Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T09:34:05.078Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction - Racial Disparities, Social Science, and the Legal System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Justin D. Levinson
Affiliation:
University of Hawaii, School of Law
Robert J. Smith
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, School of Law
Get access

Summary

Discussions of race in the United States have taken on an optimistic tone, led by confident commentators who tout America's successful retreat from its racist past. This new, hopeful dialogue comes complete with factual support. For example, racial minorities have reached the pinnacle in government and leadership roles, which positions them atop traditionally Caucasian hierarchies; instances of overt racism have been declining for decades; and America's diverse and multicultural society keeps growing, affording new educational and job opportunities to traditionally disadvantaged peoples. Without a closer look, one could embrace this new vision of race in the United States without seeing or considering an ominous subterranean context.

Yet a deeper examination reveals the complexity of America's racial challenges and the legal system's unwitting complicity in the persistence of racial disparities. America's racial progress does offer comfort if viewed in isolation (after all, declining overt racism is something to embrace), but it also obscures systematic racial bias that forges ahead, undeterred. Massive racial disparities in America persist – in the criminal justice system, in economic advancement, in property ownership, and beyond. Consider the incarceration statistics: despite comprising only about 13 percent of the population, today African Americans make up almost 50 percent of the incarcerated. Economic figures similarly do little to comfort those who hope that equality has been achieved: African American and Latino families are disproportionately likely to be in the bottom fifth of Americans based on earnings per family. The story of property ownership is not much better: fewer than half of African American and Latino families are homeowners compared to 75 percent of Caucasian families.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Greenwald, Anthony GKrieger, Linda HamiltonImplicit Bias: Scientific Foundations 94 950 2006
Rudman, Laurie A.Lee, Matthew R.Implicit and Explicit Consequences of Exposure to Violent and Misogynous Rap Music 4 2002
Correll, JoshuaThe Police Officer's Dilemma: Using Ethnicity to Disambiguate Potentially Threatening Individuals 83 2002
Rudman, Laurie A.Ashmore, Richard D.Discrimination and the Implicit Association Test 10 2007
Krieger, Linda HamiltonThe Content of Our Categories: A Cognitive Bias Approach to Discrimination and Equal Employment Opportunity 47 1995
Lawrence, Charles R.The Id, the Ego, and Equal Protection: Reckoning with Unconscious Racism 39 1987
Levinson, Justin D.Forgotten Racial Equality: Implicit Bias, Decisionmaking, and Misremembering 57 2007
Rachlinski, Jeffrey J.Does Unconscious Bias Affect Trial Judges? 84 2009
Levinson, Justin D.Young, DanielleDifferent Shades of Bias: Skin Tone, Implicit Racial Bias, and Judgments of Ambiguous Evidence 112 2010
Levinson, Justin D.Race, Death and the Complicitous Mind 58 2009
Levinson, Justin D.Cai, HuajianYoung, DanielleGuilty by Implicit Bias: The Guilty Not Guilty Implicit Association Test 8 2010
Richardson, L. SongArrest Efficiency and the Fourth Amendment 95 2011
Kang, JerryTrojan Horses of Race 118 2005
Larson, DaleUnconsciously Regarded as Disabled: Implicit Bias and the Regarded – As Prong of the Americans with Disabilities Act 56 2008
Page, AntonyUnconscious Bias and the Limits of Director Independence 2009 237
Page, AntonyPitts, Michael J.Poll Workers, Election Administration, and the Problem of Implicit Bias 15 2010
Schwemm, Robert G.Why Do Landlords Still Discriminate (And What Can Be Done About It)? 40 2007

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×