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A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society (1989)

Chapter: Crime and the Administration of Criminal Justice

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Suggested Citation:"Crime and the Administration of Criminal Justice." National Research Council. 1989. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/1210.
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9 CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE 451

- ~ ,~-; 1. Fit ~- James Lesesne Wells Ethers at the Bar of Justice (1928) Linoleum cut Collection of the artist 11 c_

- ~ crime and punishment cannot be properly analyzed apart from the larger social, political, and economic con- texts from which they emerge. Black crime and the position of blacks within the nation's system of criminal justice administration are related to past and present social opportunities and disadvantages and can be best understood through consideration of blacks' overall social status. Thus, although this chapter focuses on post-1940 developments, the review considers a broader historical record. The chapter assesses crime and the criminal justice system in terms of three major topics: blacks as defendants and offenders, blacks as victims, and blacks as criminal justice personnel. The investigation begins with a historical sketch of the status of blacks within the criminal justice system. Next, we describe trends in black and white arrest and imprisonment rates over the past few decades and the status of black and white victims of crime. The treatment of blacks arrested and processed through the criminal justice system is then compared with the treatment accorded to whites. Finally, we consider the presence and impact of blacks as personnel in the agencies and institutions ~ , . . . . Ot tile comma justice system. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT Much of the discussion examines the treatment of blacks arrested and processed for violations of the law. Great inequalities in the treatment of blacks and whites in the legal system have been present throughout most of 453

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY the nation's history (Bell, 1980; Higg;inbotham, 1978; Mangum, 1940). Our discussion of such inequalities focuses primarily on the past four de- cades. Changes during this period indicate that previous levels of differential treatment are no longer prevalent. The post-1965 "due process and equal rights revolution" within the criminal justice system and related civil rights reforms have led to substantial scrutiny of alleged racial inequalities in the administration of justice. During the past 25 years there has been an increase in the presence of blacks as criminal justice personnel. This increased presence has a number of important ramifications. The simplest is its indication of the extent to which previous practices that excluded blacks have been altered. Since this change has implications beyond equal employment opportunity, we report on the relation between the increased presence of black personnel and the treatment of blacks as victims, suspects, and defendants. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE REVIEW It is important to note what is left out of this review. Nothing is said here concerning civil actions in the legal system. In most instances, the racial and social class inequalities found in the administration of criminal justice have also been evident in "the civil side of the court" (Carlin, 1966~. Like crime, many of the behaviors regulated by such civil proceedings pose significant threats to individual lives and security as well as to the public welfare. Our analysis depends on the availability of reliable data sources, and we focus on a rather limited range of criminal law violations. Much of the statistical analysis uses the crime index of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which includes homicide, rape, assault, robbery, larceny, burglary, and automobile theft. The persons who are arrested for these crimes come disproportionately from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. An exclusive focus on these so-called "street crimes" may divert attention from the large volume of crimes that is disproportionately committed by whites and mem- bers of the middle and upper classes, for example, corporate crime, tax evasion, fraudulent financial dealings, and similar offenses (see I. Farley, 1988:271-273). Because index crimes are salient objects of popular fears and are relatively easy to detect, they attract much public attention-a situation that histori- cally has encouraged attributions of criminality to ethnic and racial minori- ties. Such observations are not meant to underemphasize the racial dispro- portions in arrests of persons for index offenses. Rather, we note that equal attention to white-collar crimes and corporate crime might produce a consid- erably different image of the "typical" criminal offender. Our analysis is further affected by the nature of the available empirical investigations. Very few studies of either crime or the administration of justice are longitudinal. In some studies, there are methodological flaws, many of which are noted in our assessment. In addition, few studies consider more than one or two of the decision points of the criminal justice system. 454

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE For example, analysts who study arrest decisions often do not examine the behavior of judges and juries. These limitations also emphasize the need for caution in assuming causal links between race and criminal behavior (see Pope, 1979; WolEgang and Cohen, 1970~. They also make it difficult to provide definitive answers to the question of the extent of racial bias in the . . . . .. . aammlstratlon ot Justly. This chapter also does not consider or review certain theoretical issues such as the literature on the correlates and presumed "causes" of criminal behav- ior (except for a brief discussion of the role of alcohol, drugs, and guns in criminal acts). Nevertheless, we emphasize that a majority of the empirical investigations on which we rely acknowledge a linkage between the etiology of crime among blacks, their treatment in the criminal justice system, and their low socioeconomic status. A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE During all periods for which systematic data are available, blacks have been overrepresented both as victims and offenders. Before 1940, there is substan- tial evidence that blacks were disproportionately singled out for arrest and punishment. Although such practices have abated over time, the effects of past disproportions extend into the present, influencing both the etiology of crime and negative reactions among blacks toward the criminal justice sys- tem. There are also instances of racial bias in the administration of criminal justice even today. Relatively little is known about black or white crime rates or the compara- tive treatment of black and white offenders prior to the Civil War (Franklin, 1980:138~. Although similarities between slavery and modern criminal jus- tice practices have been noted (Blassingame, 1977; Sellin, 1976), the relative statuses of blacks and whites within the nation's criminal justice system are generally products of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The modern criminal justice system, especially the elaborate penal system, did not begin to develop in the United States until the early decades of the nineteenth century. During the decades between the end of Reconstruction and 1940, scholarly discourse centered on three observations: (1) the disproportionate represen- tation of blacks within the nation's prisons and jails, especially in the South; (2) the frequent lynching of blacks by white mobs; and (3) the brutal treatment of black prisoners, most often within the chain-gang system. Although arrest statistics are not readily available for this period, imprison- ment data show that in most southern states blacks comprised from 70 to 95 percent of the imprisoned populations (Adamson, 1983:561,565) . For example, in Georgia in 1878, 1,122 of the 1,239 convicts (90.6 percent) were black (Adamson, 1983:565; Green, 1969:282~. Similar ratios were found in South Carolina (Zimmerman, 1947:62) and in North Carolina (Hawkins, 1985: 191~. Not only were high rates of imprisonment the rule, but methods of 455

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY punishment within the penal system also varied by race. In the South, chain- gang labor was used primarily as a punishment for black convicts (Hawkins, 1985; Wharton, 1965:235,240~. It was also a source of cheap black labor for private employers (Daniel, 1972; laynes, 1986:270-271, 306-307~. The mortality rate for all prisoners was high during this period, but it was exceptionally high for black inmates, who were more likely than whites to be exposed to adverse weather conditions and to be beaten and abused by guards (Zimmerman, 1947~. High rates of imprisonment of blacks relative to whites were not confined to the South; they were found in all other major regions and have continued to the present (Christianson, 1981, 1982; Dunbaugh, 1979; Hawkins, 1985~. These and similar data have evoked a persistent question: How much of the gap between black and white rates of reported crime and levels of punishment for crime has been the result of white racial discrimination? Against the background of a long history of lynchings and many publicized instances of miscarriages of justice, many scholars came to question the accuracy of reported levels of black crime. one presence or overt alas In arrests, trials, and sentencing was acknowledged by leading criminologists (e.g., Sellin, 1935) . Nevertheless, by the time of the Myrdal study (1944), a scholarly consensus held that allowing for the effects of discrimination, the rate of criminal activity among blacks was considerably higher than that found among whites. This view was shared by both black and white analysts (see DuBois, 1904; Johnson, 1941; Sellin, 1928~. ~' r . 1 _ CRIMINAL OFFENDERS AND VICTIMS TRENDS IN SERIOUS CRIMES AND IMPRISONMENT Much crime goes unreported by victims and is otherwise undetected. Furthermore, even when crime is detected and brought to the attention of the police a large number of cases are never "cleared" (solved). The clearance rate for some offenses (e.g., burglary, minor assaults, and auto theft) is frequently 30 percent or less (Reid, 1979:63)-which means 70 percent or more of known offenses are never cleared by an arrest. Obviously, for unre- ported crimes and for the vast majority of known offenses that are not cleared, there is no arrest and thus little is known about the social character- istics of the offender. Consequently, to the extent that race or racial bias may be factors in the detection or clearance of crime, official arrest statistics may distort the level of race differences in actual criminal activity. The use of surveys of crime victims is one method that helps to overcome some of the limitations of official arrest statistics. Comparisons of official black-white arrest rates for specific crimes with victims' reports of the race of their assailants do indicate that discrepancies exist. For example, in 1986, 47 percent of rape arresters were black, but only 35 percent of surveyed victims said their attackers were black. However, blacks accounted for 62 percent of 456

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE robbery arrests, and 63 percent of surveyed robbery victims identified their assailants as black. It is not known whether the discrepancies that exist are due to biases in survey samples or in arrest statistics, to differential reports of crime to police, or to biases that make blacks more prone to arrest than whites. Beginning in 1930, the federal government began to publish the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), the first annual, nationwide compilation of arrest data. These annual reports have become the cornerstone of research on crime and criminal justice.) The UCR has provided data on the race of arresters since 1933. Between 1933 and 1940, data from the UCR were used to appraise many widely held presumptions about race, ethnicity, and criminal behavior. In the North, the rate of crime among recent white immigrants was thought to be and sometimes was reported (for local areas) to be substantially higher than that of native whites (see Ferdinand, 1967; Powell, 1966; Warner, 1934; Willbach, 1938, 1940-1941~. Thus, it is not surprising that the initial editions of the UCR contained comparisons among foreign-born whites, blacks, and native-born whites. The data show a steady increase in the rate of crime for all three groups during this period (Myers and Sabol, 1987~. A part of the increase (and of fluctuations) is attributable to changes in the FBI's data-gathering techniques. But the Great Depression era was character- ized by both an actual increase in reported crime and the use of more extensive social control measures. And the relative synchronization in the rates of arrests for blacks and whites suggests that the causal forces that underlie the statistics are very similar for both groups. For this period, the data fail to support the commonly held belief that foreign-born whites were much more likely than native whites to be charged with criminal conduct. Although there were some individual offenses for which foreign-born whites had higher rates at the beginning of the period (homicide, assault, stolen property, weapons possession, and gambling), by 1940, the arrest rates for these offenses for native whites were higher than those of foreign-born whites. However, the data do show higher rates of arrests among blacks than among whites. By 1940, the total rate of arrests for blacks was more than 10 per 1,000 higher than the rate for whites (17 and 6 per 1,000, respectively). Figure 9-1 shows the trends for total arrest rates to 1985 for blacks and whites. Because of changes in recorc~eeping practices during the period, caution should be exercised in comparing pre- 1952 and post-1952 rates. The contrast between black and white arrest rates in these data is striking. There is a strong positive upward movement in both the black and white trends, but whether one looks at the pre- or post-1952 trends, the results are similar: black arrest rates are higher than white rates, and the gap between the two has been widening. In 1978, the arrest rate per 1,000 whites was 1. Recent surveys of criminal victimization indicate that the UCR underestimates the amount of criminal activity in the United States. Although such criticism continues, the UCR remains the most important official source of data on criminal activity in the United States. 457

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY FIGURE 9-1 Total arrest rates, by race, 1933-1985. 110 100 of o o O 60 50 G 90 80 70 40 o: 30 6 20 10 o 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 YEAR Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). 1963 1968 1973 - -t~T~ l.~ll ~ Tt TY ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I I I I ~1 Black / ,,,, ~- White ''~` J/ _- _, `, 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 my ,,~ - 1978 1983 around 35 while the black rate was almost 100; thus, the white rate in 1978 was comparable to that for blacks during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Trends in arrests for the major index crimes of homicide, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, and auto theft do not give a comprehensive picture of all black and white crime, but they reveal much about the changing levels of racial differences. As an example, consider the patterns for homicide shown in Figure 9-2. Homicide arrest rates for whites have been relatively stable for much of the entire 1933-1985 period. Black homicide rates, while significantly higher than those for whites, have fluctuated widely from year to year, particularly in recent years (see Brearley, 1932; Farley, 1980; O'Carroll and Mercy, 1986; Shin et al., 1977~. Moreover, black arrests for murder (and nonnegligent manslaughter) have oscillated around two plateaus. One plateau spanned the period from 1933 to 1952 and the second is seen in the 1970s and 1980s. . Rape, robbery, and assault arrest rates also rose sharply for blacks after 1952 (Myers and Sabol, 1987~. Moreover, for most of the period from 1953 until around 1978, the racial gap in arrest rates for these offenses grew. There was also a widening of the racial gap in arrests for burglary, larceny, and auto theft. These economic crimes showed substantial increases for both blacks and whites. During the last decade of this 50-year period, there is evidence that for 458

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE FIGURE 9-2 Homicide arrest rates, by race, 1933-1985. 0.40 o ~ 0.35 ILL O 0.30 lo lo 0.25 0.20 IL ~ 0.15 a: LLl ~ 0.10 o 0.05 o ] ~ it, _J Be I,,, I I I I I I I I,, i,,, >,rrrrrn,wr~ I I,,, I,, I, I I I I I I 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 YEAR Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). some offenses the black-white gap may have peaked and is now constant or narrowing somewhat. This observation applies to homicide, forcible rape, larceny, and robbery. Also, the motor vehicle arrest rate differential has narrowed continuously since the 1970s, and the black-white difference for burglary arrests has decreased since 1975. These changes suggest the possibil- ity that the long-term trend of a widening gap between arrests of blacks and whites for serious (index) offenses may be ending (Hawkins, 1987; Myers and Sabol, 1987). These data suggest several major periods of nonlinear change in the rate of arrests for serious crime among blacks. One period was 1933-1951, which coincided with great upheavals in American social and economic conditions: high unemployment in the Great Depression, unprecedented mobilization of the nation in World War II, and then postwar instability as the economy shifted from military production to the manufacture of consumer goods. There was also a continuation of the migration of blacks to urban centers outside of the South. The second major change occurred during the 1950s. This was a period of rapid black urbanization. Changes in crime data for this period, however, are suspect because of changes in the method of recording arrests. It is difficult to determine whether the downward trend in arrests for both blacks and whites observed during the years immediately after 1951 represents a change in actual criminal behavior or is an artifact of recordkeeping. From 459

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY about 1968 through the late 1970s, there was increased professionalization of police forces and greater expenditures for law enforcement, largely as a result of federal support of such efforts through the Law Enforcement Assis- tance Administration (LEAA). One result was a dramatic increase in the rates of incarceration for all races, particularly after 1970. There were notable changes in the distribution of black arrests during the five decades between 1933 and 1985. For 1933-1951 and 1968-1985, index crimes accounted for a significant fraction (about one-third) of all black arrests; during the 1950s and early 1960s those crimes accounted for only about 15 percent of total criminal activity. There appears to be a recent shift from the violent crimes of murder, rape, and assault toward economic crimes of robbery, burglary, larceny, and auto theft, also placing the most recent period in line with the earliest one. Between 1933 and 1951, arrests for those economic crimes accounted for 25 percent of total black arrests, and from 1968 until 1985, they accounted for 23 percent of all black arrests; for 1952-1967, they accounted for less than 12 percent of all black arrests. For whites, the index crimes accounted for 28 percent of all arrests for 1933- 1951, for 11 percent for 1952-1967, and for 19 percent for 1968-1985 (Myers and Sabol, 1987~. The distribution of arrests among blacks in the post-1968 period is almost exactly the same as the pre-1950s arrest distribu- tion among whites, with more than 70 percent of arrests for nonindex crimes. Nonindex crimes continue to represent a far greater proportion of white arrests than of black arrests. Arrest rates among males of specific ages show some important aspects of the arrest data. For many of the criminal activities discussed (e.g., robbery, burglary, aggravated assault), the average period of individual participation in criminal activity begins during adolescence and lasts only 5-10 years. Indeed, for robbery and burglary, arrest rates peak at about age 17 and then decrease rapidly, falling to one-half the peak rate for people in their mid-20s and to one-quarter for people in their late 30s (Blumstein et al., 1986~. These data imply that overall trends in arrest rates for index crimes are importantly influenced by birth rates and the black-white differences in arrest rates are affected by black-white differences in the age distribution of the respective populations. Thus, the upward trend in arrest rates during the 1960s and 1970s is explained in part by the fact that the baby boom cohorts born in the late 1940s through the 1950s were reaching adolescence during those decades. The decline in fertility rates after 1960 is consistent also with the fall in arrest rates during the early 1980s. In addition, since the black population is younger than the white population, part of the higher arrest rate among males is due to the fact that there is a higher proportion of males aged 15-25 in the black population than there is in the white population. National data reporting incarceration rates in prisons and jails and disaggre- gated by race were not systematically collected for much of the period covered by our study. Available sources also differ in how the data are presented: only prisoners sentenced for felonies are counted during certain 460

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE TABLE 9-1 Prison Population, by Race, 1939-1985 Year White Black Percent Black 1939 47,971 17,324 26 1949 38,155 15,640 29 1960 108,920 67,781 38 1974 97,700 89,700 48 1979 161,642 145,383 47 1985 260,847 227,137 46 Notes: Data for 1939 are for all court-received pnsoners or flows during each year. Data for 1949 are for male felony prisoners received Tom courts during each year, including federal and state courts but excluding data for Georgia, Michigan, and Mississippi. Data for 1960 include all nonwhites and are the y~r-end felony population. Data for 197~1985 are for the year-end stock population. Source: Hawkins (1987). years; some statistics represent a count of admissions during a given year; other data are a count of populations-all prisoners confined at the end of a given year. The latter figure is larger, of course, because it represents the cumulative effects of many years of admissions. Each set of data can be used for documenting the status of blacks in comparison to whites. Table 9-1 shows various indices of the racial composition of the nation's prison population for selected years between 1939 and 1985. The data reveal an increase in the percentage of blacks among the nation's prison population since 1960. Between 1933 and 1939, blacks accounted for 24-26 percent of all prisoners received from the courts. For 1943-1950, the percentage of black felony admissions ranged from 27 to 31 percent. By 1960, blacks were 39 percent of the stock felony population, and from 1974 to 1985, blacks accounted for about 47 percent of all persons confined at the end of the year. ALCO HOL, DRUGS, HAN DO UNS, AN D CRIME Because of the connections among drugs, guns, and criminal behavior, differential drug use and gun (especially handgun) availability have been frequently discussed as reasons for the black-white gap in crime rates. Re- cently, drug use and trafficking in the black community have received con- siderable media attention. Researchers are divided, however, as to the role played by alcohol and drug use in the etiology of criminal behavior (see Collins, 1981; Goode, 1984; Inciardi, 1986~. And although the United States has a rate of gun ownership higher than those of most other industri- alized nations (Wright et al., 1983), criminologists remain skeptical about how this condition affects the nation's high level of criminal violence. In this section we assess some possible impacts of alcohol, drugs, and handguns on black-white crime differences. 461

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Drags and Alcohol Drug and alcohol use may relate to criminal behavior in several ways. First, people may be more likely to engage in criminal behavior when they are under the influence of drugs or alcohol than when they are not. Such behavior is often attributed to a loss of self-control that results from drug intoxication. Alcohol and some illegal drugs, such as marijuana, hallucino- p;ens, and "angel dust" (PCP), have been related to violent behavior, includ ~7 , c, ~ ,, ing sexual aggression (see Goode, 1984:67,124~. Second, people who engage in repeated drug use are believed to be more likely than nonusers or casual users to be involved in criminal activity (Col- lins, 1981:154-206; Wish and Johnson, 1986~. The view that drug use promotes criminal careers is based in part on the belief that heavy drug users are likely to be found in deviant subcultures that promote criminal activity. It is also based on the idea that drug users have to resort to crime to pay for their habits, a pattern shown to exist for many heroin addicts (Goode, 1984:222-223; Inciardi, 1986:115-132~. This perspective provides much of the current impetus for the mandatory testing for drugs of persons arrested for crime. Such testing has shown that arresters are disproportionately in- volved in drug use: for example, more than one-half of the people arrested for serious crimes in Washington, D.C., and New York City during 1985 and 1986 tested positive for drugs (Wish, 1987, 1988~. Wish reported that many active offenders use drugs and that high rates of drug use are associated with high rates of criminal activity. In an examination of studies that have explored the linkage between alco- hol use and criminal behavior among blacks, Roizen (1981:207) reported that estimates of the proportion of offenders drinking immediately before or at the time of the crime vary from one-third to two-thirds of black offenders. Yet after a careful review of such findings, mainly from survey research, she concluded (Roizen, 1981:252~: Drinking, even heavy and problem drinking, is relatively common. Crime is not. Men and women committing serious crimes are a relatively small, statistically and socially deviant population. They are also among those people most likely to elude the survey net. There is little in this research that directly links drinking behavior to criminal behavior . . . criminal offenders drink more and have more drinking problems than those of relatively comparable status in the general population. There is lircle sup- port, however, . . . for the proposition that a disproportionate amount of Black crime is a consequence of drinking. Violent behavior associated with the trafficking of drugs is now receiving considerable media coverage, but it has not been the subject of substantial research. Most analyses of trafficking have looked at international implica- tions or the involvement of organized crime (e.g., Inciardi, 1986:175-198; Moore, 1988~. None has thoroughly examined drug trafficking within the black community of the sort that appears to be associated with high rates of homicide among black teenagers and young adults. 462 .

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Recent increases in gang-related violence can be linked to drug trafficking and other crime in black and Hispanic communities. For example, it was reported that 17 percent of the District of Columbia's 148 homicides in 1985 were connected to dealing in narcotics. By 1986, that figure had climbed to 33 percent of 197 homicides; and by 1987, it was 57 percent of 228 homicides. Police estimated that in the first 2 months of 1988, 67 percent of the city's 34 homicides were due to local drug wars (Time, March 14, 1988:22~. Control of the market for "crack," a form of cocaine, is reportedly the reason for escalated drug wars. Most of the violence and much of the actual trafficking in crack is concentrated in black neighbor- hoods. One response to trafficking in crack and other drugs within black commu- nities has been an increase in self-help activities directed at drug dealers and purchasers. Duringlanuary and February of 1988, the New Fork Tines reported that black Muslims had begun a 24-hour patrol of the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn in an effort to rid the community of drugs, particularly crack (New Cork Times, January 23, 1988:29,31; February 25, 1988:A1,B4~. Similar Muslim patrol efforts were later begun in Washington, D.C. In both cities, these groups have received significant community sup- port and the tacit approval of the police. In some instances they have joined patrolling policemen in areas of high-volume drug sales. Fruitful investigations might study specific connections between drug traf- ficking and drug use and black crime. In black communities, trafficking in drugs is a source of tremendous rivalry and conflict between competing sellers. The sale of drugs has become an available source of income for unemployed black youth and adults who sell drugs to residents of lower class communities and also to middle-class and affluent blacks and whites (see Chapter 6~. Hand,g~ns Handguns are the weapon of choice and convenience for a variety of criminal offenses, notably robberies, major assaults, and homicide. Rose and Deskins (1986:85) estimated that guns are used in 43 percent of all robberies. Of special interest here is the extent to which ownership of handguns and other types of guns may or may not contribute to the black-white difference in crime rates. Surveys and other evidence of gun ownership show no sharp or consistent differences in weapons ownership across racial groups (Wright et al., 1983:108~. A 1973 National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey analyzed by Wright and Marston (1975) showed that whites were slightly, but not substantially, more likely than nonwhites to own a weapon. But the data revealed no difference in rates of handgun ownership. On the basis of these and other findings, Wright and colleagues (1983:108-109) concluded: Because some studies report ownership being higher among whites (by small margins), others report ownership higher among blacks (by small 463

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY margins), and still others report no significant difference, the most prudent conclusion is very probably that weapons ownership is not linked in any important way to race. Of course, such conclusions do not disprove a linkage among gun use, race, and crime. It is still possible that blacks who commit crimes are more likely than whites to have access to or to use guns. Rose and Deskins (1986) document the extensive use of guns of all types among black homicide offenders in major urban areas, and they also report a growing reliance on the use of handguns. In each of six cities investigated, guns (of all types) represented the most frequently used homicide weapon for black offenders, ranging from a high of 88 percent of all cases in Atlanta to 76 percent in Detroit and Pittsburgh. Alcohol, drugs, and guns are significant correlates of criminal behavior among Americans. But their wide distribution among the entire American population raises questions about how much they contribute to overall crime rate differences across socioeconomic and racial groupings. For example, Wright and colleagues (1983:107) reported the highest rate of private gun ownership among affluent and middle-class people. Nonetheless, drug traf- ficking, drug abuse, and violent behavior are having an especially damaging impact on black communities. THE COSTS OF CRIME: BLACKS AND BLACK COMMUNITIES AS VICTIMS Despite much attention to crime and justice in race relations, few studies have examined the impact of crime and punishment on black communities themselves. Modern-day victims of crime received little attention, whether white or black until very recently. This lack of attention may be the result of the way that cases are processed in the criminal justice system; it may also stem from the fact that the victims of common law crimes have been concen- trated among people of lower socioeconomic status. The effects of crime on black victims and black communities have aroused comparatively little public concern. Given the high rates of black criminal offending, patterns of residential segregation, and the intraracial character of most crime, blacks are about twice as likely as whites to be victims of robbery, vehicle theft, and aggra- vated assault (McGarrell and Flanagan, 1985:29~312~. They are also dispro- portionately victims of homicide: deaths due to homicide among blacks have ranged between 6 and 7 times those for whites during the past 50 years (Brearley, 1932; O' Carroll and Mercy, 1986; Shin et al., 1977~. In short, blacks are subject more frequently than whites to violent death, injures, and property losses by criminal actions. Victimization surveys also show that blacks suffer greater injuries and also lose a greater proportion of their per- sonal wealth to crime than do whites and Hispanics; see Table 9-2. Most black criminal offenders victimize other blacks. This pattern is true 464

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL J USTICE TABLE 9-2 Victimization Rates per 1,000 Persons, by Race or Ethnic Group, 1981 Household Race or Ethnic Group Robbery Assault Burglary Larceny Total White 6 26 83 119 234 Black 17 31 134 142 324 Other 10 27 68 118 223 Hispanic 12 25 104 148 289 Source: Data Tom U.S. Department of Justice (1983:20). for most crimes of violence (O'Brien, 1987) and for many property offenses. The greater level of economic resources that is found within white commu- nities has led to a portion of property offenses by blacks that is directed at whites. Such interracial criminal activity appears to be limited partly by black- white residential separation. Recent evidence suggests that most offenders tend to commit crimes in areas near to where they live; hence, a pattern of intraracial victimization is evident for all racial-ethnic groups (see Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, 1987~. The high volume of criminal activity in black communities has meant that their victimization rates exceed those found in other communities. Further- more, since the incidence of victimization is highest for persons who have incomes of less than $10,000 a year, the blacks in the lower socioeconomic classes suffer especially. But the economic impact of crime on the black community goes far beyond its effects on individual victims. For example, as Andrew grimmer (1975) has argued, crime losses experienced by minority firms represent a significant drain on these firms' net earnings. Their economic viability is lessened by the continued threat and reality of robbery and burglary. Urban economists also argue that such threats and reality deter many businesses from locating in ghetto areas. It is plausibly argued that the threat of crime increases the cost of doing business even if the firm experiences no criminal victimization (Fus- field and Bates, 1984:166-169~: insurance rates are higher in ghetto areas; commercial lenders may restrict credit or charge higher interest rates; and delivery patterns of cautious distributors may be more uncertain and erratic. To the extent that these patterns prevail, the results are a loss of jobs for black residents, more expensive goods and services, decreased livability of neighbor- hoods, and the loss of other benefits of locally operated businesses (Caplovitz, 1968~. At the same time, much of the income from illegal activities does not stay in the ghetto (Fusfield and Bates, 1984:167). Given that high rates of crime reduce the likelihood of profitable businesses in the black community, one must ask why and how some firms have survived and prospered. Some of the variation may be due to the type of business, the hours of operation, the level of consumer interaction, and the method of transactions used. Many businesses survive by adopting protective measures that add to the "armed camp" mentality that often pervades inner-city black 465

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY communities. These measures, though needed to ensure the survival of busi- nesses, convey strong messages about the quality of life in such environments. There are few studies of the costs and benefits of crime for any group. Yet some aspects of these largely unexplored questions can be researched with data from the national annual survey of the victims of crime, the National Crime Survey (NCS). This source provides information on the race, family structures, income, and the employment characteristics of households in sampled neighborhoods. It also gives detailed information about the charac- teristics of heads of households and individuals in the sample and contains data on the incidence of commercial or business victimization. Begun in 1974, these annual surveys of personal and household victimiza- tions are conducted for a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 individuals from 59,000 housing units and other living quarters in 6-month rotation groups. Although a variety of criminal acts are included among the count of victimizations-assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, rape, and robbery-three important classes of crimes are generally excluded. First, drug transactions, prostitution, and related crimes are ex- cluded because these are classified as "victimless" crimes. Second, "series victimizations," or the occurrence of three or more essentially identical criminal events among which the police cannot distinguish, are excluded. And finally, crimes against most businesses are excluded, except for house- holds in which a commercial enterprise is conducted or when a victimization occurs in a commercial enterprise. As a result of these survey problems, the NCS can give only a truncated picture of victimizations in the black and . . . . white communities. To understand the impact of criminal activity on communities, it is useful to focus on the costs incurred by victims. These costs include dollar losses from property crimes, expenses related to injuries sustained in violent at- tacks, and time lost from work in the aftermath of crime. Looking at the broad patterns of these costs for 1974-1985, the costs of crime are consis- tently greater for blacks than they are for whites. When the data are exam- ined in greater detail, race differences remain, although some of these differ- ences may be the result of the greater incidence of poverty among blacks. The National Crime Survey includes questions to victims about the dollar losses (theft and damages) associated with criminal incidents. The U.S. De- partment of Justice calls these monetary costs "economic losses." In 1985, the majority of the more than 14 million personal victimizations in the United States resulted in losses of less than $50. The estimate is derived by including the loss categories of "no monetary value" (1 percent), "not known and not available" (8 percent), and "less than $50" (45 percent). Whites were slightly more likely than blacks to have small losses from per- sonal victimizations, which include robberies and assaults. For example, for victims reporting some economic loss in 1985, 46 percent of whites and 40 percent of blacks claimed amounts of less than $50 (Myers and Sabol, 1987~. A black-white gap is apparent for household victimizations, which include 466

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE burglaries, larcenies, and motor vehicle thefts. While the economic losses for blacks and whites in amounts over $250 have been rising (partly due to price inflation), there is a nearly constant excess of the black loss over the white loss; see Figure 9-3a. For personal victimizations, however, the excess of black losses is not observed for every year, although both these measures of victimization were rising; see Figure 9-3b. Throughout the mid- to late 1970s, blacks were more likely than whites to have economic losses over $250. The reverse was true for 1979-1980 and for 1983-1985. Since blacks report far more household than personal crimes, relative to whites, the pattern of comparatively greater losses experienced by blacks seems persist- ent. Blacks also experience greater medical costs (Figure 94J and more time lost from work (Figure 9-5) due to personal victimizations (e.g., rapes, robberies, and assaults) than do whites. First, as Figure 94 depicts, greater proportions of blacks than whites had medical expenses in excess of $250 as a result of injuries sustained in violent attacks. And as detailed in Table 9-3, blacks lose more time from work as a result of crime. Blacks who required inpatient medical care as a result of their injuries spent more days in the hospital than hospitalized whites. The distribution of criminal incidents by the race of the victim and char- acteristics of the neighborhood in which the victim's household is located and the dollar losses from robbery and theft are given in Tables 94 and 9-5. For the selected years 1973, 1977, and 1981, the majority of black victims of criminal incidents lived in mixed neighborhoods with less than 45 percent black populations in 1977 and 1981, while the majority of white victims lived in essentially all-white neighborhoods. Only about one-fifth of criminal incidents with black victims involved persons who lived in households in all- black neighborhoods in 1973, and that proportion dropped to 16-17 per- cent in later years. As expected, given the differing rates of poverty among blacks and whites, the poverty status of neighborhoods also differed between black and white victims. About 70 percent of white victims lived in neighborhoods with poverty rates of less than 10 percent. Black victims, in contrast, were dispro- portionately found in near-poverty and high-poverty areas, mostly in the former: about 40 percent were in near-poverty neighborhoods (poverty rates from 11 to 25 percent), much more than in high-poverty neighborhoods (rates above 25 percent). A relatively small proportion of criminal incidents occurred in commercial buildings. The highest rates of commercial victimizations occur in all-white neighborhoods-where most of the commercial establishments exist. Poor black neighborhoods, where the majority of the residents are black and the poverty rate exceeds 25 percent, experience business victimizations at about the same rate as poor white neighborhoods (Myers and Sabol, 1987:113~. For household losses due to thefts, blacks who live in nonpoor neighbor- hoods report significantly higher total monetary losses than blacks in poor 467

A COMMON DESTINY BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY FIGURE 9-3 Economic losses Mom (a) household and (b) personal crimes, by race of victim, 1974-1985. 32 to So 28 oh 26 oh oh o 18 16 to Cal ~14 co LL oh 4O oh '' o 10 Z 8 LL C: LU CL 6 Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). YEAR 468 (a) Household Crimes 24 22 20 18 16 14 O ~1 1 1 1 1 1974 White \/7ctims '/ Black Victims ~ - - 1 1 1 1 1 1 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 YEAR _ (by Personal Crimes _~/ white victims ,'Y O' . 1 , , ~ ~ 1974 1976 1978 I, ~ / _~ / Black Victims -' 1 1 1 1 1 1 1980 1982 1984

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE FIGURE 9-4 Medical expenses of violent crime victims, by race of victim, 1974-1985. 44 42 40 ° 38 CM ~ 36 '0 34 ha 32 CL 30 x 28 I 26 24 z 22 lL 20 _ 18 _ 16 _ 14 o L 1974 1976 A , \ \ ., \ l l l ,, , White Victims 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 A Black / \ Victims wit ~ ,^ 'V \'~ ' \ - 1978 1980 1982 1984 YEAR Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). FIGURE 9-5 Time lost from work because of personal victimization, by race, 1974-1985. 28 26 24 co at: co oh o I I C: 111 ILL 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 o Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). White Victims '` _` ~ _ f I I I I I I I I I I I 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 A Black ,/ Sims _ ' "~V - _ 1978 1 980 YEAR 469

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY TABLE 9-3 Days Lost from Work, by Race of Victim and Type of Victimization, 197~1985 All Households White Victim Black Victim & Persons Year Days Household Personal Household Personal Household Personal 1974 0-5 94.00%84.30% 92.00%74.00% 92.00%82.80% 26 4.2014.30 8.1024.10 8.1015.40 N.K. 1.801.50 1.90 1.80 1975 0-5 92.4087.20 93.7069.20 92.8084.00 26 6.6011.40 4.7027.90 6.1014.40 N.K. 1.001.30 1.603.00 1.101.60 1976 0-5 93.3086.20 92.9072.80 93.3084.30 26 4.7011.90 3.9026.10 4.5013.80 N.K. 2.001.90 3.201.00 2.201.90 1977 0-5 91.7087.70 95.8075.70 92.2085.70 26 6.8010.10 4.1022.00 6.5012.10 N.K. 1.502.10 0.002.30 1.202.10 1978 0-5 93.0086.00 91.8077.60 92.9084.90 2 6 4.5012.90 8.2021.20 5.3013.80 N.K. 2.401.10 0.001.10 1.901.30 1979 0-5 95.1088.90 98.7072.40 95.5086.30 26 3.708.90 0.0025.60 3.4011.30 N.K. 1.102.20 1.302.00 1.202.20 1980 0-5 94.2090.00 88.9076.50 93.6088.10 -6 4.409.10 7.5017.90 4.7010.50 N.K. 1.400.90 3.605.60 1.701.40 1981 0-5 96.6087.90 93.4077.40 96.0086.60 26 1.7011.00 4.5018.70 2.3011.70 N.K. 1.701.10 2.103.90 1.701.60 1982 0-5 94.9089.60 95.8089.10 95.1089.70 26 4.109.30 2.508.80 3.809.20 N.K. 1.001.10 1.702.10 1.101.20 1983 0-5 93.1086.40 93.0079.50 89.3089.30 26 1.008.10 2.9013.10 0.904.70 N.K. 5.105.50 4.107.40 9.706.30 1984 0-5 81.3087.00 87.1081.30 86.4081.50 26 9.603.10 3.109.60 3.5010.50 N.K. 9.109.90 9.909.10 10.108.00 1985 0-5 85.2084.50 90.8072.80 87.8085.60 -6 4.308.50 1.0016.30 2.206.80 N.K. 10.507.40 8.3010.80 10.107.70 Notes: N.K.: rounding. not known. Total percent for each year does not always equal 100 because of Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). 470

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE TABLE 9= Criminal Incidents by Racial Makeup of Neighborhood and Race of Victim, 1973-1981 Raeial Makeup of Neighborh<'c.'d 1973 Victim 1977 Victim 1981 Victim (percent black)Blaek -WhitcBlaek White Blaek White 04.8 49.86.1 50.5 10 50.3 1-1011.8 36.515.3 36.4 15.5 36.9 11 +83.4 13.778.3 13.1 74.5 12.8 Total100% 100%100% 100% 100% 100% e4544.8 51.8 54.5 246-89 c34 3 32.5 28.6 2 9020.9 15.7 16.9 Total100% 100% 100% Note: Total percent does not always equal 100 because of rounding. Source: Myers and Sabol (1987) . neighborhoods. Such a finding is not consistently evident among whites during the years between 1973 and 1981. Blacks in nonpoor and near-poor neighborhoods report losses that are twice as high as those reported by whites in nonpoor and near-poor neighborhoods. While the losses of blacks and whites in poor neighborhoods are comparable, the losses of blacks in neighborhoods with poverty rates of less than 10 percent are among the very highest rates reported of any group. Looking at family income, this finding is strengthened considerably. The major monetary losses from personal and household victimizations in recent years were borne by the black middle class and near poor. While many larcenies and assaults are black male-on-male offenses and violent attacks are increasingly becoming the source of significant mortality among young inner-city black males, measures of monetary losses from thefts, burglaries, and other household crimes suggest that economic crimes are occurring across class lines and are not simply an instance of poor blacks stealing from other poor blacks. However, the losses due to crime among the black poor should not be underemphasized since these victims have fewer resources and methods of compensating for those losses. Our broad conclusion is that blacks bear a disproportionate share of the costs of criminal victimizations, but that they do not share these costs equally. Middle-class and near-poor blacks seem to suffer significantly greater losses than poor blacks or than whites of any income level. Thus, blacks living in near-poverty or nonpoverty areas lose more on average from thefts, robberies, and burglaries than blacks or whites living in high-poverty areas. These findings run counter to two popular misconceptions: that the white community suffers disproportionately from black crime and that poor blacks suffer disproportionately from all types of black crime. The repeated appeals for law and order frequently found in black middle-class newspapers and popular magazines provide further indication of the actual pattern of crime against blacks. w . . . ~. . . 471

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY TABLE 9-5 Financial Losses (in dollars) Because of Robbery and Theft, by Race of Victims, 197~1985 White Black All Races Year Value Robbery Theft Robbery Theft Robbery Theft 1974 0-$249 77.80% 91.80% 81.40% 90.60% 77.40% 91.70 2$250 15.80 5.10 11.70 5.10 14.70 5.00 N.K. 6.40 3.10 7.90 4.30 7.90 3.30 1975 0-$249 78.30 91.30 79.60 89.00 78.70 90.90 2$250 13.70 5.60 15.10 6.50 13.90 5.70 N.K. 6.90 2.50 5.30 4.70 6.70 2.70 1976 0-$249 76.00 89.60 79.10 85.20 79.70 89.30 2 $250 11.00 6.70 10.70 7.50 13.00 6.70 N.K. 14.00 3.00 7.20 5.30 7.20 3.20 1977 0-$249 77.70 89.00 74.80 85.10 75.90 89.10 2$250 14.40 6.70 16.40 8.10 15.20 6.90 N.K. 7.10 3.10 8.90 5.90 7.60 3.40 1978 0-$249 68.00 90.90 84.80 86.50 71.60 88.00 2 $250 22.80 3.40 11.70 8.20 19.80 7.80 N.K. 7.90 7.90 3.8Q 4.40 6.80 3.50 1979 0-$249 75.60 85.70 66.10 84.10 72.90 85.40 2 $250 16.30 9.00 18.20 7.00 16.50 8.90 N.K. 8.60 4.90 15.70 8.20 10.30 5.30 1980 0-$249 67.00 84.00 68.50 82.40 67.60 84.90 2 $250 22.00 11.80 19.70 10.50 21.30 22.00 N.K. 9.80 4.40 11.80 7.00 10.30 9.80 1981 0-$249 67.30 83.30 67.50 82.60 67.50 83.20 2 $250 21.70 12.70 25.40 12.60 22.60 12.60 N.K. 11.10 3.80 7.10 4.20 9.90 3.90 1982 0-$249 70.30 82.50 64.00 82.00 68.40 82.20 2 $250 20.00 13.30 28.40 12.30 22.50 13.20 N.K. 8.90 4.00 7.00 5.60 8.40 4.30 1983 0-$249 63.50 82.00 68.20 81.00 80.50 93.10 2 $250 26.00 14.10 24.40 13.60 8.60 2.70 N.K. 11.50 3.90 7.50 5.40 10.60 4.10 1984 0-$249 61.10 80.50 69.50 77.60 62.90 80.50 2$250 26.20 14.60 17.60 13.50 25.10 14.60 N.K. 11.80 4.10 11.80 8.60 11.60 4.60 1985 0-$249 67.30 79.20 61.20 78.00 65.50 79.00 2$250 24.20 15.70 27.10 14.40 24.70 15.60 N.K. 9.80 4.70 11.80 7.30 9.90 5.10 Note: N.K.: not known. Source: Myers and Sabol (1987). 472

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE PROCESS The findings presented to this point have documented the magnitude of arrests and of victimization among blacks, and the persisting gaps between blacks and whites. We now discuss the treatment accorded to blacks and whites at various stages of the criminal justice process. POLICE BEHAVIOR AN D THE DECISION TO ARREST Extensive investigations of racial bias in the decision to arrest have not been conducted. Most police behavior, unlike that of judicial personnel, is not easily visible to would-be researchers, and the sheer volume of police activity makes it difficult to assess. It is not surprising, therefore, that much of the direct evidence supporting allegations of bias in arrest decisions has been anecdotal. Also, the higher rates of black arrests across many types of offenses sometimes have been interpreted as indirect evidence of bias. The enforcement of most criminal laws allows substantial discretion by the police-discretion that could lead to rates of arrest that do not reflect "ac- tual" criminal behavior. However, the role of the police in initiating the arrest of persons is more limited than sometimes thought. The vast majority of cases that enter the criminal justice system do so as a result of the efforts of victims or other complainants rather than through the initiative of the police (Reiss and Bordua, 1967:29-32~. Most investigations of crime by police are reactive rather than proactive (Black, 1973), but sometimes the police are the complainants: for example, police surveillance may result in observation of criminal activity. Thus, one possible source of bias could be differential police surveillance of persons by race. This could be a result of the attitudes of individual policemen, or of policy, if police departments differentially patrol neighborhoods based on the race of their residents. Empirical investigations during the 1950s and 1960s often concluded that white police officers frequently held opinions that were prejudiced toward blacks. In a study of police behavior in a California city, Skolnick (1966:80- 90) reported that "a negative attitude toward Negroes was a norm among , , ~ ~ c7 the police studied." Similarly, in a study of police behavior in Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., Black and Reiss (1967:132-139) found that 72 percent of the white officers displayed attitudes toward blacks that were classified as either "prejudiced" or "extremely prejudiced." Quinney (1970:130, citing Kephart, 1957:88-93) reported that 75 percent of police officers studied in Philadelphia during the 1950s overestimated the percent- age of arrests involving blacks made in the districts to which they were assigned (see Banton, 1964~. Some writers have argued that these attitudes were translated into discrim- inatory behavior (e.g., Mendelsohn, 1971:167~. Others took a more cau- tious view. Skolnick (1966:84), Black and Reiss (1967), Yale low Journal editors (1967:1645,n.9), and Bayley and Mendelsohn (1969) all argued that 473

A COMMON DESTI NY: BLACKS AN D AMERICAN SOCI ETY prejudice did not necessarily lead to discriminatory behavior on the part of police officers (Cooney, 1987:5-6~. Several more recent studies show some differences in the behavior of the police toward white and black citizens who make complaints. Friedrich (1977:302-303) found a differential: 61 percent of white complaints and 52 percent of black complaints were written up as crimes. Pursuing the matter further, Friedrich (1977:310-313) discovered that although black and white officers were equally likely to record incidents as crimes, both were more likely to record incidents against members of their own race as crimes. The differential was greater for white officers than for black officers: white officers officially recorded 26 percent more of the white complaints than of the black complaints, and black officers wrote up 7 percent more of the black com- plaints than of the white complaints. One difference in crime reports across the races can thus be traced to a greater tendency of white policemen to treat the complaints of people of their own race as more legally serious than those of people of the other race (Cooney, 1987~. Such studies as those reported above have been rare. We do not know for certain how generalizable the results are across the more than 40-year period covered by this review, or to different settings (e.g., South and non-South, small towns and large cities). RACE PREJUDICE AND VICTIM RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS The focus of the empirical literature on race prejudice in the administration of justice has primarily been on the race of the offender. A now sizable literature reports that prejudice may serve to either overpenalize or under- penalize black offenders in comparison to their white counterparts. The choice of alternatives is believed to depend on the race of the victim. Prejudice toward blacks may result in black offenders who victimize other blacks being treated more leniently than black or white offenders who vic- timize whites (Baldus et al., 1983; Garfinkel, 1949; Gross and Mauro, 1984; Johnson, 1941; LaFree, 1980; Paternoster, 1983, 1984; Radelet, 1981; Thomson and Zingraff, 1981~. Most of these observations have involved the behavior of non-law enforcement personnel (e.g., judges and juries). The logic underlying their arguments has recently resulted in a review by the ~ . · ~ . . . .. U.~. Supreme (court of the deferential avocation ot the death penalty on the basis of the race of the victim (McClesky v. Imp, 107 S.Ct. 1756 [19871~. The studies of Quinney (1970), Friedrich (1977), and Hawkins (1983, 1986) suggested that the police may also respond differentially to incidents involving black and white offenders and victims. The race of both the victim and offender have not been controlled in most studies of police behavior. But when the race of both parties to an alleged crime is included in the analysis, there does appear to be a difference in the police response to intraracial and interracial incidents. Intraracial arrest rates do not vary much in locations outside of the South. A three-city (Boston, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.) observation study of 474

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE police behavior during 1966 (Black, 1971) found that blacks were arrested more frequently than whites for intraracial crimes. Black proposed that this difference was not the result of race prejudice on the part of the police officer and was not primarily a race-of-victim effect. Rather, he concluded that the difference in arrest rates disappears once the "degree of respect" shown the police officer by the suspect is included in the analysis. Black suspects were found to display greater antagonism toward the police than white suspects, and this fact, rather than race per se, was said to account for their higher arrest rate. One of the major criticisms of Black's conclusion is the lack of explanation as to why black suspects were "more disrespectful" toward the police than their white counterparts. The disrespect of black suspects toward the police may be a product of the volatility of police-civilian encounters in black communities and the documented prejudice of policemen. There ap- pears to be a cycle of disrespect generated by the interactions between black communities and the police toward each other. And of course, racial ten- sions characterized the entire country when this research was conducted in 1966 (Hawkins, 1987~. More recently, in a study of arrests in Rochester, New York; St. Louis, Missouri; and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, Smith and colleagues (1984) reported little difference in the way police handled intraracial crimes in black and white communities. Similar conclusions were reached in a study of interpersonal disputes by Smith and Klein (1984) and of family violence by Berk and Loseke (1980-1981:333~. But another study of interpersonal vio- lence (Smith, 1987) found that cases of violence between whites are signifi- cantly more likely to end in arrest than similar cases between blacks. Interracial arrest rates produce somewhat different patterns. A study of all sexual assault cases handled by the police in a large midwestern city during 1970, 1973, and 1975 (LaFree, 1980) reported three major findings. First, the race of the suspect and victim did not significantly predict arrest before 1973, when sexual assault cases were dealt with by the homicide and robbery unit of the police department. Second, after the formation in 1973 of a special police unit to deal with sex offenses, cases between blacks became less likely to result in arrest than those between whites or those between a black suspect and a white victim. (There were too few cases of white offenders and black victims to be meaningfully included.) Third, throughout the period of the study, cases of black suspects alleged to have offended against white victims attracted legally more serious charges than cases involving any of the other offender-victim combinations of race. Smith and colleagues (1984) found that for cases of black suspects and white victims the probability of arrest was .336; for cases of black suspects and black victims it was .218; for cases of white suspects and white victims it was .189; and for cases of white suspects and black victims the probability was .107. However, after controlling for a number of other variables (e.g., the suspect's "level of respect toward the police"), the differences between these probabilities diminished to statistically nonsignificant levels. Neverthe- less, the authors found that arrests were more likely for property crimes 475

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY against whites than against blacks, and that the requests of white complain- ants for arrests were complied with more frequently than those of black complainants (Cooney, 1987:9~. Victimless offenses do not present clear evidence of black-white disparities. A study of 195 cases of public drunkenness (the largest single category of arresters during the past several decades) revealed no significant difference in the arrest rates of black and white offenders (Lundman, 1974~. A larger study of the same offense in another city arrived at the same conclusion (Pastor, 1978~. Similarly, Friedrich's (1977:301-302) analysis of 319 traffic cases failed to uncover any systematic difference in the treatment of black and white drivers. On the other hand, Lundman's (1979) study of 293 moving traffic violations reports that black drivers were somewhat more likely than white drivers-55 percent to 47 percent-to receive a citation from the police. Juvenile arrest patterns lead to more definite conclusions with respect to black-white arrest rate differences. The first observational study of this issue suggested that black juveniles were more vulnerable to arrest than white juveniles (Pilavin and Briar, 1964~. This result was confirmed and elaborated in a three-city study by Black and Reiss (1970), who presented a set of related findings: (1) Only 15 percent of all policejuvenile encounters ended in arrest. (2) Black juveniles were more likely to be arrested than white juveniles for the same conduct. (3) When only a suspect was present, the difference in arrest rates for black and white juveniles was negligible (14 percent for blacks and 10 percent for whites). (4) When complainants and suspects were present, black juveniles were arrested 2.5 times more fre- quently than white juveniles (21 percent for blacks and 8 percent for whites). (5) When complainants were present, the police comply with their expressed preferences to a significant degree. In the sample of cases analyzed, a request for leniency never resulted in arrest; requests for arrest were granted in a majority of cases. (6) There were differences in the preferences expressed by black and white complainants: black complainants sought arrest slightly more frequently than white complainants (21 percent for blacks and 15 percent for whites), but white complainants expressed a preference for the informal disposition of cases considerably more frequently than black com- plainants (58 percent for whites and 31 percent for blacks). (7) The great majority of suspects and complainants were of the same race. (8) The higher arrest rate of black juveniles was therefore largely a function of police officers complying with requests from white complainants for lenient dispositions for white juveniles (Cooney, 1987~. Black and Reiss's findings were subsequently replicated by Lundman and colleagues (1978), cited in Cooney (1987~. These authors also concluded that differences in the preferences of black and white complainants explain cross-racial variation in juvenile arrest rates. Neither of these studies could explain the racial difference in complainants' preferences. Cooney (1987) suggests that a plausible hypothesis is that the difference in complainants' preferences are related to the greater prevalence of female-headed families in the black population. Two-parent families are likely to be able to exert a 476

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE more secure system of authority over children and protect them from exter- nal influences (see Matsueda and Heimer, 1987~. It is known that recourse to legal solutions is least likely when nonlegal authority is strong (Black, 1976:107-111~; it is quite possible that more effective controls generated by two-parent families leads to a relatively lower demand for formal legal action against juvenile offenders in the white community (Cooney, 1987~. POLICE ORGANIZATION Modern police departments are complex organizations. Arrest rates are an organizational outcome as well as a reflection of criminal activity. Such factors as the availability and allocation of financial resources, the extent and nature of resource allocation, and various political exigencies affect police arrest rates. In this section we report findings on police organization in relation to racial differentials in police-citizen encounters. Jacobs (1979) reported that metropolitan areas with larger numbers of blacks had stronger law enforcement agencies than areas with fewer blacks in 1970, but not in 1960 (with "strength" estimated by indices such as expen- ditures for personnel and number of personnel). Other studies have explored whether this relationship is a result of higher crime rates among blacks or of . ~ . ~ . i_ '' ,. Am. ~ 1 ~ ~ .. r ~ other factors. Jackson and Carroll (lull) used the raaal composition or tne city, the level of black mobilization activity, and the frequency of riots in the 1960s as predictors of police strength in a sampling of 90 nonsouthern cities during 1971. They concluded that police expenditures were mobilized or expanded when blacks appeared threatening to the dominant group. Liska and colleagues (1981) looked at police department strength in 109 U.S. municipal areas between 1950 and 1972. They reported that the apparent effect of racial composition depends on geographical region and year (before or after the civil disorders of the 1960s). The greatest increases in police strength were noted first for the South and then in all regions after the 1960s. The large increases in police forces during the late 1960s and early 1970s could not be accounted for by a rise in reported crimes alone. Liska and colleagues (1985) looked at data on arrests for 77 U.S. cities with populations of 100,000 or more. They found that the percentage nonwhite and a measure of segregation were significantly correlated with the number of arrests per 100,000 known crimes. However, they did not find that the certainty of arrests was greater for blacks than for whites. Rather, they suggest that a high percentage of nonwhites and a low level of segrega- tion increase the perceived threat of crime. These perceptions then increase pressure on the police to control crime, which in turn increases the certainty of arrests for both whites and nonwhites. Police organization and policy have important effects on the number of shootings of civilians by police officers. Police use of deadly force results in a sizable number of citizens being killed every year. Since there is some under- reporting, precise figures are not available. Nevertheless, it has been esti 477

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY mated that police killings represent about 1.5-4 percent of all homicides each year (Sherman and Langworthy, 1979:559). Of those killed by the police, disproportionate numbers are black (Sher- man, 1980:95~: According to official statistics, blacks constituted forty-six percent of people killed by official police action in 1975, while they constituted only 11.5 percent of the population. Takagi (1979, cited in Hawkins, 1987) calculated that in the years from 1950 to 1968 blacks were killed by police at least 9 times as frequently as whites.The overrepresentation of blacks among victims of police killings could be due to either or both of two causes (Goldkamp, 1976~. The first is that blacks expose themselves to being killed by the police by engaging more frequently than whites in dangerous criminal activity. The second possibility is simply that there is a greater willingness of the police to shoot blacks. Examining data on police homicide from the 50 states for the period of 1961-1970, mania and Mackey (1977) found that the best predictors of killings by police were the police exposure to violent crime and the overall rate of homicide. However, the authors did not analyze the data by race. Of more direct relevance is the study by Milton and colleagues (1977:11) of police shootings in seven cities.They concluded: The number of blacks and other minorities shot by police is substantially greater than their number in the general population, but is not inconsistent with the number of blacks arrested for serious criminal offenses (index crimes). It is not clear, however, how well this measure of police-citizen contact (arrests for serious crime) can serve as a predictor of another form of contact (killings). Methodological problems also reduce the plausibility of a number of stud- ies that have concluded that police racial bias does exist. For example, Harding and Fahey (1973) concluded that a credible alternative to the official police version of the killing existed in 11 of the 79 cases from Chicago that they analyzed. The authors found also that the percentage of blacks killed per 10,000 arrests was higher than the percentage of whites so killed. But neither of these findings can be taken as direct evidence of racial discrimina- tion. As noted above, comparing death and arrest rates proves little because arrest rates do not directly measure differences in the kind of conduct (by the citizen or officer) that plausibly will lead to the use of deadly force (see, e.g., Knoohuizen et al., 19721. Several studies have sought to control more adequately for the conduct of the people killed by the police. Meyer's (1980) analysis of shootings by Los Angeles police from 1974 to 1979 found that a greater percentage of blacks than whites who were shot at by the police were subsequently found to have been unarmed. However, Meyer also reported that more of the shootings that involved blacks were preceded by suspects' disobeying police orders to 478

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE halt or by suspects' appearing to reach for weapons. Given these ambiguous results, it is not surprising that one of the main points made by Meyer's paper is the need for more research. Sherman (1980) reached different conclusions: he stated that changes in police policy toward gun use by officers reduces the number of blacks killed by police. Fyfe (1981, 1982) reached similar conclusions concerning Dolice shootings in Memphis and New York City. Police records of all shootings by officers in New York City from 1971 to 1975 showed that blacks were overrepresented among those shot at by the police, but that they also made up a greater percentage of shooting opponents armed with guns and a greater percentage of those involved in robberies at the time of the shooting. Fur- thermore, more whites (16 percent) than blacks (8 percent) had no gun when shot at by the police. Fyfe (1981) therefore concluded that the racial disparity in shootings was a function of the greater involvement of blacks in crimes that precipitated police-citizen violence. But Fyfe (1982) arrived at a different conclusion when he conducted similar research in Memphis. There he found that the disproportionate shooting of blacks could not be explained by their greater criminal activity. He attributed the difference between the findings in New York and Memphis to the difference in stringency of the policy on use of firearms in the two departments. The police shootings in New York, but not those in Memphis, were subject to strict review proce- dures. Thus, the deterrent against unlawful or improper shooting presum- ably was greater in New York than in Memphis. In sum, blacks far more often than whites are killed by police, and some part of the differential may arise from the more frequent involvement of blacks in violent crimes. But the most concern among blacks has been over the disproportionate number of unjustified killings of blacks. In this regard, the relatively large number of police killings of all citizens, especially during the past, is partly a consequence of permissive gun-use policy in many police units. Greater variation in local police procedures leave open the possibility of racial discrimination by individual police officers in some cities. Police-citizen review boards have been a response to the problems created by racial tensions over police shootings of blacks and other minorities. The use of force by the police against blacks was identified to be one of the factors precipitating many of the civil disturbances of the 1960s (see, e.g., the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 1968~. (More recent disturbances in Miami [in 1980] have also involved allegations of police misconduct vis-a-vis blacks.) A major observation of the commission report was the lack of adequate mechanisms for black communities to redress griev- ances against the police. The commission's recommendation led to the establishment of police-civilian review boards in many cities. During the past two decades, many such boards have ceased to exist. This trend may be due to greater acceptance of the idea that the most effective way to control police misconduct is through internal administrative proce- dures. As Skolnick (1968) noted, this belief was widely adhered to even when external review boards were first established. Alternatively, the trend --an r 479

A COMMON DESTI NY: BLACKS AN D AMERICAN SOCI ETY could represent an effort to avoid police accountability. Little research has been conducted on the relative merits of alternative methods of controlling police use of deadly force. Much of the impetus for reform of police behavior appears to have shifted to the hiring and promotion of black police officers. PRETRIAL BARGAI N I NO AN D PROSECUTION Prosecutors may be the most important decision makers in the criminal justice process because prosecutors determine whether to press criminal charges against defendants or to dismiss a case. If a decision is made to go forward with a case, a prosecutor must determine the appropriate charge and decide whether or not to negotiate a plea with the defendant. If a decision to plea bargain is made, the terms of the bargain must be specified, and the prosecutor can change the charge, drop one or more counts, or recommend a mitigated sentence to the judge. If a prosecutor chooses not to bargain, then the case must be prepared for trial and argued in court (Alschuler, 1968, 1979~. Yet the role of prosecutors is perhaps the least known of all official roles in the administration of justice, and analyses focusing on racial disparities in prosecutorial decision making are especially scarce. Despite the DoDular image of the jury trial as the method of fact determination and sentencing tor criminal law cases, most criminal cases are plea bargained. Guilty pleas ob- tained through bargaining account for approximately 95 percent of the con · · T ~ ~ . /~ . 1 ~ ~ ^~- -\ ~1~ _ 1 ~ L ~ L ~ v~ct~onsm U.~. courts (Katz end Cameron, 1Yb/:~. anus, a~ongw~rn~ne decision to arrest, prosecutorial decisions are a major factor in the treatment accorded criminal suspects. The decision to prosecute necessarily involves a large amount of discretion, but there are some limits. The decisions that are made must maintain har- monious relations with judges and defense attorneys (Church, 1976, 1978; Eisenstein and Jacob, 1977; Maynard, 1984; Nardulli, 1978~. Prosecutors must also balance courts' need for efficiency, their own desire for high conviction rates, and the dispensing of "justice." Despite these real limits, prosecutors' discretionary power has been described as "unchecked," "sub- ject to abuse," and "unconstitutional" (e.g., Blumberg, 1967; Davis, 1971; 1976; Michalowski, 1985~. Yet plea bargaining is likely to remain an indis- pensable means of helping to clear crowded court calendars, especially in urban areas. In addition, the recent national trend toward determinate sentencing has enhanced the role of prosecutors. Determinate-sentencing statutes seek to reduce the discretion of judges and parole boards. Discretion then reverts to the prosecutor (McCoy, 1984; Miethe, 1987). Once a legislature has set the presumptive sentence for each offense, including specified increases or de- creases in sentence severity for aggravating and mitigating circumstances, the judge has considerably less room within which to act. Prosecutors, through changes in charges, and in some cases in the number of counts, may then 480

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE determine the sentence. In most instances, such changes result from plea bargaining. From defendants' perspective, possible avoidance of jail or prison time is the primary consideration in deciding whether to plead guilty and, if so, to what charge (Church, 1976; Neubauer, 1974~. Almost invariably, plea bar- gaining results in a lighter sentence than would result from conviction by a jury. This apparent leniency for plea bargaining may be a reward for saving the court time and money and showing evidence of contrition. Alternatively, it may simply be a built-in response to a policy of initial overcharging in expectation of a plea bargain. Prosecutorial discretion may not be equally advantageous to all defendants. In particular, it may operate in ways that are detrimental to poor and minority defendants (Uhlrnan, 1979:14~. Generally, prosecutorial discretion may be said to be potentially biased if any of the following three conditions are met (Zatz and Cameron, 1987:8~: dismissals by the prosecutor are more likely for one racial or ethnic group than another; rates of plea bargaining differ for members of different racial or ethnic groups; or members of one group receive consistently better deals than members of another group. Racial disparities in prosecutorial decisions may be due to a number of factors, including: (1) reluctance to proceed with the case if police disproportionately arrest minorities without sufficient evi- dence for conviction; (2) reluctance of prosecutors to bargain with minority defendants; (3) perception by prosecutors that minorities would not have the financial resources necessary to delay case processing to the point at which a trial would be unduly costly to the state; (4) differences in the perceived credibility of minority and white witnesses, including victims; (5) perception by prosecutors that a given offense and defendant fit or do not fit certain stereotypical images, particularly concerning dangerousness; (6) racial differences in patterns of overcharging by prosecutors in anticipation of plea bargaining; (7) the racial or ethnic composition of the courtroom actors; and (8) the racial or ethnic composition of the jurisdiction. The decision to charge or dismiss is pivotal, and the severity of the initial charge is also very important. If prosecutorial decisions are biased against black defendants, one hypothesis would be that cases involving black sus- pects would have lower rates of dismissals and more severe initial charges. Different studies support or question this hypothesis. For example, in a study of racial disparities in California, Michigan, and Texas, Petersilia (1983:vii) found that blacks in California were more likely than whites to be released without charges. This finding may reflect a response by prosecutors to disparities in arrest practices by police. The supposition that police are more likely to arrest minorities without sufficient evidence or probable cause is supported by the fact that police were more likely to use warrants, which require more stringent evidentiary criteria, when arresting whites than blacks (Petersilia, 1983:26,92-93~. As a consequence, prosecutors were more likely to release minorities without filing criminal charges, because the evidence would not support pursuing the case. Another possible reason for the higher dismissal rates for minorities is that prosecutors anticipated difficulties in 481

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY obtaining convictions at trial if they believe minority victims and witnesses may refuse to cooperate or if they suspect that white victims would have trouble identifying minority suspects (Petersilia, 1983 :92-93) . White suspects were more likely than blacks or Hispanics to have felony charges filed against them by police upon arrest, but a greater percentage of whites were subsequently charged with misdemeanors. Blacks were least likely to have the seriousness of their case reduced (reduction rates for Hispanics were between those for whites and blacks). Once charged, offend- ers of all races had about the same chance of being convicted of a felony, but white defendants were more likely than minorities to be convicted by plea bargain. In contrast, minority defendants were more likely than whites to have their felony cases tried by jury (Petersilia, 1983:xv-xvi; see below). Other researchers have analyzed precourt and court processing decisions. Hepburn (1978) found that blacks were more likely than whites to be arrested on insufficient evidentiary grounds, but if a warrant was issued, minorities were more likely than whites to be held for prosecution. Similarly, Uhlrnan (1979) noted that blacks were subjected to more scrutiny by police, which contributed in turn to higher arrest rates for blacks. These higher arrest rates were compounded by an increased likelihood of prosecution rather than dismissal and by more limited opportunities to post bail and plea bargain (Uhlman, 1979:13~. Bernstein and colleagues (1977), Welch and colleagues (1984), and Albonetti (1986) also explored the possibilities of racial bias in prosecutors' decisions to charge or dismiss defendants. They found some results that are consistent with Petersilia's study and others that differ. The racial differences were quite small and in most cases did not attain statistical significance. Welch and colleagues (1984) concluded that the major contribution of their study was to test, and generally to reject, previous hypotheses that discrimination is greater in the less visible prosecutorial decisions in comparison with more visible court proceed- in~. Similarly, Albonetti (1986) found higher, but not statistically significant, prosecutorial dismissal rates for minorities than for whites. Plea bargaining may be the method of disposing of a case once the decision to charge has been made. As noted above, Petersilia reported higher rates of plea bargaining for whites than for blacks or Hispanics. In interpreting this finding, Petersilia (1983:101) wrote: Racial differences in plea bargaining and jury trials might help explain why minorities receive harsher sentences. This study did not control for plea bar - ring in analyzing racial differences in sentence severity. If future research establishes that plea bargaining does contribute to these differences, the next important research task would be to discover why minority defendants are less likely than whites to plea bargain and more likely to have jury trials. Do prosecutors consistently offer less attractive plea bargains to minority defen- dants, or do minority defendants simply insist more on jury trials? Whatever the reasons, a large number of investigators have reported that minorities consistently plea bargain less than do whites (LaFree, 1980; 482

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Mather, 1979; Uhlrnan, 1979; Welch et al., 1985; Zatz and Lizotte, 1985~. Most attempted explanations for this phenomenon have emphasized the alienation and suspicion that lower class minorities feel in judicial systems operated by middle-class officials who are usually white. While relatively little research has been conducted that focuses on whether white and minor- ity defendants receive the same quality of bargains, preliminary evidence suggests that whites receive systematically better deals than do blacks and other minorities Squelch et al., 1985; Zatz, 1985~. SENTENCING Given the widespread public perception of sentencing as punishment for crime, the sentencing decision is "the symbolic keystone of the criminal justice system" (Blumstein et al., 1983: 1~. In this section we consider several reviews of sentencing studies (Blumstein et al., 1983; Hagan, 1974; Hagan and Bumiller, 1983) and other sources to assess the treatment of blacks during the past four decades. Sentencing Outcomes and I~npr~sonment Rates In reviewing sentencing studies over the past several decades, Hagan and Bumiller (1983:1) noted that such research has become increasingly sophis- ticated in its use of multivariate statistical techniques. This increased level of sophistication has occurred concurrently with a growing diversification of both research methods and conclusions about the existence of discrimination in sentencing. Many studies report findings of racial bias while others do not. Controversy in this area of research was less apparent several decades ago. Investigations conducted during the 1940s and 1950s (Johnson, 1941; John- son, 1957; Lemert and Roseberg, 1948) generally reported findings of racial bias. However, Hagan (1974) noted that these studies and numerous others conducted during the 1960s often did not include tests of statistical signifi- cance or summary measures of association. In addition, the study designs often failed to control for legal variables that are known to affect sentence severity (e.g., prior record, offense type, number of charges, characteristics of the offense, and other aggravating or mitigating factors). Those studies were also vulnerable to problems associated with sample selection bias (Ha ~ ~ .. . . ~ . . . . . . . gan and Bumiller, 1983; Klepper et al., 1983). Hagan and Bumiller (1983) reviewed 51 studies of race and sentencing. In order to assess the possible impact of the civil rights movement on racial differentials, the studies were divided into two groups, pre- and post-1968. Among the pre-1968 studies that controlled for type of offense and prior record, 3 of 11 reported discrimination in sentencing. Of those studies that did not control for these factors, 11 of 14 reported discrimination. This analysis suggested that controlling for these legal variables greatly reduced the likelihood of a finding of racial bias. 483

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Hagan and Bumiller also reported that one-half (10 of 20) of the post- 1968 studies reported discrimination. During this period, four of the six studies that did not control for the legal variables reported a finding of discrimination Hagan and Bumiller (1983:20) conclude: While In both time periods studies with these controls have fewer findings of discnm~nation than studies without such controls, this does not lead In the second time period to any marked decline In the tendency to conclude that discrimination has occurred. Other reviews of the literature on race and sentencing have produced similar mixed findings (Hardy, 1983; Kleck, 1981; Spohn et al., 1981-1982~. Evidence of both bias and nonbias are also reported in a longitudinal study of the treatment of black and white offenders at several decision-making points in the criminal justice systems of California, Michigan, and Texas (Petersilia, 1983~. After controlling for other major factors that might influ- ence sentencing and time served, Petersilia found that blacks and Hispanics received harsher sentences and served longer times in prison than whites. However, she suggested that racial differences in plea bargaining and jury trials (rather than in the sentencing process itself) may have explained some of the differences in length and type of sentence. Plea bargaining resolved a higher percentage of felony cases involving white defendants; jury trials resolved a higher percentage of cases involving minorities. As noted above, . . . . . conviction by jury resu. Is in more severe sentencing. Petersilia (1983:94) notes, however, that even if these differences ac- counted for some of the racial differences in sentencing, explanations must still be provided for the decisions that result in black defendants getting jury trials at rates higher than those found among white defendants. In response to this question Petersilia (1983:95) suggests: Other studies have shown that blacks are less able than whites to make bail and are more likely to have court appointed lawyers. Research has shown that under those circumstances defendants are more likely to be convicted and to get harsher sentences. Apparently, both circumstances result in weaker cases for the defendant. These findings and conclusions are similar to those found in several other recent studies, which generally conclude that racial differences in sentencing are less attributable to overt racial bias than to socioeconomic status differ- ences between blacks and whites. Socioeconomic status differences may affect access to competent counsel, the posting of bail, or knowledge of the system and how to make it work to one's benefit. By definition, low socioeconomic status is associated with high rates of unemployment, sporadic work histo- ries, unstable family units, and other forms of perceived risk of continued engagement in criminal activity. Such characteristics are frequently barred from formal use as a part of presentencing reports, but they are used to estimate a convicted person's potential for rehabilitation or recidivism; hence, they may affect decisions concerning probation and parole. They may also 484

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE be used informally during sentencing despite restrictions on their use. It is frequently argued that these legally relevant, though race-related, factors, rather than race discrimination per se, help to explain black-white sentencing differentials in the post-civil rights movement era. Determinate sentencing laws may also have an impact on racial inequality in the criminal justice system because of blacks' lower socioeconomic status. A common belief among both scholars and policy makers has been that the flexible sentencing guidelines of the past fostered racial discrimination by permitting judges so inclined to make decisions based on their individual biases toward various racial groups. For example, DuBois (1904) long ago argued that such discretion and the fact that judges were often influenced by public opinion contributed to racial disparities in the administration of jus- tice. Blumstein and colleagues (1983:1-12) noted that the decade of the 1970s was characterized by a variety of efforts at sentencing reform. These included efforts to modify existing sentencing practices, to establish more detailed criteria for sentencing, and to establish new sentencing institutions and procedures. In various states these reforms took the form of rules and guide- lines for plea bargaining, mandatory minimum sentences, statutory determi- nate sentencing, presumptive or prescriptive sentencing guidelines (requiring judges to provide reasons for sentences), and the establishment of sentencing councils. This movement toward so-called "fixed" sentencing largely re- flected an effort to curb somewhat the wide discretion given judges (U.S. Department of Justice, 1978~. Petersilia and Turner (1985) report that the use of the new sentencing guidelines appeared to widen racial disparities in sentencing, supervision, and parole decisions. They report that recent sentencing, probation supervision, and parole release guidelines inevitably reflect such concerns as "just de- serts," incapacitation of offenders who pose the most serious threat to public safety, and the most effective use of prison space. Thus, guidelines must be developed to include factors that indicate characteristics of the criminal offender that might correlate with recidivism. Racial inequalities then result because many of those factors are socioeconomic factors that are highly correlated with race. For example, two frequently used predic- tors of recidivism in California are "having served time in a juvenile insti- tution" and "having a conviction before age 16." In addition, various "status" factors, while not formally used during sentencing, affect proba- tion and parole decisions; such factors include noncriminal characteristics of the offender (e.g., employment history, education, living arrangements, and alcohol or drug abuse). In California, employment history in particular was found to work to the disadvantage of blacks (Petersilia and Turner, 1985:viii). Noting the strong opposition by civil libertarians to the use of various noncriminal status factors in sentencing, Petersilia and Turner (1985:ix) succinctly explained the complexity of the problem of reducing racial dispar . . . . tles In sentencing: 485

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Our findings suggest that a basic truth must be acknowledged if sentencing reform is to go forward. Guidelines are intended to overcome racial discrzm- irlat~ and they probably do. However, they cannot be expected to over- come racial disparages in sentencing where serious criminality is disproportionately high in the black population [italics in original]. Non-criminal status factors related to race can be eliminated, and the guidelines will still identify high- risk criminals about as well as they now do. But it is not possible to omit racially correlated factors that reflect criminal seriousness unless society is willing to have all serious offenders treated less severely because many of them are black. Racial imprisonment differentials showing that blacks are incarcerated in numbers disproportionate to their representation in the general population are often cited as evidence that there is racial discrimination in sentencing. With regard to such statistics, Blumstein and colleagues (1983:13) wrote: The overrepresentation of blacks in prison is evidence that some interaction of individual behavior patterns and societal response leads to the imposition of severe punishments on one group of people at rates that are dispropor- tionate to their numbers in the population; however, it is not [italics in original] by itself evidence of racial discrimination at the sentencing stage in . . crlmlna courts. . ~1 ~.1: ~: A. . ~: . This conclusion concerning sentencing Is consistent with an earner ~nvesr~- gation by Blumstein (1982) that used a statistical model to estimate the extent to which black overrepresentation in prison populations could be explained by factors other than race discrimination. Similar methods were used by Langan (1985~. Both investigators concluded that the disproportion- ate representation of blacks in prisons is primarily attributable to the overrep- resentation of blacks among arresters and, more specifically, among those arrested for the types of crimes having a higher certainty and greater severity of punishment: 80 percent of the black-white imprisonment differential was statistically explained by such "nondiscriminatory" variables in the Blum- stein study. In discussing the unexplained 20 percent, the study acknowledged the possibility of discrimination. But the report emphasized that there may be "nondiscriminatory" race-related variation in criminal activity that was not adequately reflected in the data. For example, within given categories of criminal offenses (e.g., robbery or homicide), blacks may be more likely than whites to have committed crimes with less mitigating characteristics; blacks may have longer criminal records than whites; and low levels of education and occupational status may affect perceptions (by the courts) of the ability of offenders to function within the legitimate economy. On the basis of examinations of black-white imprisonment differentials and an extensive review of sentencing practices in the United States, Blumstein and colleagues (1983:13) concluded: The available research suggests that factors other than racial discrimination in sentencing account for most of the disproportionate representation of 486

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE blacks in U.S. pnsons, although racial discrimination in sentencing may play a more important role in some regions or junsdictions, for some crime types, or in the decisions of individual participants. Although methodological flaws have been evident in most sentencing studies, Austin (1984) argued that there is a tendency among current re . , ~ .. . . .. .. .. . . ... . . .. searchers to more jury examine studies that find raaal bias than those studies that report no bias. Hagan and Bumiller (1983) acknowledged that the focus of their own critical analysis was on the studies that reported a finding of discrimination. Austin has also observed that studies finding no bias also have methodological flaws and problems of interpretation that call their . · . . conclusions into question. Beyond these considerations is the question of whether the measures of racial bias used in many studies of sentencing are adequate. For example, racial bias in the post-civil rights era is substantially less overt than during earlier years. Such obvious changes have led Wilbanks (1987) to conclude - that today it is largely a myth that there is "racism" in the administration of justice. On the basis of a review of past sentencing research, Zatz (1987) challenges such an assertion. Zatz analyzed findings from research on sentencing disparities for four time periods. Particular attention was given to changes in research methodologies and data sources, the social contexts within which the research was con- ducted, and the various forms in which bias can appear. Zatz reached several general conclusions on the basis of that review. First, research designs may inadvertently fail to detect discrimination by concentrating on overt bias and generally ignoring or labeling as "nondiscriminatory" more subtle manifes- tations of bias. Second, since overt racial bias, in addition to being illegal, casts doubt on the legitimacy and rationality of the criminal justice system, it is not likely to be evident in today's criminal justice procedures. Third, subtle biases are no less systematic than overt biases. These subtle forms may be described as those that exist when membership in a particular group influences decision making indirectly or in interaction with other factors. Thus, as noted above, some aspects of determinate sentencing can represent institutionalization of criteria (e.g., prior record) that reflect past discrimi- nation. The logical problem is that if one "controls" for all conceivable background factors associated with criminal behavior other than racial cate - gory, the residual variance associated with race is bound to be small. But if many of the more important background predictors are themselves products of past racial status, it is unwarranted to conclude that all discrimination is absent. A conclusion that discrimination against blacks in the criminal justice system is absent is not justified on the basis of the current data. Yet, few criminologists would argue that the current gap between black and white levels of imprisonment is mainly due to discrimination in sentencing or in any of the other decision-making processes within the criminal justice sys- tem. The higher rate of crime among blacks explains much of the differential. 487

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY The Death Penalty It is widely agreed that use of the death penalty in the South has been affected by racial prejudice. Some prima facie indication of bias is seen in the extremely disproportionate rates of execution of blacks. Between 1930 and 1962, 54 percent of all prisoners executed under civil authority in the United States were black (2,049 of 3,812~. Blacks were 49 percent of all persons executed for murder (1,619 of 3,298) and 46 percent of those executed for all other crimes (31 of 68), excluding rape; 19 of those 31 black offenders were executed for armed robbery. The greatest disproportion was observed for those executed for rape. Blacks comprised 89.5 percent of all persons executed for rape (399 of 446~: 392 of those 399 executions occurred in the South; the other 7 occurred in the North Central states (U.S. Department of Justice, 1963, as cited in Bedau, 1964: 103-120~. Brown (1988:98) re- ports that as of March 1, 1987, 42 percent (777 of 1,974) of prisoners under sentence of death were black. Statistics of this sort have shaped public and scholarly discourse on the subject of the death penalty for more than half a century. Two important early studies of discrimination in the imposition of the death penalty were conducted by Johnson (1941) and Garfinkel (1949~. They raised issues that have been explored by subsequent investigators and formed the basis for a recent unsuccessful challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty (McCluskey v Hemp, 107 S.Ct. 1756 [19871~. The issue in that case was the differential treatment of offenders charged with killing whites in comparison with those charged with killing blacks. Both Johnson (1941) and Garfinkel (1949) reported that punishment var- ied on the basis of both victim and offender characteristics. From the most to least serious in terms of predicted punishment, Johnson (1941:98) listed the following homicide pairs: (1) blacks killing whites, (2) whites killing whites, (3) blacks killing blacks, and (4) whites killing blacks. Johnson ex- amined murder indictments issued between 1930 and 1940 in North Caro- lina, Georgia, and Virginia and reported that the order of severity of punish- ment matched the predicted order listed above. These findings have resulted in a vast body of literature that has documented differential levels of punish- ment for offenders based on the race of the victim. In Florida in 1977, 94 percent of the 114 men on death row had killed white victims while 4 percent had killed blacks (2 percent had killed both blacks and whites). Thus, race of victim appeared to affect the odds of a murderer's receiving the death penalty (Zeisel, 1981:460-61~. This finding was clarified by the analysis of Radelet (1981:918), again with Florida data, that found that those accused of killing whites were more likely than those accused of killing blacks to be indicted for first-degree murder. Once the race of the victim was controlled, the race of the defendant did not strongly affect the probability of a death sentence. The possible effects of race need to be separately assessed at the point of indictment, sentencing, and subsequent action. In the study by Radelet 488

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE (1981), it was the indictment decisions by prosecutors and grand juries that resulted in disproportionate severity of sentencing for those who killed white victims (see also, Baldus et al., 1983; Bowers and Pierce, 1980; Green, 1964; Gross and Mauro, 1984; Hawkins, 1983; Myers, 1979; Myrdal, 1944; Paternoster, 1983, 1984; Radelet, 1981; Radelet and Pierce, 1985; WolEgang and Riedel, 1973; and Zimring et al., 1976~. BLACK CRIMINAL JUSTICE PERSONNEL It has been proposed that the real and presumed differential treatment of blacks in the criminal justice system might be lessened if there were more black policemen, prosecutors, judges, jurors, and other decision makers within the system (see Owens, 1987:45~. The position of blacks as personnel of the criminal justice system also represents another dimension of the overall status of blacks. Accordingly, we now review changes in the status of black criminal justice officials and assess their impact on the status of blacks throughout the system. POLICE OFFICERS, PROSECUTORS, AN D J UDGES Black police officers were very scarce prior to the early 1970s. In 1940, blacks were about 1 percent of such personnel in the United States. The proportion grew steadily but slowly to 8 percent in 1984. As a matter of custom and administrative policy, the token black police officers hired in many cities of the South prior to the 1970s were not permitted to detain or arrest white citizens. This practice appears to have been the case in many northern cities as well. Among the few blacks hired as officers, even fewer were ever promoted to higher ranks of authority. Much of the impetus for an increase in the number of black law enforce- ment officials came in response to the civil disorders of the 1960s. A major concern was the prevention of future disorders. For example, In discussing the need for more black police officers In urban areas, the report of the diagonal Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1968:315) said: The Crime Commission Police Task Force found that for police in the Negro community to be predominantly white can serve as a dangerous irritant; a feeling may develop that the community is not being policed to maintain civil peace but to maintain the status quo. It further found that contact with Negro officers can help avoid the stereotypes and prejudices in the minds of white officers. Negro officers also can increase departmental insight into ghetto problems and provide information necessary for early anticipation of the tensions and grievances that can lead to disorders.... There is evidence that Negro officers also can be particularly effective in controlling any disorders that do break out. In studying the relative per- formance of Army and National Guard forces in the Detroit disorder, we concluded that the higher percentage of Negroes in the Army forces con 489

A COMMON DESTI NY: BLACKS AN D AMERICAN SOCI ETY tnbuted substantially to their better performance. As a result, last August, we recommended an increase in the percentage of Negroes in the National Guard. The need for increased Negro participation in police departments is equally acute. Detailed information regarding the racial composition of police depart- ments during the period between 1965 and 1968 is found in the report. Of the 28 departments that responded to a commission survey, the percentage of blacks during these years ranged from less than 1 percent to 21 percent. The median figure for all cities was 6 percent. In no case was the proportion of blacks in the police department equal to the proportion in the population. It is reasonable to assume that the 28 departments responding to the survey had better black representation than the national average. Among the 7,046 black officers employed in the 28 departments, 30 held the rank of captain or above; blacks held 2 percent of those positions overall and had attained these higher ranks in 12 of the 28 departments reporting (see Table 9-6~. The absence of black supervisory officers was evident even in many nonsouthern cities that had reputations for good race relations. For example, San Francisco with a 14 percent black population and a police force of 1,754 officers, named its first black sergeant in April 1968 (Knowles and Prewitt, 1972:15~. Concerns for the prevention of civil disorders and for equal employment opportunity after 1970 led to a marked increase in the number of blacks in sworn ranks in some departments, but other departments showed little change. Lewis (1987) assessed the level of black representation in police departments across the United States. He studied 466 cities in 1975 and 72 cities in 1985, comparing the percentage black within each department to the equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance index, a measure derived from a comparison of police employment and general labor force availability for blacks. For purposes of interpretation, the EEO compliance index can be divided into four levels: an index of .75 or higher is considered "high compliance"; an index of between .50 and .75 is considered "mod- erate compliance"; an index of between .25 and .50 is considered "low compliance"; and an index of .25 or below is considered "noncompliance." Racial parity on the EEO index is 1.00. Among the 46 cities surveyed in 1975, the percentage of blacks in sworn police ranks ranged from 1.3 in Lubbock, Texas, to 29.9 in Atlanta (see Table 9-7~. The mean index was .57, slightly more than one-half of racial parity, and barely in the moderate compliance category. Five cities had a level of high compliance (.75 or higher>. In 1985, the mean EEO index for the same 46 cities had risen to .75, indicating high compliance. There were 17 cities with a rate above .75, 10 of which were above 1.00, racial parity. Among the larger sample of 72 cities, the mean EEO index in 1985 was .70; 26 cities achieved high compliance, with 11 exceeding racial parity. How- ever, only one city in the South-Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky-had achieved racial parity in 1985. 490

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE The most striking finding was the large increase in the percentage of black police officers in those cities that were headed by black mayors, had black police chiefs, or whose hiring practices were subject to affirmative action consent decrees. During the entire period between 1970 and 1985, 17 cities had been led by black mayors, 16 had black police chiefs, and 28 had been under consent decrees. Through the use of regression analysis, Lewis found that the proportion of blacks in the city's labor force and the presence of black mayors were the most significant variables positively associated with black representation in combined sworn and police patrol ranks in 1975. However, in 1985, in addition to these variables, the presence of black police chiefs and the presence of affirmative action consent decrees emerged as significant variables (Lewis, 1987:5~. Black prosecutors and judicial personnel are not represented in the criminal justice system in proportions similar to those of blacks in police departments. However, the presence of blacks is considerably greater than it was two or three decades ago. For example, Knowles and Prewitt (1972:16,24) report that in the early 1960s black representation within most courthouses in the United States was primarily in janitorial service. In North Carolina, for instance, no blacks were employed in the judicial system, and 31 of 2,000 employees in the state prison department were black. Such patterns were typical of states both in and outside the South during this period. THE IMPACT OF BLACK PERSONNEL . The influence of black criminal justice professionals on the operation of the system and the quality of treatment afforded blacks and whites is a complex issue, and limited research has been conducted on it. Because of the belief that an increase in the proportion of blacks as personnel in the criminal justice system would have "positive" effects, there have been ex- pectations from the black and white communities that black personnel would be more sensitive and responsive to black needs. Simultaneously, the major expectation from the criminal justice system itself has been that black person- nel would perform their jobs effectively. Black policemen have traditionally been assigned to high-crime areas where residents are dissatisfied with the police protection, and it is unlikely that such conditions could be remedied by a mere increase in the proportion of black police officers (Owens, 1987~. Similarly, black correctional officers have been placed in institutions in which blacks comprise a sizable percentage of the prison population; they enter an environment where inmate and guard codes and cultures are well entrenched and clearly delineated. Yet black criminal justice personnel are expected to bring a special sensitivity to the job, especially with regard to matters involving fellow blacks. In the few existing studies, researchers have attempted to assess this presumed sensitivity by comparing the actions of black and white personnel. Black policemen have been studied more than other justice personnel in the system. Smith and Klein (1983) observed more than 5,000 contacts 491

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A COMMON DESTI NY: BLACKS AN D AMERICAN SOCI ETY between police and citizens in three cities-Rochester, New York; Tampa- St. Petersburg, Florida; and St. Louis, Missouri. They found that black and white police officers exhibited similar arrest patterns, with black officers in some departments more likely to make arrests than white officers. From another observational study of police and their interaction with the public, Reiss (1971) concluded that both black and white officers were more likely to use excessive force against members of their own race (see also Fyfe, 1981). Black judges were reviewed by D. Bartlett and T. Steele (cited in Owens, 1987), who analyzed more than 10,000 court documents and more than 20,000 pages of court testimony in a study of the sentencing patterns of 19 judges in Philadelphia. From the arrests for commission of crime through trial and sentencing, they tracked 1,034 individuals indicted for violent crimes during 1971. They reported a complex pattern. A white judge was more likely than a black judge to find both black and white defendants guilty of the major charge against them. In addition, white judges were more likely to convict if the victim was white. However, black judges sentenced defen- dants convicted of violent crime to longer terms than did white judges. A later study (Uhlman, 1979) compared 16 black judges and 79 white judges in a large northeastern city. The records of more than 24,000 defen- dants were reviewed and analyzed, and interviews were conducted with a sample of black judges. The study found that both black and white judges convicted black defendants more frequently and more harshly than white defendants. Uhlrnan (1979:73) concluded that ". . . black decision-making is difficult if not impossible to differentiate from white behavior. " A subsequent work (Welch et al., 1988) argued that previous examinations of the sentencing behavior of black and white trial judges are flawed to the extent that the prior record of the defendant, examination of the decision to incarcerate, and salient characteristics of the judge were not taken into ac- count. This study analyzed decisions to incarcerate made by black and white trial judges in a large northeastern community, controlling for the variables noted above. The study concluded that in decisions to incarcerate, black judges were more evenhanded in their treatment of black and white defen- dants than were white judges, who tended to treat white defendants some- what more leniently. However, in overall sentence severity, white judges treated black and white defendants equally severely, while black judges treated black defendants somewhat more leniently than white defendants. The au- thors suggest that having more black judges increases equality of treatment bv balancing the sentencing Datterns of white iudaes (Welch et al. , ~ 1988: 126,13~135~. --- r~ ~D-- \ Studies of correctional officers have been rare. One of the few studies investigating the differences in treatment by black and white guards (Jacobs and Kraft, 1978) reported that black guards wrote more tickets for rule infractions and were therefore "more active disciplinarians." The study did not report whether or not white inmates were reported at different rates by black guards. There are no published studies that examine this question. 496

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE The decision to parole has been a traditional part of the role of correctional officials. Such decisions partly depend on the actions of guards and other supervisory personnel. Few studies have examined the possible existence of bias in the decision to grant parole or the role of black correctional officials in affecting such bias. A study by Carroll and Mondrick (1976) reported that black potential parolees were less likely than whites to receive parole, but they did not consider the race of the decision makers. The studies reported above are informative, but they leave many questions unanswered regarding the impact of black personnel on the criminal justice system. They offer very few explanations for the observed patterns of behav- ior. Yet, despite the scarcity of studies and their incompleteness, they do challenge many of the widely held presumptions about the role of black criminal justice officials. Owens (1987:35) suggests that black policemen and correctional officers who are described in the literature as "more active disciplinarians" (Jacobs and Kraft, 1978) or "more likely to make arrests" (Smith and Klein, 1983) see themselves as doing what they were hired to do-enforcing rules and laws. Also, they may not be out of line with general public opinion in the black community. Owens (1987:35) also suggests that many officials may see their role as "insuring the equal treatment of all offenders and making the system more responsive to the needs of all citizens." Black judges may administer harsh punishment to blacks who victimize other blacks in response to the high rate of crime in black communities. Indeed, many black judges have made public statements to this effect (e.g., see Wright, 1987~. It may be that such black judges are sending a new message to black offenders-the life of a black person is indeed important and the full weight of the law will be used in order to protect black victims. There is suggestive evidence that black professionals have had an impact in other ways. Historically, a major belief in black communities has been that both black defendants and "innocent" law-abiding citizens are subjected to mistreatment by agents of the criminal justice system. Blacks generally have viewed the system as an arena in which they are likely to endure verbal abuse, racial insults, and other forms of harassment. Bartlett and Steele (cited in Owens, 1987) reported that the district attorney's office was affected by the presence of black judges. In cases coming before black judges, violent crime charges were dropped against 28 percent of black defendants and 20 percent of white defendants. The opposite pattern was noted in cases where the judge was white: charges were dropped for 32 percent of white defen- dants and 20 percent of black defendants. Similar outcomes may also result when the prosecuting attorney is black (Georges-Abeyie, 1984~. SUMMARY Historically, discrimination against blacks in arrests and sentencing was ubiquitous. And as late as the early 1970s, very few blacks were employed as 497

A COMMON DESTI NY: BLACKS AN D AMERICAN SOCI ETY law enforcement officials; only in the 1980s did the percentage of blacks in police forces increase considerably more than black representation among attorneys and judges. Although the evidence is scanty, the behavior of black and white judges appears to be similar. There are some suggestions that black law enforcement officials may be somewhat more active disciplinarians. The extent to which the relatively recent changes in personnel may have affected distrust of crim . . . . . lIla )UShCe IS not now Known. Blacks have much higher arrest rates, convictions, and imprisonment rates than whites for criminal offenses. Some part of the differences may be due to bias and the resulting differenua1 treatment, but systematic evidence of discrimination against blacks is not evident. Apparently there is substanna1 variation in discrimination from place to place and over nme. When type and severity of offense are controlled, racial differences in sentencing are less clearly due to overt racial bias than to socioeconomic differences between blacks and whites. Compared with the total population, black Americans are disproportion- ately victims of crime: twice as likely to be victims of robbery, vehicle theft, and aggravated assault, and 6 to 7 times as likely to be victims of homicide, the leading cause of death among young black males. Blacks also suffer disproportionately from injuries and economic losses due to criminal actions. Most black offenders victimize other blacks. But offenders and victims are primarily in different socioeconomic strata. The middle-class and near-poor blacks have greater economic losses due to criminal acts than the black poor or than whites at any income level. Two conclusions seem unavoidable. First, as long as great disparities in the socioeconomic status of blacks and whites remain, blacks' relative depriva- tion will continue to involve them disproportionately in the criminal justice system as victims and offenders. Second, because of this status difference, the degree to which this overrepresentation can be associated with differen- tial treatment by race cannot be precisely determined. These inequalities are rooted in a long history of American black-white relations, but they continue to have major effects on black neighborhoods. High black crime rates perpetuate negative stereotypes and fears of blacks, especially of young males. Criminal behavior and its punishment pose signif- icant barriers to educational excellence and to employment for black youth (Chapters 6 and 7~. Crime also drains the limited economic resources of black communities and deters the expansion of business enterprises within black neighborhoods. REFERENCES Adamson, Christopher R. 1983 Punishment after slavery: southern state penal systems, 1865-1890. Social Problems 30 (June): 555-569. 498

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Albonetti, Celesta A. 1986 Criminality, prosecutorial screening, and uncertainty: toward a theory of discre- tionary decision making in felony case processings. Criminology 24:623-644. Alschuler, Albert 1968 The prosecutor's role in plea bargaining. University of Chicago Law Renew 36:50- 112. 1979 Plea bargaining and its history. Law and Society Review 13:211-245. Austin, Roy L. 1984 The court and sentencing of black offenders. Pp. 167-193 in Daniel Georges- Abeyie, ea., The Criminal/ustice System and Blacks. New York: Clark Boardman. Baldus, David C., Charles Pulaski, and George Woodworth 1983 Comparative review of death sentences. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 4:661-753. Banton, Michael 1964 The Policeman in the Community. London: Tavistock. Bayley, David H., and Harold Mendelsohn 1969 Minorities and the Police. New York: Free Press. Bedau, Hugo 1964 The Death Penalty in America. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books. Bell, Derrick A. 1980 Race, Racism and American Law. Boston: Little, Brown. Berk, Sarah Fenstermaker, and Donileen R. Loseke 1980- Handling family violence: situational determinants of 1981 police arrest in domestic disturbances. Law and Society Review 15:317-346. Bernstein, Ilene Nagel, William R. Kelly, and Patricia A. Doyle 1977 Societal reaction to deviants: the case of criminal defendants. American Sociological Review 42:743-755. Black, Donald 1970 Production of crime rates. American Sociological Review 35:733-748. 1971 The social organization of arrest. Stanford Law Renew 23: 1087-1111. 1973 The mobilization of law.JournalofLe~galStudies2:125-149. 1976 The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press. Black, Donald, and Albert J. Reiss, Jr. 1967 Patterns of behavior in police and citizen transactions. Pp. 1-139 in U.S. Presi- dent's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Studies in Crime and Law Enforcement in Mayor Metropolitan Areas, Field Surveys 111. Vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1970 Police control of juveniles. American Sociological Review 35:63-77. Blassingame, John 1977 The Slave Community. New York: Oxford University Press. Blumberg, Abraham S. 1967 The practice of law as a confidence game: organizational cooptation of a profes- sion. Law and Society Review 1:15-39. Blumstcin, Alfred 1982 On the racial disproportionality of United States' prison populations. jrournal of Criminal Law and Cnminolo~, 73: 1259-1281. Blumstein, Alfred, Jacqueline Cohen, Susan E. Martin, and Michael H. Toury, eds. 1983 Research onSentencin,g: The Search for Reform. Vols. IandII. Panelon Research on Sentencing, Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Blumstein, Alfred, Jacqueline Cohen, Jeffrey A. Roth, and Christy A. Visher, eds. 1986 Criminal Careers and Career Criminals. Vol. 1. Panel on Research on Criminal 499

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Careers, Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Bowers, William J., and Glenn L. Pierce 1980 Arbitrariness and discrimination under post-Furman capital statutes. Crime and Delinquency 26:563-635. Brearley, Harrington Cooper 1932 Homicide in the United States. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. grimmer, Andrew 1975 The outlook for black business. Black Entertmse 5(June):24-27. Brown, Lee P. 1988 Crime in the black community. Pp. 95-113 in Janet Dewart, ea., The State of Black America. New York: National Urban League. Caplovitz, David 1968 The Poor Pay More. New York: Free Press. Carlin, Jerome E. 1966 Cull Justice and the Poor: Issues for Sociological Research. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Carroll, Leo, and Margaret E. Mondrick 1976 Racial bias in the decision to grant parole. Law and Society Renew 11(Fall):93-107. Christianson, Scott 1981 Our black prisons. Crime and Delinquency 27:364 375. 1982 Disproportionate Imprisonment of Blacks in the United States: Policy, Practice, Impact and Change. Paper prepared for the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice, Washington, D.C. Church, Thomas W., Jr. 1976 Plea bargains, concessions and the court: analysis of a quasi-experiment. Law and Society Red 10:377-401. 1978 Justice Delayed. Williamsburg, Va.: National Center for State Courts. Collins, James J., Jr., ed. 1981 Drinking and Crime: Perspectives on the Relationships Between Akohol Consumption and Criminal Behavior. New York: Guilford Press. Cooney, Mark 1987 Racial Discrimination in Police-Citizen Encounters: A Review of the Empirical Literature. Paper prepared for the Committee on the Status of Black Americans, National Research Council, Washington, D.C. Daniel, Pete 1972 The Shadow of Sb~oe~y: People in the Sauth 1901-1969. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. Davis, Kenneth C. 1971 Discretiona~y]ustice. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. DuBois, W. E. B., ed. 1904 Some notes on Negro crime, particularly in Georgia. Exceedings of the Ninth Atlanta Conference for the Study of the Negro B~otolems. Atlanta, Gal: Atlanta Univer- sity Press. Dunbaugh, Frank M. 1979 Racially disproportionate rates of incarceration in the United States. Prison Law Monitor 1(March):205, 219-222. Eisenstein, James, and Herbert Jacob 1977 Felony]ustice: An Organizational Analysis of Criminal Courts. Boston: Little, Brown. Parley, John E. 1988 Majority-Minority Relations. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. 500

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Ferdinand, Theodore N. 1967 The criminal patterns of Boston since 1849. American Journal of Sociology 73:84- 99. Franklin, John Hope 1980 From Slavery to Freedom: A History of Negro Americans. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Friedrich, Robert lames 1977 The Impact of Organizational, Individual and Situational Factors on Police Behav- ior. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Department of Political Science, University of Michigan. Fusfield, Daniel R., and Timothy Bates 1984 The Political Economy of the Urban Ghetto. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. Fyfe, James J. 1981 Race and extreme police-citizen violence. Pp. 89-108 in R. L. McNeeley and Carl E. Pope, eds., Race, Crime, and Criminal]?~stice. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications Inc. 1982 Blind justice: police shootings in Memphis.JournalofCriminalLaw and CriminoF out 73:707-722. Garfinkel, Harold 1949 Research note on inter- and intra-racial homicides. Social Farces 27:369. Georges-Abeyie, Daniel 1984 A black district attorney's view of criminal court: an interview with Mr. Howard Stewart, assistant district attorney, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Pp. 219-223 in Daniel Georges-Abeyie, ea., The Criminal]?vstice System and Blacks. New York: Clark 13oardman. Goldkamp, John S. 1976 Minorities as victims of police shootings: interpretations of racial disproportional- ity and police use of deadly force. Justice System~onrnal 2:169-183. Goode, Erich 1984 Dn~s in American Society. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Green, Edward 1964 Inter- and intra-racial crime relative to sentencing. Journal of Criminal Law, Cnm- inolo,gy and Police Science. 5 5 (3) [September]: 348-3 5 8 . Gross, Samuel R., and RDbert Mauro 1984 Patterns of death: an analysis of racial disparities in capital sentencing and homi- cide victimization. Stanford Law Review 37:27-153. Hagan, John 1974 Extra-legal attributes and criminal sentencing. Law and Society Reriew 8:357-383. Hagan, John, and Kristin Bumiller 1983 Making sense of sentencing: a review and critique of sentencing research. Pp. 1- 54 in A. Blumstein, J. Cohen, S. E. Martin, and M. H. Tonry, eds., Research on Sentencing: The Search for Reform. Vol. II. Panel on Research on Sentencing, Committee on Research on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. Harding, Richard W., and Richard P. Fahey 1973 Killings by Chicago police, 1969-1970: an empirical study. Southern Galifornior Law Renew 46:28~315. Hardy, Kenneth A. 1983 Equity in court dispositions. Pp. 183-207 in Gordon P. Whitaker and Charles D. Phillips, eds., Eval~atir~ Pe~fownance of Criminal Justice Agencies. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications Inc. 501

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Hawkins, Darnell F. 1983 Black-white homicide differentials: alternatives to aninadequate theory. Criminal Justice and Beholder 10:407-440. 1985 Black homicide: the adequacy of existing research for devising prevention strate- gies. Crime and Delinquency 31(January):83-103. Hawkins, Darnell F., ed. 1986 Homicide Amok Black Americans. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America. 1987 Paper prepared for the Committee on the Status of Black Americans, National Research Council, Washington, D.C. Hepburn, John R. 1978 Race and the decision to arrest: an analysis of warrants issued. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 15:5~73. Higginbotham, A. Leon, Jr. 1978 In the Matter of (dolor. New York: Oxford University Press. Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority 1987 Spatial and temporal analysis of crime. Research Bulletin No. 87-89, April. Chi- cago. Inciardi, James A. 1986 The War on Drums: Heroin, Cocaine, and Public Policy. Palo Alto, Calif.: Mayfield. Jackson, Pamela 1., and Leo Carroll 1981 Race and the war on crime: the non-southern U.S. cities. American Sal Review 46(TuneN 29()-~().R ~ \, , ~ Jacobs, David 1979 Inequality and police strength: conflict and coercive control in metropolitan areas. American Sociological Review 44(December):913-925. Jacobs, J., and L. Kraft 1978 Integrating the keepers: a comparison of black and white prison guards in Illinois. Social Problems 25:304-318. Jaynes, Gerald David 1986 Branches Without Roots: Genesis of the Black Working Class in the American South, 1862-1882. New York: Oxford University Press. Johnson, Elmer H. 1957 Selective factors in capital punishment. Social Forces 36:165-169. Johnson, Guy B. 1941 The Negro and crime. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 217(September3 :93-104. Kania, Richard R. E., and Wade C. Mackey 1977 Police violence as a function of community characteristics. Criminology 15:27~8. Kephart, William M. 1957 Racial Factors and Urloan Law Enforcement. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Kleck, Gary 1981 Racial discrimination in criminal sentencing: a critical evaluation of the evidence with additional evidence on the death penalty. Amencan Sociological Renew 46:783- 805. Klepper, Steven, Daniel Nagin, and Luke-Jon Tierney 1983 Discrimination in the criminal justice system: a critical appraisal of the literature and suggestions for future research. Pp. 55-128 in A. Blumstein, J. Cohen, S. E. Martin, and M. H. Tonry, eds., Research in Sentencing: The Search for Reform. Vol. II. Panel on Research on Sentencing, Committee on Research on Law Enforce- ment and the Administration of Justice, National Research Council. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press. 502

CRIME AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE Knoohuizen, Ralph, Richard P. Fahey, and Deborah J. Palmer 1972 Police and Their Use of Deadly Force in Chicano. Evanston, Ill.: Chicago Law Enforce- ment Study Group. Knowles, Louis L., and Kenneth Prewitt 1972 Racism in the administration of justice. Pp. 13-27 in C. E. Rasons and J. L. Kuykendall, eds., Race, Crime, and]ustice. Pacific Palisades, Calif.: Goodyear. LaFree, Gary D. 1980 The effect of sexual stratification by race on official reactions to rape. American Sociological Renew 45:842 - 854. Langan, Patrick A. 1985 Racism on trial: new evidence to explain the racial composition of prisons in the United States. Journal of Criminal Law and C,r~minol~av 7f~-6f~f~-f~8?, Lemert, Edwin M., and Judy Roseberg ~-vat 1948 The administration of justice to minority groups in Los Angeles County. Univer- sity of California Publications in Culture and Society I. Lewis, William G. 1987 Toward Representative Bureaucracy: An Assessment of Black Representation in Police Bureaucracies. Preliminary results of Ph.D. dissertation research. Published in Public Administration Reriew 49:257-268. Liska, Allen E., Joseph J. Lawrence, and Michael Benson 1981 Perspectives on the legal order: the capacity for social control. American Journal of Sociology 87(September):413-426. Liska, Allen E., Mitchell B. Chamlin, and Mark D. Reed 1985 Testing the economic production and conflict models of crime control. Social Forces 64:119-138. Lundman, Richard J. 1974 Routine police arrest practices: a commonwealth DerSDective. Social Problems 22: 127-141. ~ _ ~_ . . 1 1: lY/Y Organizational norms and police discretion: an observational study of police work with traffic law violators. Criminology 17:159-171. Mangum, Charles S. 1940 The Legal Status of the Negro. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Mather, Lynn M. 1979 Plea Bar,gainir~g or Trial? The Process of Criminal Case Disposition. Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books. Matsueda, Ross L., and Karen Heimer 1987 Race, family structure and delinquency: a test of differential association and social control theories. American Sociological ~v 52:826-840. Maynard, Douglas W. 1984 Inside Plea Ba,rgainin,g: The Lange of Negotiation. New York: Plenum Press. McCoy, Candace 1984 Determinate sentencing, plea bargaining bans, and hydraulic direction in Califor- nia. Justice System~o?~rnal 9:256-275. McGa~rell, Edmund F., and Timothy J. Flanagan, eds. 1985 So?~rcebook of Criminal Justice Stat~stics-1984. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Mendelsohn, Robert A. 1971 Police-community relations: a need in search of police support. Pp. 159-174 in Harlan Hahn, ea., Police in Urban Society. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications Inc. Meyer, Marshall W. 1980 Police shootings at minonties: the case of Los Angeles. Annals of the Amman Academy of Political and Social Science 452:98-110. 503

A COMMON DESTINY: BLACKS AND AMERICAN SOCIETY Michalowski, Raymond J. 1985 Order, Law and Crime: An Introduction to Criminolo,gy. New York: Random House. Miethe, Terance D. 1987 Prosecutonal charging and plea bargaining practices under determinate sentencing: an investigation of the hydraulic displacement of discretion. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminolo,gy 78~1~:155-176. Milton, Catherine H., Jeanne Wahl Halleck, James Lardner, and Gary L. Abrecht 1977 Police Use of Deadly Force. Washington, D.C.: Police Foundation. Moore, Mark 1988 Dim Traf~ckin,g. Cnme File Study Guide, National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. Myers, Martha A. 1979 Offended parties and official reactions: victims and the sentencing of criminal defendants. Sociolo,gical Quarterly 20:529-540. Myers, Samuel L., Jr., and William J. Sabol 1987 Crime and the Black Community: Issues in the Understanding of Race and Crime in America. Paper prepared for the Committee on the Status of Black Americans, National Research Council, Washington, D.C. Myrdal, Gunnar 1944 An American Dilemma: The Metro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper and Brothers. Nardulli, Peter F. 1978 The Courtroom Elite: An Organizational Approach. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger. National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders 1968 Fairport of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. New York: Bantam. National Minority Advisory Council on Criminal Justice 1980 The Inequality of Justice: A Repart on Crime and the Administration of Justice in the Minority Community. Office of Justice Assistance, Research, and Statistics. Wash- ingon, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice. Neubauer, David W. 1974 Cnminal/?~stice in Middle America. Morristown, N.J.: General Learning Press. O'Brien, Robert M. 1987 The interracial nature of violent crimes: a reexamination. American Journal of Sociology 92 (January) :817-835. O'Carroll, Patrick W., and James A. Mercy 1986 Patterns and recent trends in black homicide. Pp. 29-42 in Darnell F. Hawkins, ea., Homicide Amok Black Americans. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America. Owens, Charles E. 1987 Blacks and the Criminal Justice System. Paper prepared for the Committee on the Status of Black Americans, National Research Council, Washington, D.C. Pastor, Paul A., Jr. 1978 Mobilization in public drunkenness control: a comparison of legal and medical approaches. Social Problems 25:373-384. Paternoster, Raymond 1983 Race of victim and location of crime: the decision to seek the death penalty in South Carolina. Journal of Criminal Ink and Criminolo,gy 74:754-785. 1984 Prosecutorial discretion in requesting the death penalty: a case of victim-based racial discrimination. Law and Society Review 18:437-478. Petersilia, Joan 1983 Racial Disparities in the C"minal]~st~ce System. R-2947-NIC. Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand Corporation. 504

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"[A] collection of scholars [has] released a monumental study called A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. It offers detailed evidence of the progress our nation has made in the past 50 years in living up to American ideals. But the study makes clear that our work is far from over." —President Bush, Remarks by the president to the National Urban League Conference

The product of a four-year, intensive study by distinguished experts, A Common Destiny presents a clear, readable "big picture" of blacks' position in America. Drawing on historical perspectives and a vast amount of data, the book examines the past 50 years of change and continuity in the status of black Americans. By studying and comparing black and white age cohorts, this volume charts the status of blacks in areas such as education, housing, employment, political participation and family life.

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