Los Angeles, CA (January 14, 2015) 2014 was replete with social unrest to protest police brutality and racial inequality. With many calling for policy reform to improve race problems in the U.S. criminal justice system, new research suggests that the issue is less political and more behavioral. Researchers recommend increased documentation, institutional diversity, and bias training in a new paper published in Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (PIBBS), a SAGE Journal.
"Individuals with different ideologies and political affiliations may well debate police enforcement priorities or factors that contribute to crime. However, people on both sides of the political aisle could agree that racial disparities in charging decisions, jury verdicts, and sentencing violate core American principles related to justice," wrote the researchers Samuel R. Sommers and Satia A. Marotta of Tufts University.
Analyzing racial disparities in policing, charging decisions and trial outcomes, Sommers and Marotta recommend three new policy interventions focused on data, diversity, and training:
"One of the strongest tools for combating implicit bias is consciousness raising--making our unconscious associations conscious, and simply recognizing that bias can occur even among those of good intent. For racial disparities in legal outcomes, such acknowledgment of potential problems need not be cast as a 'political issue.'"
###
Find out more by reading the full article, "Racial Disparities in Legal Outcomes: On Policing, Charging Decisions, and Criminal Trial Proceedings" available free for a limited time here.
SAGE is a leading international publisher of journals, books, and electronic media for academic, educational, and professional markets. Since 1965, SAGE has helped inform and educate a global community of scholars, practitioners, researchers, and students spanning a wide range of subject areas including business, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, and medicine. An independent company, SAGE has principal offices in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC. http://www.sagepublications.com Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences is a new annual publication that presents original research and scientific reviews relevant to public policy. This annual will
Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences