Book Description

This 2-year study compared the treatment of white and minority offenders at key decision points in the criminal justice processing of approximately 1,400 male prison inmates in California, Michigan, and Texas. Study data came from the California Offender-Based Transaction Statistics which tracks offender-processing from arrest to sentencing, and the Rand Inmate Survey which yielded data from self-reports of approximately 1,400 male prison inmates in California, Michigan, and Texas. Prior research on discrimination in the criminal justice system produced controversial and contradictory findings. Section II discusses the problems with this research and briefly describes the data and methodology. Section III describes the workings of the criminal justice system and identifies racial differences in case-processing revealed in some of the data. Section IV analyzes more of the data for racial differences in crime-commission rates and the probability of being arrested. Section V looks at racial differences following the imposition of a court sentence. Section VI explores racial differences in offender characteristics, specifically: crime motivation, weapon use, and prison violence. Section VII summarizes the findings and presents the conclusions of the study. Although the case-processing system generally treated offenders similarly, there were racial differences at two key points. Minority suspects were more likely than whites to be released after arrest; however, after a felony conviction, minority offenders were more likely than whites to be given longer sentences and to be put in prison instead of jail. There were no statistically significant differences that implied discrimination against minorities in corrections.