The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America

Citation

Cao, L. (1999), "The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 219-222. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.1999.22.3.219.1

The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America examines the defining issue in the contemporary American criminal justice system, that is race, ethnicity, and criminal justice. The work includes a meticulous summary of the relevant body of research literature that has built up concerning this issue. The authors′ treatment of this literature review is simultaneously comprehensive and thorough. In addition, given the polemic nature of the issue at hand, their insightful discussion of the racial issues that plague modern criminal justice agencies is quite forthright.

In Chapter 1, the authors begin by grounding their analysis of race and ethnicity in American society, at large, and the criminal justice system, in particular. They highlight the importance of the study of racial and ethnic factors in criminal justice, and examine the problems associated with the current taxonomy of race and ethnicity. The dilemma facing contemporary criminal justice, the arbitrary nature of the existing classification schemes and the consequences associated with both maintaining and abolishing them, is discussed. The authors continue to develop a discrimination‐disparity continuum as a standard for evaluating the practice of various components of criminal justice systems concerning this sensitive issue (see Box 1.2). At the extreme right of this continuum, there is systematic discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities. In opposition, the extreme left represents the operation of pure justice. The center represents what the authors have coined (contextual discrimination, [which] involves discrimination in certain situations or contexts) (p. 17), with individual acts of discrimination to the left and institutional discrimination to the right of the middle. The theoretical perspective that has emerged provides the basis for the rest of the book. Chapters 2 and 3 attempt to explicate the relationship between victims and offenders, as well as the structural causes of crime in America. The authors note that the leading sociological theories of crime causation all predict higher rates of criminal behavior among the poor and racial/ethnic minorities. Their specific argument rests largely on the unquestionable presupposition that the social structure of American society plays a major role in shaping the relationship among race, ethnicity, and crime. To indicate this role, the authors use both UCR and NCVS data to point out that racial and ethnic minorities are over‐represented among both victims and offenders, and conclude that crime is a largely intra‐racial, as opposed to inter‐racial, phenomenon. Chapters 4 through 6 cover the issue of the experience of minority group members in criminal justice agencies, from the police to sentencing courts. The authors synthesize the most recent systematic research on the police and conclude that (the evidence about the police suggests a combination of the three different patterns [of discrimination]: institutionalized discrimination, contextual discrimination, and individual acts of discrimination) (p. 115). As for the courts, the implementation of reforms during the recent decades has not produced equality of justice. Though not universal, discrimination against African Americans and other racial minorities still exists, and is more likely to be manifested in certain types of cases and settings. As a result, the authors contend that the (court system of today is characterized by contextual discrimination) (p. 146). As for sentencing, research simply indicates that inequities persist. For instance, African American murderers who take white victims receive significantly longer sentences than any other defendant, given victim‐offender race combination. Like the court system as a whole, (sentencing decisions in the 1990s reflect contextual discrimination) (p. 174). These and other data indicate that racial and ethnic minorities who find themselves in the arms of the law continue to suffer discrimination in sentencing. Chapter 7 involves the issue of race as it specifically relates to the policy and administration of capital punishment. The authors begin this section with a discussion of US Supreme Court decisions concerning the constitutionality of the death penalty. They continue to summarize the literature that has been written, and the research that has been conducted, on racial disparity in the execution of convicted offenders. Evidence indicates that those who murder whites are much more likely to be sentenced to death than those who murder African Americans. Studies also suggest that African Americans convicted of murdering whites receive the death penalty more frequently than whites who murder other whites. Further, this (racial) discrimination on the administration of the death penalty is not limited to the South, nor is it confined to one stage of the decision‐making process. Rather, it affects all jurisdictions and influences the decisions made by prosecutors, as well as juries. Furthermore, even after legally relevant predictors of sentence severity are controlled for, the effect of race does not disappear. Faced with this evidence, the authors contend that (the type of discrimination found in the capital sentencing process falls closer to the systematic end of the discrimination continuum) (p. 199). Chapter 8 examines the nature and extent of minority over‐representation in correctional systems in spatial and historical perspective. Data indicate that the over‐representation of African Americans in state and federal prisons existed at least as early as 1926. Especially alarming is the fact that this trend in racial disparity has been increasing. In 1988, the total number of African Americans incarcerated in prison surpassed that of whites. In 1992, more African Americans were under some form of correctional supervision than were enrolled in college. The authors attribute the increased racial disparity to the (war on drugs). Evidence taken from studies of parole indicates that African Americans had the highest rate of return to prison. Although whites are under‐represented in the population of probates, studies show that whites convicted of felonious offenses are more likely to be granted probation and, conversely, that African American or Hispanic felons are more likely to be incarcerated. In Chapter 9, the authors summarize their findings and discuss their implications. There is no denial that there is a vastly disproportionate number of minorities arrested, processed, imprisoned, and on death row. However, the relevant question is whether there is systematic racial and ethnic discrimination in the administration of criminal justice in America. The authors conclude that racial bias in criminal justice in the 1990s is neither inoperable nor systematically enforced. On balance, the system is (characterized by contextual discrimination) (p. 229). In The Color of Justice, Walker, Spohn, and DeLone have put together a comprehensive and highly readable text which introduces students to the concepts of race and ethnicity, the historical importance of these concepts in criminal justice and the defining role which they play in our contemporary criminal justice system. The chapters are organized logically and well‐written, and the information and ideas presented within are likely to provoke thought and stimulate debate on the issue both amongst and between students and scholars. In particular, the book is quite well‐suited for use in conjunction with Wilbanks′ text, The Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice System (1987), in a course either devoted to criminal justice policy issues, or a general criminology/criminal justice course with a strong emphasis on the issue of race/ethnicity.