Racial Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System
America has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
1 / 11
Race Matters - The Sentencing Project of the United Nations Human Rights Watch Committee released its report on the Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System. In an alarming and revealing overview, BET.com takes a look at how the system affects African-Americans. — Dominique Zonyéé(Photo: Joshua Lott/Getty Images)
2 / 11
Despair - U.S. prisons and jails are made up predominantly of African-American males: more than 60 percent of incarcerated populations are racial and ethnic minorities. According to the Sentencing Project, for Black males in their 30s, 1 in every 10 is in prison or jail on any given day. (Photo: Doug Berry/Getty Images)
3 / 11
Disparities in Police Activity - Roughly 12 percent of the United States population is Black, yet in 2011 Blacks represented an unprecedented percentage of those arrested for violent crimes and property offenses. Even more shocking, Black juveniles accounted for 16 percent of all children in America, but make up 28 percent of juvenile arrests.(Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)
4 / 11
Disparities in Trials - African-Americans continue to deal with racial bias on every level of the justice system. The Indigent Defense Council, or public defender system, which is relied on heavily by minorities, is in shambles. In 2012, more than 70 percent of public defender offices reported issues with adequate funding. (Photo: Tomas Ovalle - Pool/Getty Images)
5 / 11
Relying on a Flawed Defense System - The crippled state of the public defender system disproportionately affects racial minorities because Black and Latino defendants are far more likely to need the services of a public defender than their white counterparts. (Photo: Joshua Lott/Reuters)
Photo By Photo: Joshua Lott/Reuters
ADVERTISEMENT
6 / 11
The Verdict - Studies reveal that prosecutorial decisions also have racial bias. A study conducted in 1993 in Los Angeles found that 95 percent of the 4,632 crack cocaine defendants prosecuted in California state court were Black, and 100 percent of the 42 crack cocaine defendants prosecuted in federal court were either Black or other racial minorities.(Photo: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images)
7 / 11
A Jury of Your Peers - Although the American justice system maintains that you are guilty until proven innocent, research suggests that inherent racial bias affects trial judges and jury members’ ability to evaluate guilt and innocence objectively. An analysis of juries in death penalty cases in 2001 found that 25 percent of the examined juries had no Black members and roughly 70 percent had two or fewer.(Photo: Spencer Weiner-Pool/Getty Images)
8 / 11
The Color of Your Skin Influences Sentencing - We already established that more African-Americans are charged and convicted, but they are also more likely to be sentenced harsher than any other race. A 2001 study of 77,236 federal cases from 1991 to 1994 revealed that Blacks received sentences 5.5 months longer than whites.(Photo: John Gress/Reuters)
9 / 11
Capital Punishment Designed for Blacks? - The United States has executed 1,335 individuals since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. As of Jan. 1, 2013, more than 3,100 prisoners awaited execution on death row in the U.S. Of those, 42 percent were Black. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
10 / 11
War on Drugs, War on Blacks - The “War on Drugs” seems to have caused the largest racial disparities within the American justice system. From 1999 to 2005, Blacks constituted roughly 13 percent of drug users and 36 percent of those who were arrested for drug offenses. Blacks were 46 percent of those convicted for drug offenses. Additionally, Black Americans constitute 80 percent of those sentenced under federal crack cocaine laws each year. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)
Photo By Photo:Oswaldo Rivas/ REUTERS