Race & Justice News: Blacks Face Cumulative Disadvantages in the Criminal Justice System

From: The Sentencing Project

Incarceration

Blacks Face Cumulative Disadvantages in the Criminal Justice System

Black defendants in general and young black men in particular face cumulative disadvantages in the criminal justice system, according to a new study published in Criminology & Public Policy by John Wooldredge and colleagues. Their analysis of nearly 3,500 felony cases in a large, northern U.S. jurisdiction revealed that “histories of imprisonment, an inability to hire private counsel, and higher bond amounts accrue disproportionately for blacks to generate higher odds of pretrial detention relative to whites.”

Blacks were 50% more likely than whites to be sent to prison as a result of the cumulative effects of pretrial detention and prior imprisonment, and those in the 18-29 age group were 60% more likely. In order to reduce racial disparities in the distribution of prison sentences, the researchers recommend reducing the court’s reliance on money bail and/or reducing bail amounts for indigent defendants, increasing opportunities for pretrial detainees to communicate with their counsel, and creating more structured guidelines for pretrial decision making.

Policing
NC Traffic Stops: “Every Time I See a Police Officer, I Get a Cold Chill”

A New York Times analysis of traffic stops in Greensboro, North Carolina, since 2010 reveals racial disparities in a Southern city with a progressive reputation. Sharon LaFraniere and Andrew W. Lehren report that blacks represented 39% of the city’s drivers but 54% of traffic stops. Black drivers were searched twice as often as whites but were less frequently found with contraband. Officers also used force more commonly against black drivers. Many of these patterns were found across the state and some existed in six other states that collect comprehensive traffic-stop statistics.
Greensboro’s police chief, Wayne Scott, attributed racial disparities in traffic stops to more aggressive patrolling in high-crime neighborhoods that are disproportionately populated by African Americans. Yet experts question the crime-reduction effect of these stops and worry that they tarnish police relationships with law-abiding individuals.

While simply monitoring traffic stops has not reduced racial disparities, jurisdictions that have implemented reforms have seen results. In Fayetteville, a city 100 miles from Greensboro with comparable demographics, Chief Harold Medlock has officers focus on moving violations, discourages charges for resisting an officer, and requires written permission for consent searches. Greensboro’s Chief Scott and Mayor Nancy Vaughan have recently announced similar reforms.

Juvenile Justice
Black Teens’ Disproportionate Risk of Getting Arrested Grows in More Diverse Counties

By using self-reporting on offending and arrests, a new study by Tia Stevens Anderson shows that, across the nation, African American youth are apprehended more often than white youth. Moreover, after controlling for self-reported delinquency, Anderson found that while racial disparities in arrests exist in counties with low, medium, and high percentages of African American residents, disparity is most pronounced in communities with fewer African Americans. She did not find significant differences between Hispanic and white youths’ risk of arrest, or variation across communities.

Published in Criminal Justice and Behavior, the study tracked a nationally representative sample of 2,876 youth aged 12 or 13 at the start of the study through their 18th birthday. Anderson tested for disproportionate minority contact related to drug sales, theft, assault, and vandalism and other property crimes. Her earlier co-authored paper, featured in the Washington Post, documents unwarranted racial disparities at later stages of the juvenile justice system.

Moving to Less Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Improves Outcomes for Girls but Not Boys

A new study compared whether moving away from a highly disadvantaged urban neighborhood decreased young teens’ delinquency and risky behavior. Writing in Criminology, Corina Graif reveals that girls who moved to less disadvantaged neighborhoods engaged in less delinquency and risky behavior than their counterparts who did not move. For boys, the opposite proved true: the move did not affect delinquency and increased risky behaviors. Graif shows that these differences can be explained by gendered differences in how youth relate to their extended – not just immediate – neighborhood environments.

These findings are based on longitudinal data on more than 1,500 low-income youth, primarily African American, who participated in the federal Moving to Opportunity program, which was designed in the mid-1990s to move disadvantaged families to less disadvantaged neighborhoods in the hopes of improving their outcomes. The study was featured in the Marshall Project.

School Discipline
Racial Disparities in Texas School Suspensions

In Texas, black students are twice as likely to receive out-of-school suspensions as white students, according to a Texas Appleseed study featured in the Washington Post. The analysis is based on data on over 2.5 million public school students for the 2013-2014 school year.

The report explains that by labeling children as “bad” at an early age, reducing learning time, and fostering mistrust, exclusionary discipline is linked to higher dropout rates and involvement in the juvenile justice system. These practices also damage the classroom climate and do not model effective conflict resolution techniques for other students. The report recommends reserving suspensions for the most extreme cases and training teachers on effective alternatives to exclusionary discipline that reinforce positive behavior and de-escalate confrontations in the classroom.

International
UN Report on Global Patterns of Minority Disadvantage in Criminal Justice
A recent report by the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák, examines the human rights of national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities in various stages of the criminal justice system. Based on her survey of countries including Finland, Japan, Lebanon, and Mexico, “the Special Rapporteur has identified global patterns of violations of the rights of minorities in the criminal justice process.”

The report recommends collecting disaggregated data as a starting point for addressing discrimination and increasing the representation of minorities in the administration of justice. Recommendations also include following the guidance of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on policing in multi-ethnic societies. The report will inform the Forum on Minority Issues to be held on November 24-25, 2015.