There are many disparities that occur within the criminal justice system that cause races to be treated differently. Some of these disparities include:
- Mass Incarceration – As racism has evolved from explicit forms of punishment to implicit bias, the United States prison population has grown to be the most heavily incarcerated country in the world (Levinson & Smith, 2012, p. 45)
- Who’s in prison – On any given day, 1 out of every 8 black men between the ages of 20-29 are in prison, while only one out of every 59 white men are in prison (Levinson & Smith, 2012, p. 45). One of the largest reasons for this is the War on Drugs.
- Cases of police brutality – In the 1970s police shot and killed eight African Americans for every one white person (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2004, p. 103). See page on police brutality for more.
There are people, however, that claim that race is not a factor in sentencing .A study conducted by the Vera Institute of Justice found that while race did play a role in sentencing, other factors beyond race were considered, including a defendant’s record and the charge of the crime, thus arguing that is it hard to definitively conclude that race leads to sentence disparities (McKinley, 2014). While there are other factors besides race, the fact that race is a factor at all is cause for concern.
Why Racial Disparities are Wrong
Race, or any similar characteristic, should never be a factor in deciding criminal punishments as this is a factor outside of what people can control. Daniel Kelly argues that “racist mental states, in and of themselves, can be morally problematic”, employing a deontic argument, which means that this action is always wrong no matter the situation (Kelly, 2008, p. 528). This is important as racism is not tolerated publicly in the United States. Even those who are explicitly racist do not like admitting it publicly, or even to themselves (Jacobs & Jackson, 2017, p. 349). When considering the consequences of these “racist mental states”, such as the racial disparities in court, the War on Drugs, and sentencing differences, the consequentialist ethical issues associated with the effect of implicit biases on the criminal justice system become even more apparent. The fact that African Americans, especially African American men, have a higher likelihood of going to prison is wrong, as it impacts not only their futures but also their families as well. Thus, this needs to be corrected and more fairly applied to have a more equitable justice system. This can and should be done by correcting both police use of implicit bias and through changing the laws on the War on Drugs that leads to may of these differences.