Race, crime, and criminal justice: fifty years since the challenge of crime in a free society

Fifty years ago, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson did not frequently mention race and ethnicity in its discussion of and recommendations for the criminal justice system, but it did have a lot to say about race and crime. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Fernandes, April D. (Author)
Contributors: Crutchfield, Robert D.
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2018
In: Criminology & public policy
Year: 2018, Volume: 17, Issue: 2, Pages: 397-417
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Keywords:
1967
Courts
Crime
Ethnicity
Johnson, Lyndon B.
Justice
Policing
President
Race
Race and crime
U.S. President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice
Description
Summary:Fifty years ago, the U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice under President Johnson did not frequently mention race and ethnicity in its discussion of and recommendations for the criminal justice system, but it did have a lot to say about race and crime. Through the use of arrest rates to measure racial differentials in criminal involvement, the Commission concluded that Blacks commit more crime as a consequence of Black people living in greater numbers in criminogenic “slum” conditions. To address racial differences, the Commission favored the Great Society programs of Johnson's War on Poverty. Contemporary criminologists continue to debate the racial distribution of crime, the causes of crimes, and the best policies to reduce crime and racial differentials. The Commission did not anticipate the current debate among scholars regarding how much racial disproportionality exists in the criminal justice system and its causes and consequences. The policies that led to mass incarceration have been significant drivers of continued criminal justice racial disparity. Those policies are inconsistent with the recommendation in The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society (1967), upending the pursuit of a more fair and just system.
ISSN:1745-9133
DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12361