The present day effects of implicit bias on African Americans within the criminal justice system have caused many injustices, including the War on Drugs, discrimination, use of excessive force by the police, and the general negative effects African Americans experience. This section focuses on these present day effects, why they are wrong, and provides specific recommendations for ways to improve these wrongs.
Systems Theory
When considering both the present effects of implicit bias on the criminal justice system, as well as the recommendations, it is important to view the criminal justice system as a system. This means employing systems theory, described by psychologist Dietrich Dorner. Dorner argues that as the world has become more complex, numerous “innumerable interrelated subsystems” have developed, which make solving problems much more difficult as numerous aspects need to be considered (Dorner, 1996, p. 5) Like implicit bias, systems theory has an evolutionary basis as well, as humans have “developed a tendency to deal with problems on an ad hoc basis”, dating back to humans as hunter gathers when they only needed to focus on one thing at a time (Dorner, 1996, p. 5). Therefore, many people struggle in the modern world to fully think through the consequences of their actions and decisions, due to human’s inability to consider how all systems are interrelated in one way or another (Dorner, 1996, p. 6).
There is a counter argument to this, as one could argue that people often fail to due to a lack of planning or a lack of expertise. While there is some truth to this, history is full of numerous examples where this is not the case. Dorner provides the example of the Chernobyl disaster, where despite having qualified engineers, they failed to consider all the possibilities, leading to a nuclear meltdown (Dorner, 1996, p. 28). Thus, when looking at the criminal justice system, it is important to examine not only the criminal justice system but the interconnected systems of policing, lawmakers, and the media as well.
Negative Effects African Americans Experience