Question

how would you explain racial disparity in the criminal justice systems?

Answer 1

Nellis (2016) report on the rates of incarceration for whites, African Americans, and Hispanics found that African Americans are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate that is 5.1 times the imprisonment of whites. In five states, namely, Iowa, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, and Wisconsin, the disparity is more than 10 to 1. Hispanics, on the other hand, are imprisoned at a rate that is 1.4 times the rate of whites. Again, the disparity rates are higher in certain states such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The over representation of racial minorities are explained by two competing hypothesis. The differential offending or differential involvement hypothesis states that this overrepresentation is a result of racial minorities committing more of the crimes that result in criminal justice processing. Whereas, the differential selection hypothesis posits that the disproportionality is in fact due to the result of discrimination by the criminal justice system. Most scholars would argue that both these factors play a role in explaining racial disparity in the criminal justice system.