Racial Politics, Racial Disparities, and the War on Crime
- 1 October 1994
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Crime & Delinquency
- Vol. 40 (4) , 475-494
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0011128794040004001
Abstract
Racial disparities in the justice system have steadily gotten worse since 1980, primarily because of politically motivated decisions by the Reagan and Bush administrations to promote harsh drug and sanctioning policies that, existing research and broad agreement among practioners concur, could not significantly reduce crime rates or drug use. It is difficult to imagine a persuasive ethical defense of promotion of policies that were unlikely to achieve their ostensible goals but were foreseen to have an adverse disparate effect on Blacks.Keywords
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- THE GROWTH OF IMPRISONMENT IN CALIFORNIAThe British Journal of Criminology, 1994
- MAKING RATIONALITY RELEVANTTHE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CRIMINOLOGY 1992 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESSCriminology, 1993
- Treating Drug ProblemsNew England Journal of Medicine, 1990
- Race and Imprisonment Decisions in CaliforniaScience, 1990
- Racism on Trial: New Evidence to Explain the Racial Composition of Prisons in the United StatesThe Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 1985
- On the Racial Disproportionality of United States' Prison PopulationsThe Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 1982
- Race and Involvement in Common Law Personal CrimesAmerican Sociological Review, 1978