Poli 103A California Politics Crime and Punishment II: Race and Crime

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Poli 103A California PoliticsCrime and
Punishment IIRace and Crime
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Crime and Punishment II Race and Crime

• Trends Changing Budgets and Lives
• Breaking Down the Impact of Race
• Arrests
• Releases
• Sentences
• Policing Practices

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Trends Changing Budgets and Lives

• Today there are 161,785 people in the California
  prison system.
• Per inmate cost average 30,929.

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Trends Changing Budgets and Lives

• Californias Youth and Adult Corrections budget
  has grown from 3.32 of general fund spending in
  1976-1977 to a proposed 7.54 in 2004-2005.
  Fasting growing area.
• Higher Education has dropped from 17.96 to
  11.43 over this period.

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Trends Changing Budgets and Lives
Puzzle for discussion Why has the prison
population grown while crime rates have gone down?
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Trends Changing Budgets and Lives

• The criminal justice control rate (includes
  prison, jail, CYA, parole, and probation) differs
  by ethnicity
• 5.4 for whites aged 20-29 in 1990
• 33.2 for blacks
• 9.4 for Latinos
• 3.5 for others (including API)

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Trends Changing Budgets and Lives

• There are competing explanations for the
  differences in incarceration and control rates by
  ethnicity
• Discrimination in the system accounts for harsher
  treatment of minorities.
• Behavioral differences, whether they stem from
  individual choice or environmental forces,
  account for outcomes, system is unbiased.

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race

• To adjudicate between these competing
  explanations, Frank Gilliam, Jr. breaks down the
  steps of the justice system, looking at
• Arrest rates (police officers)
• Releases without charges (prosecutors)
• Conviction rates and sentence lengths (judges and
  juries)

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Arrest Rates

• It is hard to separate offense rates from arrest
  rates.
• Blacks are arrested at rates 4-5 times larger
  than their proportion of the population.
  (Gilliam, pp. 312-313)
• Historical evidence shows that the black/white
  gap has always existed, but is growing.

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Arrest Rates

• Explanations of this gap include
• 1. Socioeconomic status blacks and Latinos have
  more poverty, less employment. This is
  consistent with high rates of narcotics arrests.

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Release Rates

• 2. The gap (and year-to-year changes) may also
  result from different police tactics. Police may
  be over-arresting blacks and Latinos.
• If so, some portion of their high arrest rates
  may indicate discrimination on the part of law
  enforcement authorities rather than a behavioral
  difference.

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Release Rates

• Gilliam finds evidence that minorities are in
  fact over-arrested by looking at how often they
  are released with no trial
• In 1992, blacks accounted for about 30 of all
  arrests but 60 of all releases.
• Contrary to what you may have seen on TV, black
  suspects are no more likely than whites to be
  released due to witness reluctance. Its usually
  lack of evidence.

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Sentencing

• A survey of those in prison in 1978 by RAND found
  that minority status alone accounted for one to
  seven additional months, in prison, even holding
  constant
• Prior records
• Likelihood that the crime was violent
• Probation and parole records

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Sentencing

• Californias 1977 Determinate Sentencing Act was
  designed to remove the role of prejudice
• Instead of case-by-case decisions on sentencing,
  the law set ranges for crimes
• At the same time that it got fairer on crime, the
  Act got tougher on crime by shifting from
  rehabilitation to punishment

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Breaking Down the Impact of Race Sentencing

• Gilliams analysis of 1992 data appears to show
  that the Act worked he found no direct effect of
  race on the length of sentences.
• He found indirect effects of factors associated
  with race such as type of attorney, type of plea,
  and prior records.

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Policing Practices

• America is distinctive in the lack of a federal
  role in policing. Californias police and
  sheriffs are all local.
• Californias major cities are distinctive in the
  small size of their police forces, taking a
  strike force rather than foot soldier
  approach.
• Cities vary in the of minority officers.

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Policing PracticesStrike Force vs. Foot Soldiers
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Policing Practices Minority Officers
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Discussion Questions

• What are some of the causes that Sandra Bass
  identifies for the higher rates of police
  neglect, harassment, and brutality of minority
  groups?
• Should cost/benefit analyses apply to criminal
  justice policies? If not, what criterion should
  we use maximum crime prevention, fairness, etc.
  to judge them?