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Institutional Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System:
The Impact on African American Males
The oppression suffered by African Americans has long received recognition and concern. Great strides have been made since the Civil Rights Movement toward eliminating racism and discrimination in many forms. However, one form of discrimination has historically been ignored by Civil Rights proponents and unrecognized by the general public. Institutional discrimination in the criminal justice system has recently become the subject of new interest and research. This paper reviews evidence of institutional discrimination cited in the literature, explores the origins of the present situation, considers the impact on African Americans, and discusses implications for social work.
There are discrepancies in the research on discrimination in the criminal justice system. Some studies find evidence of discrimination, others do not. ... Despite the discrepancies in research findings, however, the fact remains that African Americans are grossly over-represented at all stages of the criminal justice system which warrants continued exploration of this problem.
A significant number of studies do find evidence of racial disproportionality at various stages in the criminal justice system (Conley, 1994; Crutchfield, Bridges, & Pitchford, 1994; Nelson, 1994; Petersilia & Turner, 1988; Wordes, Bynum, & Corley, 1994). Nelson (1994) found that Caucasians were sentenced to pay fines more often than minorities (African Americans and Hispanics), and that minorities were sentenced to conditional discharge and to jail more often than Caucasians. Conley (1994) found that African Americans and Hispanics were more likely to be arrested, detained, tried and found guilty, and were sentenced to longer periods of time than Caucasians. ... Wordes, Bynum, and Corley (1994) found that African American and Latino youths were more likely to be detained at police detention, court intake detention, and preliminary hearing detention even after controlling for offense seriousness and social factors.
Approximate Word count = 1355
Approximate Pages = 5.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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