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Courts and Criminal
Justice in America
CHAPTER
15
Differential
Treatment and
Wrongful
Convictions
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Introduction
• Officials in charge of dispensing
justice can get carried away in
efforts to punish criminals
• This chapter discusses two main
problems in the processing of
criminal cases:
 “Differential treatment”
 “Rush to judgment”
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Introduction
• One case may be treated differently
than the next for both legitimate
and illegitimate reasons
 Example of a legitimate reason is the
desire to speed up the administration of
justice
 An illegitimate reason could be flagrant
racial prejudice
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Introduction
 Offense Seriousness
• Differential treatment -- it takes longer
to hold trials for serious offenses than it
does for less serious cases
 Celebrated Cases
• High profile cases include mass murders
and graphic killings.
• Most face lengthy, highly-publicized trials
• Celebrities, star athletes, and politicians
receive plenty of press attention
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Introduction
 Defendant Characteristics
• Most well-known and unfortunate form of
differential treatment is based on race or
ethnicity
• Discrimination is the unfair treatment of
a person or group because of prejudice
about race, sex, age, or other
distinguishing characteristic
• Disparity refers to a difference that does
not necessarily involve discrimination
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Introduction
• The Rush to Judgment
 If an elected prosecutor wishes to stay
in office, it is often necessary to take a
tough stance toward crime
• This can lead to the conviction of an
innocent person in the rush to judgment
 The rush to judgment is about striving
to satisfy the demands of a public that
wants its government to be tough on
crime
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: The
Wedding Cake
• Criminal trials variations occur
based on
 Seriousness of the offense
 The “status” of the defendant
• The wedding cake model originally
had three layers: celebrated cases,
felonies and misdemeanors
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: The
Wedding Cake
Figure 15-1 The Criminal Justice Wedding Cake
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: The
Wedding Cake
• Celebrated Cases
 Cases involving celebrities or those
which receive extensive media coverage
• Defendants can benefit from a full-blown,
drawn-out criminal trial that can take
months
• The publicity from celebrated cases can
have a negative effect on public
perceptions about criminal justice
• Walker states policy should not be formed
based on celebrated cases
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: The
Wedding Cake
• Misdemeanors
 Metaphorical representation of the large
number of misdemeanors relative to
felonies
 Cases are dispensed of quickly in brief
trials
 Arguably more representative of the
true nature of criminal justice in
America, but it is the layer most people
never see
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
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Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Researchers have examined racial and
ethnic disparities at all stages of the
criminal process
• Race refers to distinct physical
characteristics, e.g. the color of one’s
skin
• Ethnicity refers to a shared national,
religious, linguistic or cultural heritage
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Police-Citizen Encounters
 Arrests and traffic stops are the
gateway to the criminal process
• Arrests mark the point where a person
formally enters the criminal process
• Many traffic stops lead to arrest
• If there is evidence of disparity in either
step, then the suspects in the criminal
process do not represent the population
at large
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
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Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
 Arrests
• Minorities are arrested more, as a
percentage of their representation in the
general population, than whites
• Some studies have found that a
suspect’s race is not predictive of his or
her likelihood of arrest
• Rather, evidence factors, crime
seriousness and suspect cooperation were
important
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Another analysis found police were more
likely to arrest when the victim was white
and the suspect was black
 Stops
• Researchers attempt to determine if an
individual’s race or ethnicity influences
an officer’s decision to stop him or her
• Results are mixed; rampant discrimination
to none at all
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
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Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Age and gender are also important factors
• It does appear based on the research that
race and ethnicity are important some of
the time
• The Lasting Impact of Terry v. Ohio
(1968)
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• The Pretrial Period
 There does not appear to be a clear
relationship between race/ethnicity,
case outcomes and either:
• defense representation
• bail decisions
• plea bargaining
 Racial/ethnic disparities do not seem to
be a serious problem
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
 Defense Representation
• Minority offenders tend to be less
financially secure than white offenders
and may need appointed counsel
 Bail
• There may be racial/ethnic disparities in
the bail context
• It is not clear that race has a direct effect
on either the decision to set bail or
sentencing outcomes
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
 Plea Bargaining
• Does race affect plea agreements?
• Research suggests plea agreements are
mostly affected by:
• Offense seriousness
• The defendant’s prior record
• The strength of the evidence
• Research has found that white receive
better plea agreement deals than
minorities
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Sentencing
 Race/Ethnicity and Sentencing
• Evidence suggests that black and
Hispanic offenders are more likely to be
sent to prison than whites – and for
longer periods
• Any discrimination that exists is
contextual
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
 Drug Sentencing
• A number of researchers have found
racial/ethnic disparities in sentencing
outcomes for drug offenders
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
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Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Imprisonment and Corrections
 Prisons
Table 15-1 Race/Ethnicity Of Male Prisoners Sentenced To
State And Federal Correctional Facilities
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
 Jails
• While minority representation in the jail
population has declined, the overrepresentation of Black inmates is still
troubling
• Points to a possibility of racial/ethnic
discrimination in bail-setting
 Community Corrections
• There is a clear discrepancy between the
percentage of blacks and whites in the
population of probationers and parolees
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
Figure 15-1
Racial/Ethnic Breakdown Of
Probationers
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Figure 15-2
Racial/Ethnic Breakdown Of
Parolees
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Differential Treatment: Racial and
Ethnic Disparities
• Capital Punishment
 1972 Furman v. Georgia decided that
the death penalty was unconstitutional
 The Evidence Before Furman
• Blacks, especially those who killed
whites, were more likely than whites to
be executed
• Studies also revealed that the death
penalty for rape was largely used for
punishing blacks who had raped whites
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Differential Treatment: Gender
Discrimination
• Is Gender Discrimination a
Problem?
 It appears that female defendants
receive more lenient sentences than
white males
 Gender effects are most pronounced in
the decision whether to imprison – as
opposed to in conviction and sentence
length decisions
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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Differential Treatment: Gender
Discrimination
 Researchers have also looked at
interactive effects of race and sex
• Steffensmeier conclusions
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Rush to Judgment: Wrongful
Convictions
• The Innocence Movement
 In the 1980s DNA testing entered the
mainstream
 Innocence Project
• The mission is to exonerate wrongfully
convicted persons through DNA testing
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Rush to Judgment: Wrongful
Convictions
 Progressive Prosecutors
• Some prosecutors have taken a strong
position that wrongful convictions must
be avoided at all costs
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Rush to Judgment: Wrongful
Convictions
• Exonerations
 Occurs when a person is wrongfully
convicted and later declared not guilty
 Four means of exoneration
•
•
•
•
A governor issues a pardon
Charges are dismissed by the court
Acquittals at a retrial
Posthumous
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Rush to Judgment: Wrongful
Convictions
 Exoneration Trends
• The number has increased in recent
years
• The three explanations for this trend are:
• Growing availability of DNA testing
• The “newsworthy” nature of exoneration
cases
• More resources have been devoted to the
problem
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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The Rush to Judgment: Wrongful
Convictions
 Crimes for Which Exonerees Were
Convicted
• Vast majority are murder, rape or sexual
assault
Courts and Criminal Justice in America, 2nd Edition
Siegel | Schmalleger | Worrall
Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.
All Rights Reserved