The Long and Lingering Lie

"The American criminal justice system is racist." We hear it so frequently that most people assume the authenticity of it. Hell, I assumed that it was true myself - until, that is, I examined the evidence...................................................................a) "Our overall assessment of the available research suggests that factors other than racial discrimination in the sentencing process account for most of the disproportionate representation of black males in U.S. prisons.......No evidence exists of a widespread systematic pattern of discrimination in sentencing." The National Academy of Sciences 1983.............b) "Black incarceration rates for imprisonable crimes are substantially higher  than those for whites because black crime rates are substantially higher than those for whites." (Liberal researcher) Michael Tonry, "Malign Neglect" 1995.............c) A Sampson/Lauritsen 1997 study likewise found that "large racial differences in criminal offending", not racism, was the major reason why more blacks were imprisoned more than whites and for longer terms.............d) A 1994 Justice Department survey of felony cases showed that blacks actually had a lower chance of prosecution (66% versus 69%) following a felony than whites did and that they were also less likely to be found guilty at trial (75% versus 78%).............e) A 1996 analysis (Gerald Reynolds) of 55,000 big city felony cases showed that black defendants were actually convicted at a lower rate than whites in 12 of the 14 federally designated felony categories.............f) In 1993, criminologist Alfred Blumstein found that when comparing black arrests for homicide and the presence of blacks in prison for that offense, African-Americans were significantly underrepresented among incarcerated inmates.............g) A 1991 RAND Corporation study found that a defendant's ethnic and racial background bore little if any relationship to a criminal's conviction rate and that other factors such as evidence and the existence of an eyewitness were significantly more important.............h) As far as the charge that blacks are arrested disproportionately, that, too, has largely been repudiated. According to statistics from the National Crime Victimization Survey, the percentage of blacks that have been accused by the actual victims (a large percentage of who are black themselves!!!!!) of crimes is almost identical to their arrest rate. So, unless these victims are wholesale falsely accusing innocent black folks rather the real perpetrators (which makes absolutely zero sense) you really have to consider it legit.