Lowery, Priming Unconscious Racial Stereotypes About Adolescent Offenders, 28 LAW & HUM. BEHAV, at 484.
95. See SUSAN T. FISKE & SHELLEY E. TAYLOR, SOCIAL COGNITION (2d ed. 1991).
96. These reports are written at the time of disposition, typically following conviction. These reports include the probation officer's assessment of the likelihood of recidivism and recommendation for sentencing using summary information about a youth's social, demographic, and criminal history. Black and white youth were juxtaposed due to the lack of a sizable number of narratives regarding juveniles of other races. Bridges & Steen, supra note 42.
97. Id. at 562.
98. Id. at 564.
99. Graham & Brian S. Lowery, Priming Unconscious Racial Stereotypes About Adolescent Offenders, 28 LAW & HUM. BEHAV, at 484.
100. See Patricia G. Devine, Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components, 56 J. OF PERSONALITY & SOC. PSYCHOL. 5, 5 (1989) (discussing the experimental model).
101. See GARY CORDNER, BRIAN WILLIAMS & ALFREDO VELASCO, VEHICLE STOPS IN SAN DIEGO: 2001 (2001), available at www.sandiego.gov/police/pdf/stoprpt.pdf;
102. LARRY K. GAINES, AN ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC STOP DATA IN THE CITY OF RIVERSIDE (2003), available at www.riversideca.gov/rpd/AGTF/2003%20Final%20Report.pdf;
103. Donna Coker, Foreword: Addressing the Real World of Racial Injustice in the Criminal Justice System, 93 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 827, 827-880 (2003);
104. Richard J. Lundman & Robert L. Kaufman, Driving While Black: Effects of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender on Citizen Self-Reports of Traffic Stops and Police Actions, 41 CRIMINOLOGY, 195-220 (2003);
105. Patricia Warren et al., Driving While Black: Bias Processes and Racial Disparity in Police Stops, 44 CRIMINOLOGY, 709-738 (2006).
106. Brian R. Kowalski & Richard J. Lundman, Vehicle Stops by Police for Driving While Black: Common Problems and Some Tentative Solutions, 35 J. CRIM. JUST. 165-181 (2007).
107. See, e.g., John Cloud, What's Race Got To Do With It?, TIME, July 31, 2001, at 42.
108. Robin Shepard Engel & Jennifer M. Calnon, Examining the Influence of Drivers' Characteristics During Traffic Stops with Police: Results from a National Survey, 21 JUST. Q. 49-90 (2004);
109. Warren et al., supra note 103.
110. Richard J. Lundman, Driver Race, Ethnicity, and Gender and Citizen Reports of Vehicle Searches by Police and Vehicle Search Hits: Toward a Triangulated Scholarly Understanding, 94 J. CRIM. L. & CRIMINOLOGY 309-350 (2004);
111. David A. Harris, Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on our Nation's Highways, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION (Jun. 7, 1999), http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways.
112. Engel & Calnon, supra note 106, at 63.
113. Brian Johnson, The Multilevel Context of Criminal Sentencing: Integrating Judge- and County-Level Influences, 44 CRIMINOLOGY 259-298 (2006);
114. Stephen Demuth, Racial and Ethnic Differences in Pretrial Release Decisions and Outcomes: A Comparison of Hispanic, Black, and White Felony Arrestees, 41 CRIMINOLOGY 873-909 (2000);
115. Cassia Spohn & David Holleran, The Imprisonment Penalty Paid By Young, Unemployed Black and Hispanic Male Offenders, 38 CRIMINOLOGY 281-306 (2000);
116. Darrell Steffensmeier & Stephen Demuth, Ethnicity and Sentencing Outcomes in U.S. Federal Courts: Who is Punished More Harshly? 65 AM. SOC. REV. 705-729 (2000);
117. Marjorie S. Zatz, The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class on Court Decision-Making: Looking Toward the 21st Century, in CRIMINAL JUSTICE 2000: POLICIES, PROCESSES AND DECISIONS OF THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, 503 (2000).
118. Warren et al., supra note 103.
119. Kowalski &Lundman, supra note 104;
120. Lundman, supra note 107;
121. Lundman & Kaufman, supra note 103.
122. Stewart J. D'Alessio & Lisa Stolzenberg, Race and the Probability of Arrest, 81 SOC. FORCES 1381-1393 (2003).
123. Katherine Beckett et al., Drug Use, Drug Possession Arrests, and the Question of Race: Lessons from Seattle, 52 SOC. PROBS. 435 (2005).
124. D'Alessio & Stolzenberg, supra note 112.
125. Geoffrey P. Alpert, John M. MacDonald & Roger G. Dunham, Police Suspicion and Discretionary Decision Making During Citizen Stops, 43 CRIMINOLOGY 407 (2005).
126. Engen & Steen, supra note 5.
127. Demuth, supra note 109;
128. Schlesinger, supra note 6.
129. Demuth, supra note 109, at 896;
130. Schlesinger, supra note 6, at 187;
131. Sara Steen, Rodney L. Engen & Randy R. Gainey, Images of Danger and Culpability: Racial Stereotyping, Case Processing, and Criminal Sentencing, 43 CRIMINOLOGY 435-461 (2005).
132. Steen, Engen & Gainey, supra note 118.
133. Id. at 451.
134. Id. at 461.
135. Demuth, supra note 109, at 892.
136. Schlesinger, supra note 6.
137. Id. at 183.
138. Id. at 184.
139. Steen, Engen & Gainey, supra note 119, at 456.
140. Engen & Steen, supra note 5, at 1384.
141. Jeffrey T. Ulmer & Brian Johnson, Sentencing in Context: A Multilevel Analysis, 42 CRIMINOLOGY 137-159 (2004).
142. Brian D. Johnson, supra note 109;
143. John Wooldredge, Timothy Griffin & Fritz Rauschenberg, (Un)anticipated Effects of Sentencing Reform on the Disparate Treatment of Defendants, 39 L. & SOC'Y REV. 835 (2005).
144. Celesta A. Albonetti, Sentencing Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Effects of Defendant Characteristics Guilty Pleas, Departures on Sentencing Outcomes for Drug Offenses, 1991-1992, 31 LAW & SOC'Y REV. 789 (1997).
145. Shawn D. Bushway & Anne M. Piehl, Judging Judicial Discretion: Legal Factors and Racial Discrimination in Sentencing, 35 LAW & SOC'Y REV. 733-734 (2001).
146. Albonetti, supra note 136;
147. Stephen Demuth, Racial and Ethnic Differences in Pretrial Release Decisions and Outcomes: A Comparison of Hispanic, Black, and White Felony Arrestees, 41 CRIMINOLOGY 873 (2004);
148. Steen, Engen & Gainey, supra note 119;
149. Steffensmeier & Demuth, supra note 109;
150. Darrell Steffensmeier, Jeffery Ulmer & John Kramer, The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing: The Punishment of Being Young, Black, and Male, 36 CRIMINOLOGY 763 (1998).
151. Engen & Steen, supra note 5.
152. Id. at 1384.
153. Albonetti, supra note 134.
154. Id. at 817.
155. Blumstein, supra note 26;
156. Bushway & Piehl, supra note 135, at 755;
157. Spohn & Holleran, supra note 109;
158. Steen, Engen & Gainey, supra note 119, at 460;
159. Steffensmeier & Demuth, supra note 109, at 724;
160. Ulmer & Johnson, supra note 132, at 166.
161. Blumstein, supra note 26.
162. For a good review and treatment of this earlier period, see CORAMAE R. MANN, UNEQUAL JUSTICE: A QUESTION OF COLOR (1993).
163. NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL PANEL ON SENTENCING RESEARCH, RESEARCH ON SENTENCING: THE SEARCH FOR REFORM 92 (Alfred Blumstein et al. eds., 1983).
164. Crutchfield, Bridges & Pitchford, supra note 30;
165. Langan, supra note 28;
166. RESEARCH ON SENTENCING: THE SEARCH FOR REFORM, supra note 145.