The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves: Racial Disparities and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Justice System

Evidence of Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System

In cities across the United States, racial disparities have been documented throughout the criminal justice system, from routine police stops to long-term imprisonment. Analyzing traffic and pedestrian stops made in Oakland, California, for example, our team uncovered a consistent pattern of racial disparities. We found that 60% of police stops were of Africans Americans, though they make up only 28% of the population of Oakland. Once stopped, African Americans were significantly more likely to be handcuffed, searched, and arrested (Hetey, Monin, Maitreyi, & Eberhardt, 2016). These disparities remained statistically significant even after we controlled for more than two dozen factors relevant to officer decision making, including crime rates and the underlying racial and socioeconomic demographics where the stop was made. A similar pattern has emerged in other places, including Boston; Greensboro, North Carolina; Los Angeles; and New York City (American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts, 2014; Ayres & Borowsky, 2008; Dunn, 2013; Goel, Rao, & Shroff, 2016; LaFraniere & Lehren, 2015).

Blacks feel they are treated with less respect than Whites during these routine stops (Epp, Maynard-Moody, & Haider-Markel, 2014). Using footage from officers’ body-worn cameras, our team developed computational linguistic methods to analyze the respectfulness of the language that police officers used with White and Black community members during traffic stops in Oakland. We found that officers’ language was less respectful when directed at Blacks than when directed at Whites, even after controlling for factors such as the race of the officer, the severity of the infraction, the location of the stop, and the outcome of the stop (Voigt et al., 2017).

In incarceration as well there are striking racial disparities. Though only 13% of the U.S. population, African Americans make up nearly 40% of the nation’s inmates (Guerino, Harrison, & Sabol, 2012; U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Black men are incarcerated in state or federal prison at a rate 6 times that of White men (Carson, 2014). During their lifetime, 1 in 3 African American males can expect to be imprisoned compared with 1 in 17 White males (Bonczar, 2003).

Do the Numbers Speak for Themselves?

People trying to motivate social change frequently expose the public to grim statistics revealing gross racial disparities. Ironically, researchers have found that being presented with evidence of extreme racial disparities in the criminal justice system can cause the public to become more, not less, supportive of the punitive criminal justice policies that produce those disparities. When White participants were informed about racial disparities in executions, 52% strongly favored the death penalty compared with 36% in a baseline condition (Peffley & Hurwitz, 2007). In another study, we exposed White California voters to more or less extreme racial disparities in the prison population by having them view a set of photographs of incarcerated people that showed either a higher (45%) or lower (25%) percentage of Black inmates (Hetey & Eberhardt, 2014). When the prison population was “more Black,” voters became significantly less likely to sign a real petition aimed at lessening the severity of California’s harsh three-strikes law. At the time we conducted the study, California had the harshest three-strikes law in the nation—a person with two prior felony convictions could receive a life sentence for stealing a dollar in loose change from a parked car. When we described California’s three-strikes law and presented participants with a prison population that was less Black, 52% of them signed the petition compared with only 27% in the more-Black condition.

Similarly, when White New York City residents read that New York’s prison population was 60% Black, compared with 40% Black, they became less likely to report that they would sign a petition to end New York City’s stop-and-frisk policy. The study was run at a time when the number of Blacks detained by the New York Police Department was dropping from a recent all-time high. When exposed to a more-Black prison population, only 12% of participants said they would sign the petition, compared with 33% of participants exposed to a less-Black prison population. Taken together, these studies suggest that informing White Americans of racially disproportionate incarceration may paradoxically bolster support for the very policies that perpetuate those disparities.

These experiments were conducted with White participants. While an open question, it is unlikely that exposure to evidence of disparities has the same potential to backfire with people from other racial backgrounds. People of color, and African Americans in particular, are more likely than Whites to have direct experience with, perceive, and engage in discussions about racial inequality and discrimination. According to a national Pew Research Center (2016) survey, 71% of Blacks reported having personally experienced discrimination or having been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity, compared with 30% of Whites. By wide margins, Black respondents were more likely than White respondents to say Blacks are treated less fairly across a wide variety of settings, including the criminal justice system. Eighty-four percent of Blacks, compared with 50% of Whites, say Blacks are treated less fairly in dealing with the police. Indeed, 18% of Black Americans say they have been unfairly stopped by the police over the past year, compared with 3% of Whites.

In the absence of direct experience and engagement with racial inequality, one reason disparities do not speak for themselves is because there is more than one interpretation of what those differences reveal. To some people, the disparities in police stops and incarceration are so extreme they can be interpreted only as signs of systemic racial bias (e.g., Alexander, 2010). An alternative interpretation is that members of particular racial groups must be doing something—namely committing crime—to capture the attention of police and be imprisoned at higher rates (e.g., B. Adams, 2016). By focusing on group traits, the possibility that structural bias is at play in creating disparities falls out of view. Furthermore, research shows that White Americans are susceptible to denying claims of bias (G. Adams, Tormala, & O’Brien, 2006), in part to preserve views of the world as fair and meritocratic—views that can blind Whites to racial inequality and the role of institutional practices that harm minorities (O’Brien et al., 2009).

Fear and stereotypic associations also contribute. Indeed, we found that when Whites were exposed to a “Blacker” prison population, they became significantly more fearful of crime, which, in turn, increased their support of punitive crime policies (Hetey & Eberhardt, 2014). Evidence of racial disparities in the criminal justice system, then, may activate implicit stereotypical associations linking Blackness with crime, violence, threat, and aggression (Correll, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2002; Eberhardt, Goff, Purdie, & Davies, 2004; Payne, 2001; Richeson & Trawalter, 2008). If learning that Black men are 6 times more likely than White men to be imprisoned triggers the stereotype that Blacks are criminals and criminals are Black, then such information is no longer concerning on its face. Rather, it becomes expected or even justifiable. Motivated to maintain the status quo, people take evidence of what is (such as the overrepresentation of Blacks in prison) and justify it as how things should be (Kay et al., 2009).

What Should We Do?

Given these ironic effects and what we know more generally about people’s use of information to support what they already believe or expect (Darley & Gross, 1983; Nickerson, 1998), what should people working for social change do? We propose three potential strategies that may mitigate the unintended consequences of exposing Whites to evidence of racial inequalities: (a) offer context, (b) challenge associations, and (c) highlight institutions.

Conclusion

To make the most meaningful change, we as social psychologists need to become more willing to intervene, not only with individuals but also by working to understand and change institutions, policies, and practices. Such a broader view could only enrich our science.

Recommended Reading

Adams, G., Edkins, V., Lacka, D., Pickett, K. M., & Cheryan, S. (2008). (See References). An article illustrating that the standard portrayal of racism in social psychology is as an individual prejudice but that, as the authors show, an awareness of structural or sociocultural racism can be taught.

Eberhardt, J. L., Goff, P. A., Purdie, V. J., & Davies, P. G. (2004). (See References). A series of studies showing that stereotypical associations linking Blacks and crime are bidirectional and can act as visual tuning devices; for instance, exposure to Black faces facilitates the detection of weapons and activating the concept of crime creates an attentional bias toward Black faces.

Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2014). (See References). Two experiments showing that exposure to extreme disparities can cause people to become more, not less, supportive of the very policies that create those disparities.

Peffley, M., & Hurwitz, J. (2007). (See References). An article showing how informing Whites about racial disparities in executions bolsters support of the death penalty.

Western, B. (2006). Punishment and inequality in America. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. An exploration of the scope and consequences of mass incarceration in America, in particular the role of imprisonment in exacerbating inequality.