Running head: REASONS FOR THE DISPROPORTIONATE NUMBER

Reasons for the Disproportionate Number of African American Men in the

Criminal Justice System in the U. S.
A Bibliographic Essay
Nick Bennett
Ottawa University

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Abstract
This bibliographic essay will attempt to answer the question Why Are There
So Many African American Men in the Criminal Justice System in the United
States Compared to the Number of Caucasian Men in the System? Sources
have been collected from scholarly databases that show the cause of the
disproportionate number of African American men in our prison system. The
source used in the introduction was not found on a scholarly database but
contains important information in answering the question addressed. This
paper is divided into three main topics or reasons for this disparity. The first
topic will include sources that discuss the issue of racism in general as a
reason for so many African American men being in the system. These
sources include a theoretical look at the way our society views race and how
this impacts our criminal justice system. The second topic includes sources
that discuss how racism impacts the sentencing of African American men.
The third group of sources will cover how our society is set up to punish
certain races based on what kind of the drugs they use. These sources are
divided into these topics for the sake of organization but many of them
include information that could also be part of the other two topics that they
are not assigned to. The hope of this researcher is that the reader will have a
better understanding of the reason why the United States imprisons so many
African American men and that this understanding will lead to the
development of solutions to this problem.

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Reasons for the Disproportionate Number of African American Men in the

Criminal Justice System in the U. S.
A Bibliographic Essay
Introduction
It would be hard to live in the United States and not realize that we
have a problem with the number of African American men involved in the
criminal justice system. The Sentencing Project is an organization whose
purpose is to provide research and advocacy in society in order to get rid of
racially motivated discrepancies within the criminal justice system. The
following source is report published by The Sentencing Project with the
purpose of sharing statistics and information to bring about reform.

Ghandnoosh, N. (2015, February). Black lives matter: Eliminating racial

inequality in the criminal justice system. Retrieved September 27, 2015,
from
http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_Black_Lives_Matter.pdf

In this report, Ghandoosh cites statistics that are pretty convincing that there
is a problem with racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the United
States. One in three black men will be incarcerated in their lifetime when
only one in seventeen white men will ever be incarcerated. The author starts

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out by talking about inequality in our socioeconomic system and goes on to
talk about our laws that create unfair sentencing guidelines. This report
would be an excellent introduction to the problem of racial inequality in the
criminal justice system in the United States. The author has a Ph.D. and is a
research analyst. It is a credible source that puts scholarly information into
the hand of the public by making it readable for all audiences. It uses many
peer reviewed, scholarly publications as well as government statistics to
support its argument.
Racism
Many would say that racism is why we have such a large number of
African American men in our prison system. The history of the United States,
starting with slavery and moving to Jim Crow Laws and segregation, shows a
repeating trend of mistreatment to those of African American decent. The
following article addresses this historical wrong doing by looking at
theoretical models of W.E.B Du Bois and Gunnar Myrdal.

Semien, D. S., & Roettger, M. E. (2013). Employing Du Bois and Myrdal to

analyze the U.

S. criminal justice system. Race, Gender & Class,

20(1/2), 141-155.
Semien and Roettger inspect class and caste models to explain racial
disparities in society as a whole and specifically the U.S criminal justice
system. Their reflection gives a historical perspective on the criminal justice

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system. The authors state that the class and racial caste systems of the past
are still very relevant today and continue to exist in American society,
especially in the criminal justice system. They talk about the color-line which
is a term used in sociology to identify the dividing line between African
Americans and Whites. This article would be helpful for someone who did not
understand the historical significance impacting society today. Semien has a
Ph.D. and Roettger is a data analyst which is an interesting combination
combining the sociological prospective with an expert in analyzing data.
The following article is an example of how race is viewed in our society
today.

Alegria, S. (2014). Constructing racial difference through group talk: An

analysis of white focus groups' discussion of racial profiling. Ethnic &
Racial Studies, 37(2), 241- 260. Doi:10.1080/01419870.2012.716519

Alegria examines the idea of racial profiling through observing White people
in public
conversations about racially loaded topics. The author finds that the focus
group uses colorblind language. The author also finds that even though color-blind language
is used, there is still
racializing discourse present. This article shows that even though people in
society today know the words not to say, they continue to racialize people in
their conversation and the way they treat them. They would not call

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someone a derogatory racial name but they continue to treat them in a
derogatory manner. Alegria has a Ph.D. in her field and this article is
published by a sociology department at a major university making it a
credible resource.
This source looks at racism from law enforcement when using racial
profiling.

Ibe, P., Ochie, C., & Obiyan, E. (2012). Racial misuse of "criminal profiling"
by law enforcement: Intentions and implications. African Journal of
Criminology and Justice Studies, 6(1/2), 177-196.

Ibe, Ochie, and Obiyan examine critical issues in criminal profiling in relation
specifically to African Americans. They look at the misuse of criminal profiling
by law enforcement. The history of criminal profiling is discussed to set the
stage for the research being completed. All three of the authors of this article
have Ph.Ds. and are professors in criminal justice departments at wellestablished universities adding greatly to the credibility and usefulness of
this article. The information included would be helpful for someone who does
not understand what criminal profiling means and how that can be a
justification for racial profiling.
One of the main concerns in the U. S. criminal justice system is the
recidivism rate or the rate at which criminals return to prison after they are
released. Recidivism adds greatly to the number of prisoners in the criminal
justice system especially because the United States does not appear to be
able to rehabilitate criminals very well. This source examines the role that

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race and sex play in sending prisoners back to jail after they have been
released.

Wehrman, M. M. (2011). Examining race and sex inequality in recidivism.

Sociology Compass, 5(3), 179-189. doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00362.x

Wehrman looks at why black men are more likely than other races or females
to return to jail or prison. He ties in other criminological studies to show that
racism in society effects post-release opportunities for convicts of African
American decent making it harder for them to remain crime free. The author
gives recommendations for further study into the inequality in the justice
system. Wehrman has a Ph.D. in sociology and he is a professor at a major
university. This is a valuable resource because of the authors credibility and
the information about how race impacts recidivism
Sentencing
This paper has established that racism has a role in the
disproportionate number of African American men in our criminal justice
system. A look at how racism affects sentencing specifically will bring about
a better understanding of why we have a disparity problem. The following
sources look at how race affects sentencing jail length, prison length, and the
rate that juveniles are convicted under adult consequences.

Crutchfield, R. D., Fernandes, A., & Martinez, J. (2010). Racial and ethnic
disparity and criminal justice: How much is too much? Journal of Criminal
Law & Criminology, 100(3), 903-932.

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Crutchfield, Fernandez and Martinez attempt to explore the racial patterns in
the criminal justice system. They also look at the history of these issues in
American society. The authors analyze sentencing decisions to point to
disparities in the justice system. Crutchfield, Fernandez and Martinez look at
multiple decision points in the process of prosecuting an accused criminal to
understand how racism affects the process and the eventual sentencing. This
article is produced by a major university. Crutchfield is a professor at the
University of Washington and Fernandez and Martinez are graduate students.
It is interesting that this article includes work of graduate students. This adds
a different view point compared to the other articles used that are written by
Ph.Ds. that have been out of school a long time.

Howell, R. S., & Hutto, T. S. (2012). Sentencing convicted juvenile felony

offenders in the adult court: The direct effects of race. Behavioral
Sciences & The Law, 30(6), 782- 799.

Howell and Hutto address whether race has a direct impact on juveniles
being sentenced to restitution, probation, or jail. The juvenile justice system
is examined as to whether it is meeting its intended goal of rehabilitation.
The authors review literature about the court systems to introduce the
purpose for their current study. Through this research, the authors find that
race does impact sentencing of juveniles as adults which has a direct impact
on the number of African American men in our criminal justice system. The
main author, Rebecca Howl, is a Ph.D. and is an instructor at the Department
of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama. The authors give an

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interesting perspective on how African American youth are being punished as
adults because they are Black which starts their long-term relationship with
the criminal justice system.

Kamalu, N. C., Coulson-Clark, M., & Kamalu, N. M. (2010). Racial

disparities in sentencing: Implications for the criminal justice system and
the African American community. African Journal of Criminology & Justice

Studies, 4(1), 1-31.

This article addresses how racial disparity in sentencing has direct
repercussions in African American communities. The authors explore how
racial profiling, specifically assuming that African Americans are criminals,
leads to stronger sentences being hand down to African Americans than
White offenders for the same crime. A strength of this source is that it
addresses the reasons for the disparities in the criminal justice system but it
also gives specific ideas for reforming the criminal justice system. Two of the
authors are Ph. Ds. in their field and one of the authors is a Licensed Clinical
Social Worker. It is interesting to have the perspective of a therapist in the
mix of authors in this article.
Jordan, K. L., & Freiburger, T. L. (2015). The effect of race/ethnicity on
sentencing: examining sentence type, jail length, and prison length.
Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice, 13(3), 179-196.
doi:10.1080/15377938.2014.984045
Jordan and Freiburger examine the impact of race and ethnicity on criminal
sentencing outcomes. They examine previous research conducted among

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Blacks, Hispanics and Whites. They find that race and ethnicity biases occur
in sentence type and length of imprisonment. The authors are both Ph.Ds.
and are affiliated with major universities which lends to the credibility of this
source.
Drugs
The sources in this section will develop a better understanding of how
our criminal justice system punishes drug crimes is racial motived. Our war
on drugs is set up so that the use and possession of the types of drugs used
by African Americans carry a heavier punishment than those that are used
by White people.

Bebo, J. A. (1999). The war on drugs, crack cocaine, and the resulting
sentencing disparities. Discourse of Sociological Practice, 2(1), 34-38.

Bebo writes this article to expose the fact that laws are composed in ways
that make them unfair to parts of the population. He points out that criminal
sanctions and sentencing are racially unfair. He discusses how the general
public views these laws and how those views are influenced by our media
and entertainment. The article is published by a major university and Bebo is
a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts. This allows one to
assume that it is a credible source.

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Nicosia, N., MacDonald, J. M., & Arkes, J. (2013). Disparities in criminal

court referrals to drug treatment and prison for minority men. American
Journal of Public Health, 103(6), e77-e84. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301222

Nicosia, MacDonald, and Arkes investigate racial and ethnic disparities in

prison and in diversion to drug treatment sentences. They collected their
data from administrative data of 170,000 drug involved arrests. They found
racially based disparities which they conclude have an impact on hundreds
of thousands of citizens who are involved in the criminal justice system.
Nicosia, MacDonald, and Arkes all have Ph.Ds. and this article was peer
reviewed.

Reuter, P. (2013). Why has US drug policy changed so little over 30 years?

Crime and Justice, 42(1), 1-67. doi:10.1086/670818

Reuter talks about how American drug policy has not changed much in the
past 30 years even though it is obviously unjust in its laws in punishing drug
crimes. He specifically discusses how the use and possession of crack
cocaine, which is used more by African Americans, carries a heavier
punishment compared to the use or possession of powder cocaine used more
by White people. This article would be a very good introduction to how drug
policy came to be and why the politics in the United States has made it so
hard to change. It has a comprehensive history that would create a good
base for someone who does not have much knowledge in this area. The
author is a professor of public policy and criminology at a major university.
The fact that he is a professor of public policy adds a different spin on the

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discussion about why there are so many African American men in the U. S.
criminal justice system.
Conclusion
The sources included in the bibliographic essay should give the reader
a foundation in the history of racism within the criminal justice system in the
United States. It should also help explain how our sentencing of crimes and
punishment of drug crimes specifically has contributed greatly to the
disproportionate number of African American men in prisons. Understanding
the reasons for this disparity will hopefully lead to further study with the
purpose of creating solutions to this problem.