AMERICAN INJUSTICE: RACIAL DISPARITY IN CRIME 1

American Injustice: Racial Disparity in Crime

Tahjee Fleming-Robinson

Essex County College

SOC 101 KN1: Introduction to Sociology

Professor N. Therlon

October 31, 2020

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of the Netflix documentary series "When They See Us" about a

group of black teenagers who were falsely accused of serious crimes. The paper also analyzes

and discusses police behavior and through the use of lecture content as well as other

supplemental research. Lastly, the criminal justice system in America and solutions to help solve

the many injustices involved are provided by the paper in an in-depth manner.

Keywords

Criminal, Justice, Education, Police, Crimes, Minority

Summary of "When They See Us"

The true story revolves around the events that surrounded five young African American

teenagers: Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Yosef Salaam, and Korey

Wise. These young men were wrongfully accused of and found guilty of an incident that

occurred at Central Park, NY on April 19, 1989. A young woman was attacked in the park,

brutally raped and assaulted, and left for dead. Antron and his friends were arrested as the

primary suspects of the crime by the police, and accused of rape and brutalizing the young

woman. Instead of investigating the murder the right way, the police department instead through

its weight behind convicting the boys of these crimes. The police department had so much power

that they were practically in charge of deeming wrong, and they skewed the evidence to fit their

narrative. They abused minors physically and emotionally, subjecting them to brutal

interrogation for hours, with little to no parental consent or supervision, resorting even to

blackmail. The end result? A fantastical account where each of the boys, in some way,

participated in the assault and rape. And the boys eventually accepted this story; confessed to a

crime that they had taken no part in. Mass media ran with it, twisting the story, highlighting all

of the gruesome details. Famous personalities wrote articles about the incident and incited hate

towards these five innocent people. They didn't have money to pay for bail. They were sentenced

to imprisonment for thirteen years. The long, hard years in prison left their mark on the men,

where they were tortured and abused. Even after release, they struggled to make their way

through a changed world. Years later, Matias Reyes, the person who actually committed the

crime, admits to it because he was finally seeking redemption through his religion. But even after

this admission as well as corroborating DNA evidence, the police department would still go on
AMERICAN INJUSTICE: RACIAL DISPARITY IN CRIME 4

saying that he was just the sixth guy, and they missed the guy. After months of investigation,

Manhattan district attorney Mr. Robert concluded Mr. Reyes was the lone assailant. The men had

served punishment for a crime they didn't commit. The broken US judiciary system (though

some could argue that it functions as intended) changed the way they were supposed to live their

lives. In 2003, their convictions were finally vacated, and a settlement was meant to be given to

them that didn't happen for another eleven years, in 2014. But they were not once apologized to

by anybody for the horrible things that had been said and done to them and their families. The

future generation gives the men hope that they can absolutely change tise system of injustice

(Burns, 2019).

Framework of American Criminal Justice System

Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at

upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws

with criminal penalties and rehabilitation. Those accused of crime have some protections against

abuse of investigatory and prosecution powers. Criminal justice systems include several

subsystems: police and other law enforcement agencies; trial and appellate courts; prosecution

and public defender offices; probation and parole agencies; jails, prisons, reformatories, halfway

houses, etc. and departments of corrections responsible for probation, parole, and custodial

functions (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). In a departure from other modern countries, in the

US criminal justice systems exist simultaneously at the federal, state, and municipal level, all

interconnected, as well as with the military.

Most alarming about the current punitive system, is not only the extent to which private interest

corruptly influences it, but also the degree to which the public complies, obliviously, with its’

corruptness. America’s federal prison system, which, over the past thirty years has increased its
AMERICAN INJUSTICE: RACIAL DISPARITY IN CRIME 5

incarceration rate 790 percent, now imprisons 226,680,000 American citizens; 716 people out of

every 100,000 are jailed in our country, as well as 5 million on probation or parole Many, if not

all, of these people are victims of an overzealous punitive system responsible for imprisoning

more citizens than any other country on earth (Doemer & Demuth, 2010). To illustrate this

problem sociologist Lois Wacquant remarks that the prison population has increased so much, if

it were a city it would be the country's fourth-largest metropolis (Wacquant). The immense size

of the incarcerated population, not to mention the corrupt nature by which it operates, is enough

reason to warrant an extensive examination of it.

Racial Bias and Profiling in Policing

The thinking behind the effectiveness of American criminal justice is more or less ethnically

polarized. Minority groups pledge that the criminal justice system has been set against them,

though non-marginalized individuals have an overall favorable view toward American policing.

These organizations; law enforcement, courts, and corrections; refuse to admit that they are

racist, but the statistics resulting from many of their policies prove otherwise. Though police are

entrusted to keep the peace and enforce criminal laws an officer's judgment often makes for the

real application of the law. When an officer evaluates how criminal a suspect is, nonwhite

defendants are observed as more intimidating and more disobliging, even if they are provoked

with similar behavior. This racial profiling leads to excessive arrests and mass incarceration

experienced by nonwhites, who despite consisting of only 30 percent of the US population, make

up almost 67 percent of the total prison population (Eberhardt & Hetey, 2018). In fact, African

Americans in particular are six times more likely to be stopped by the police, and subsequently

interrogated, searched, arrested and charged, than their white counterparts. Approximately 1 in 3
AMERICAN INJUSTICE: RACIAL DISPARITY IN CRIME 6

African Americans men can expect to be imprisoned during their lifetime, compared to 1 in 17

white males (Eberhardt & Hetey, 2018).

The Effect Of ‘Police Discretion’

American police have been granted the power to enforce the laws as they see fit; able to decide

(oftentimes independently) on the appropriate manner to address a given crime. An officer who

pulls over two separate drivers for speeding violations may, based on his own subjective

observations, penalize one, both, or no parties. Since it is impossible to discern what the officers

initial observations are, it is difficult to say their motives are racial in nature, though the result is

clear; Data collected as part of the Connecticut Racial Profiling Prohibition Project reveals that

for the most common moving violations black and Hispanic offenders statewide are 11 to 41

percent more likely to end up with a ticket than are white offenders stopped for the same offense

(Kauffman, 2015). Herein lies one of the main problems of the US justice system: the police

have too much autonomy. Laws should not be situational. Law enforcement should not be

subjective. Two individuals should not face different consequences for the crime.

Racial Disparity in the Court System

It follows then that minorities are also subject to racist to policies and agendas past the

policing stage of this system. The claim that the high minority representation in the justice

system is based solely on minorities committing more crimes has largely been proven false. A

32-state study conducted in 2001 concluded that when relevant factors were controlled, Blacks

and Hispanics are more likely to receive jail time than Whites, as well as longer sentences

(Spohn, 2001). Minorities were less likely to be able to afford bail or effective outside counsel,

and typically their counsel was of the lower-quality provided by the state, limiting their ability to
AMERICAN INJUSTICE: RACIAL DISPARITY IN CRIME 7

receive bail and to make deals with the court. Money is a factor, but it was determined that

racism had a much more significant correlation when determining sentencing outcomes (Spohn,

2001).

Another study conducted in Michigan tried to determine if the type of crime committed by the

defendant played more of a factor than race in sentencing outcomes. The crimes analyzed ranged

from small crimes like robbery to felonies. It was determined that race was the most significant

factor regardless of the type of crime. Blacks were given a sentence on average 35.6 months

longer than a White person who committed the exact same crime. Mexican-Americans also saw

an increase of 25.8 months compared to Whites who committed equally severe crimes (Hawkins,

2005). White defendants have been found to actually receive punishments below the mandatory

minimum.

Solutions for fixing Criminal Injustice

There are many ways we can attempt to repair the criminal justice system. First, we should look

to return to community policing. When local police live in the neighborhood they are policing;

when they know their constituents they can certainly enforce laws in a better way. Police

departments perform best when they secure strong public support. Competent personnel who

reflect the cultural diversity and gender division of the community as a whole assure public

support (Critical Issues in Policing, 311). Police departments should also require a higher

standard of education. Although 82 percent of all local police departments require at least a high

school diploma, only 9 percent require a degree from a two year college and in an analysis of

disciplinary cases against Florida cops from ‘97 to ‘02, the IACP found that officers with a four-
AMERICAN INJUSTICE: RACIAL DISPARITY IN CRIME 8

year degree were subject to 11 percent of all disciplinary action, versus 75 percent for officers

with only high school diplomas (Johnson, 2015).

Conclusion

The police in America believe that racial individuality has some say in determining an

individual's criminality. Hence, simply belonging to a particular ethnic group results in being

stopped, searched, and interrogated, and arrested. Stories like “When They See Us” shed light on

the real difficulties faced by many minorities at the hands of the American criminal justice

system. Blacks and Hispanics are more likely to be negatively impacted by every facet of the

criminal justice system. Not only is there a need for major police reform; the criminal judiciary

and sentencing guidelines are dreadfully in need of an overhaul. Real change will transpire when

people come together and demand a just and uniform system that focuses on public security for

all, rather than on an individual's skin, creed, status, or class.

References

Burns, S. (2019). The Central Park Five: A story revisited in light of the acclaimed new Netflix

series When They See Us, directed by Ava DuVernay. Hachette UK

Doemer, J., & Demuth, S. (2010). The independent and joint effects of race/ethnicity, gender,

and

age on sentencing. Justice Quarterly, 27, 1-27.

Dunham, R., & Alpert, G. (2010). Critical Issues in Policing. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Eberhardt, J. L., & Hetey, R. C. (2018). The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves: Racial

Disparities and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Justice System. Sage

Journals.

Johnson, K. (2015, June 23). Lack of training, standards mean big problems for small police

Departments. Retrieved October,2020,

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2015/06/23/small-police-departments-standards-training/28823849/

Kauffman, M. (2015, May 10). Blacks, Hispanics More Likely To Be Ticketed After Traffic

Stops [Editorial]. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 23, 2020, from

[Link]

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Spohn, C. (2001). Thirty years of sentencing reform: The quest for a racially neutral

sentencing process. Criminal Justice 2000, 3, 427-501.

Wacquant, L. (n.d.). Loic Wacquant, From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, NLR 13,

January–February 2002. Retrieved October, 2020, from [Link]

/II13 /articles /loic-wacquant-from-slavery-to-mass-incarceration

Walker, S., Spohn, C., & DeLone, M. (2018). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and

in America. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

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