diversity in criminal justice essay

Report Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System

Easily browse the critical components of this report…

Introduction

Throughout the nation, people of color are far more likely to enter the nation’s justice system than the general population. State and federal governments are aware of this disparity, and researchers and policymakers are studying the drivers behind the statistics and what strategies might be employed to address the disparities, ensuring evenhanded processes at all points in the criminal justice system. This primer highlights data, reports, state laws, innovations, commissions, approaches and other resources addressing racial and ethnic disparities within our country’s justice systems, to provide information for the nation’s decision-makers, state legislators.

Examining the Data and Innovative Justice Responses to Address Disparities

For states to have a clear understanding of the extent of racial and ethnic disparities in the states, they need to have data from all stages of the criminal justice system.

1. Law Enforcement

Disparities within traffic stops.

Contact with law enforcement, particularly at traffic stops, is often the most common interaction people have with the criminal legal system.

According to a  large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States , “police stop and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias.” The study, the largest to date, analyzed data on approximately 95 million stops from 21 state patrol agencies and 35 municipal police departments across the country. The authors found Black drivers were less likely to be stopped after sunset, when it is more difficult to determine a driver’s race, suggesting bias in stop decisions. Furthermore, by examining the rate at which stopped drivers were searched and turned up contraband, the study found that the bar for searching Black and Hispanic drivers was lower than that for searching white drivers.

The study also investigated the effects of legalization of recreational cannabis on racial disparities in stop outcomes—specifically examining Colorado and Washington, two of the first states to legalize the substance. It found that following the legalization of cannabis, the number of total searches fell substantially. The authors theorized this may have been due to legalization removing a common reason officers cite for conducting searches. Nevertheless, Black and Hispanic drivers were still more likely to be searched than white drivers were post-legalization.

Data Collection Requirements in Statute

At least 23 states and the District of Columbia have laws related to or requiring collection of data when an individual is stopped by law enforcement. Some of these laws specifically prohibit racial profiling or require departments to adopt a policy to the same effect. Collection of demographic data can serve as a means of ensuring compliance with those provisions or informing officials on current practices so they can respond accordingly.

States have employed many reporting or other requirements for evaluation of the data collected under these laws. For example, Montana requires agencies to adopt a policy that provides for periodic reviews to “determine whether any peace officers of the law enforcement agency have a pattern of stopping members of minority groups for violations of vehicle laws in a number disproportionate to the population of minority groups residing or traveling within the jurisdiction…”

Maryland’s law requires local agencies to report their data to the Maryland Statistical Analysis Center. The center is then tasked with analyzing the annual reports from local agencies and posting the data in an online display that is filtered by jurisdiction and by each data point collected by officers.

The amount and kind of data collected also varies state by state. Some states leave the specifics to local jurisdictions or require the creation of a form based on statutory guidance, but most require the collection of demographic data including race, ethnicity, color, age, gender, minority group or state of residence. Notably, Missouri’s law requires collection of the following 10 data points:

• The age, gender and race or minority group of the individual stopped.
• The reasons for the stop.
• Whether a search was conducted because of the stop.
• If a search was conducted, whether the individual consented to the search, the probable cause for the search, whether the person was searched, whether the person’s property was searched, and the duration of the search.
• Whether any contraband was discovered during the search and the type of any contraband discovered.
• Whether any warning or citation was issued because of the stop.
• If a warning or citation was issued, the violation charged or warning provided.
• Whether an arrest was made because of either the stop or the search.
• If an arrest was made, the crime charged.
• The location of the stop.

State laws differ as to what kind of stop triggers a data reporting requirement. For example, Florida’s law applies to stops where citations are issued for violations of the state’s safety belt law. While Virginia’s law is broader, requiring all law enforcement to collect data pertaining to all investigatory motor vehicle stops, all stop-and-frisks of a person and all other investigatory detentions that do not result in arrest or the issuance of a summons.

Cultural Competency and Bias Reduction Training for Law Enforcement

At least 48 states and the District of Columbia have statutory training requirements for law enforcement. These laws require law enforcement personnel statewide to be trained on specific topics during their initial training and/or at recurring intervals, such as in-service training or continuing education.

In most states, the law simply requires training on a subject, leaving the specifics to be determined by state training boards or other local authorities designated by law. However, some states, such as Iowa and West Virginia, have very detailed requirements and even specify how many hours are required, the subject of the training, required content, whether the training must be received in person and who is approved to provide the training.

Overall, at least 26 states mandate some form of bias reduction training. Find out more about these laws on NCSL’s Law Enforcement Training webpage.

Law Enforcement Employment and Labor Policies

States have also addressed equity and accountability in policing through certification and accountability measures and hiring practices.

For example, a 2020 California law ( AB 846 ) changed state certification requirements by expanding current officer evaluations to screen for various kinds of bias in addition to physical, emotional or mental conditions that might adversely affect an officer’s exercise of peace officer powers. The law also requires the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training to study, review and update regulations and screening materials to identify explicit and implicit bias against race or ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, disability or sexual orientation related to emotional and mental condition evaluations.

In addition to screening, the California law requires every department or agency that employs peace officers to review the job descriptions used in recruitment and hiring and to make changes that deemphasize the paramilitary aspects of the job. The intent is to place more emphasis on community interaction and collaborative problem-solving.

Nevada ( AB 409 ), in 2021, added to statutory certification requirements mandating evaluation of officer recruits to identify implicit bias on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation or gender identity expression. That same year, Nevada also enacted legislation ( SB 236 ) that requires law enforcement agencies to establish early warning systems to identify officers who display bias indicators or demonstrate other problematic behavior. It also requires increased supervision, training and, if appropriate, counseling to officers identified by the system. If an officer is repeatedly identified by the early warning system, the law requires the employing agency to consider consequences, including transfer from high-profile assignments or other means of discipline.

Another area of interest for states has been hiring a more diverse workforce in law enforcement and support agencies. For example, New Jersey SB 2767  (2020) required the state Civil Service Commission to conduct a statewide diversity analysis of the ethnic and racial makeup of all law enforcement agencies in the state.

Finally, at least one state addressed bias in policing through a state civil rights act. Massachusetts ( SB 2963 ) established a state right to bias-free professional policing. Conduct against an aggrieved person resulting in decertification by the Police Office Standards and Training Commission constitute a prima-facie violation of the right to bias-free professional policing. The law also specifies that no officer is immune from civil liability for violating a person’s right to bias-free professional policing if the conduct results in officer decertification.

Disproportionality of Native Americans in the Justice System According to the U.S. Department of Justice, from 2015 to 2019, the number of American Indian or Alaska Native justice-involved individuals housed in local jails for federal correctional authorities, state prison authorities or tribal governments increased by  3.6% . Though American Indian and Alaska Natives make up a small proportion of the national incarcerated population relative to other ethnicities, some jurisdictions are finding they are disproportionately represented in the justice system. For example, in  Pennington County , S.D., it is estimated that 10% to 25% of the county’s residents are Native American, but they account for 55% of the county’s jail population. Similarly, Montana’s Commission on Sentencing  found  that while Native Americans represent 7% of the state’s general population, they comprised 17% of those incarcerated in correctional facilities in 2014 and 19% of the state’s total arrests in 2015.

Modal title

2. pretrial release and prosecution, risk assessments.

Recently, state laws have authorized or required courts to use pretrial risk assessment tools. There are about  two dozen pretrial risk assessment tools in use  across the states. 

Laws in Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, New Jersey and Vermont require courts to adopt or consider risk assessments in at least some, if not all, cases on a statewide basis. While laws in Colorado, Illinois, Montana, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and West Virginia authorize or encourage, but do not require, adopting a risk assessment tool on a statewide basis.

This broad state adoption of risk assessment tools raises concern that systemic bias may impact their use. In 2014, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder  said  pretrial risk assessment tools “may exacerbate unwarranted and unjust disparities that are already far too common in our criminal justice system and our society.”

More than 100 civil rights organizations expressed similar concerns in  a statement  following a 2017 convening. The dependance of pretrial risk assessment tools on data that reflect systemic bias is the crux of the issue. The statement highlights that police officers disproportionately arrest people of color, which impacts risk assessment tools that rely on arrest data. The statement then set out key principles mitigating harm that may be caused by risk assessments, recognizing their broad use across the country.

The conversation about bias in pretrial risk assessments is ongoing. In 2021, the Urban Institute published the report “ Racial Equity and Criminal Justice Risk Assessment .” In the report, the authors discuss and make recommendations for policymakers to balance the use of risk assessment as a component of evidence-based practice with pursuing goals of reducing racial and ethnic disparities. The authors state that “carefully constructed and properly used risk assessment instruments that account for fairness can help limit racial bias in criminal justice decision-making.”

Academic studies show varied results related to the use of risk assessments and their effect on racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. One study, “ Racist Algorithms or Systemic Problems ,” concludes “there is currently no valid evidence that instruments in general are biased against individuals of color,” and, “Where bias has been found, it appears to have more to do with the specific risk instrument.” In another study, “ Employing Standardized Risk Assessment in Pretrial Release Decisions ,” the authors, without making causal conclusions, find that “despite comparable risk scores, African American participants were detained significantly longer than Caucasian participants … and were less likely to receive diversion opportunity.”

In a recent report titled “ Civil Rights and Pretrial Risk Assessment Instruments ,” the authors recommend steps to protect civil rights when risk assessment tools are used. The report underscores the importance of expansive transparency throughout design and implementation of these tools. It also suggests more community oversight and governance that promotes reduced incarceration and racially equitable outcomes. Finally, the report suggests decisions made by judges to detain should be rare, deliberate and not dependent solely on pretrial risk assessment instruments.

States are starting to regulate the use of risk assessments and promote best practices by requiring the tool to be validated on a regular basis, be free from racial or gender bias and that documents, data and records related to the tool be publicly available.

For example, California (2019  SB 36 ) requires a pretrial services agency validate pretrial risk assessment tools on a regular basis and to make specified information regarding the tool, including validation studies, publicly available. The law also requires the judicial council to maintain a list of pretrial services agencies that have satisfied the validation requirements and complied with the transparency requirements. California published its most recent validation  report  in June 2021.

Similarly, Idaho (2019  HB 118 ) now requires all documents, data, records and information used to build and validate a risk assessment tool to be publicly available for inspection, auditing and testing. The law requires public availability of ongoing documents, data, records and written policies on usage and validation of a tool. It also authorizes defendants to have access to calculations and data related to their own risk score and prohibits the use of proprietary tools.

Pretrial Release

A  recent report from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights  evaluates the civil rights implications of pretrial release systems across the country.

Notable findings from the report include stark racial and gender disparities in pretrial populations with higher detention rates and financial conditions of release imposed on minority populations. The report also finds that more than 60% of defendants are detained pretrial because of an inability to pay financial conditions of release. 

States have recently enacted legislation to address defendants’ ability to pay financial conditions of release, with at least 11 states requiring courts to conduct ability-to-pay considerations when setting release conditions.  NCSL’s Statutory Framework of Pretrial Release report  has additional information about state approaches to pretrial release.

Prosecutorial Discretion

Prosecutorial discretion is a term used to describe the power of prosecutors to decide whether to charge a person for a crime, which criminal charges to file and whether to enter into a plea agreement. Some argue this discretion can be a source of disparities within the criminal justice system.

The  Prosecutorial Performance Indicators  (PPI), developed by Florida International University and Loyola University Chicago, is an example of an effort to address this. PPI provides prosecutors’ offices with a method to measure their performance through several indicators, including racial and ethnic disparities. As part of their work to bring accountability and oversight to prosecutorial discretion, PPI has created six measures specifically related to racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system. The PPI measures include the following:

• Victimization of Racial/Ethnic Minorities.
• Case Dismissal Differences by Victim Race/Ethnicity.
• Case Filing Differences by Defendant Race/Ethnicity.
• Pretrial Detention Differences by Defendant Race/Ethnicity.
• Diversion Differences by Defendant Race/Ethnicity.
• Charging and Plea Offer Differences by Defendant Race/Ethnicity.

Below is a table highlighting disparity  data discovered through the use of PPI measures , gathered from specific jurisdictions.

Young People in the Justice System

As is the case in the adult system, compared to young white people, youth of color are disproportionately represented at every stage in the nation’s juvenile justice system. Overall juvenile placements  fell by 54%  between 2001 and 2015, but the placement rate for Black youth was 433 per 100,000, compared to a white youth placement rate of 86 per 100,000. According to a report from the Prison Policy Initiative, an advocacy organization, titled “ Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019 ,” 14% of all those younger than 18 in the U.S. are Black, but they make up 42% of the boys and 35% of the girls in juvenile facilities. Additionally, Native American and Hispanic girls and boys are also overrepresented in the juvenile justice system relative to their share of the total youth population.  Information  from California reveals that prosecutors send Hispanic youth to adult court via “direct file” at over three times the rate of white youth.

At the federal level, the 2018 reauthorized  Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act  requires states to identify and analyze data on race and ethnicity in state, local and tribal juvenile justice systems. States must identify disparities and develop and implement work plans to address them. States are required to document how they are addressing racial and ethnic disparities and establish a coordinating body composed of juvenile justice stakeholders to advise states, units of local government and Native American tribes. If a state fails to meet the act’s requirements, it will result in a 20% reduction of formula grant funding.

An example of a coordinating council that has examined extensive data is the Equity and Justice for All Youth Subcommittee of the  Georgia Juvenile Justice State Advisory Group . The group conducted a county-by-county assessment and analysis of disproportionality in Georgia and found one of the most effective ways to reduce disproportionate treatment of youth is to reduce harsh disciplinary measures in schools. This in turn helps reduce disproportionate referrals to the system.

3. Incarceration

Incarceration statistics help paint a picture of the disparities in the criminal justice system. Significant racial and ethnic disparities can be seen in both jails and prisons. According to the MacArthur Foundation’s  Safety and Justice Challenge website , “While Black and Latinx people make up 30% of the U.S. population, they account for 51% of the jail population.”

An  October 2021 report  from The Sentencing Project, an organization advocating for criminal justice reform, found that “Black Americans are incarcerated in state prisons across the country at nearly five times the rate of whites, and Latinx people are 1.3 times as likely to be incarcerated than non-Latinx whites.” At the time of the report, there were 12 states where more than half of the prison population is Black and seven states with a disparity between the Black and white imprisonment rate of more than 9 to 1.

To have a clearer sense of the racial makeup of who is incarcerated at any given time, some systems developed data dashboards to provide information on their jail populations. In Allegheny County, Pa., for instance, the  jail data dashboard  is publicly available and provides a range of information on who is incarcerated in the jail. The dashboard provides an up-to-the-day look at the race, gender and age of the jail population. According to the dashboard, on average from Jan. 1, 2019, to mid-November 2021, 65% of individuals in the jail were Black.

Dashboards may also be established by the individual state, though these generally look back over a specified time, rather than providing a close-to-live look at the jail population. Colorado passed a law in 2019 ( HB 1297 ) requiring county jails to collect certain data and report it to the state Division of Criminal Justice on a quarterly basis. That data is compiled in a publicly available  Jail Data Dashboard . The dashboard includes information on the racial and ethnic makeup of jail populations in the state. In the second quarter of 2021, 88% of people incarcerated in jails in the state were white, 16% were Black, 2% were Native American and 1% were classified as “other race.” In the same quarter, ethnicity data for incarcerated people showed 67% were non-Hispanic, 33% were Hispanic and 9% were classified with “unknown ethnicity.”

Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections has an online  dashboard  providing similar information for the state prison population. The dashboard shows Black people make up 12% of the state’s overall population but 44% of the population in state correctional institutions, while white people make up 74% of the state population and 45% of the state prison population. While dashboards themselves don’t reduce disparities, they help create a clearer understanding of them.

4. Sentencing

Racial and ethnic disparities can also be seen in the sentencing of individuals following a criminal conviction. The use of sentencing enhancements and federal drug sentencing both provide examples of the disparities in sentencing.

Sentencing enhancements in California  have been found  to be applied disproportionately to people of color and individuals with mental illness according to the state’s  Committee on Revision of the Penal Code . More than 92% of the people sentenced for a gang enhancement in the state, for instance, are Black or Hispanic. The state has more than 150 different sentence enhancements and more than 80% of people incarcerated in the state are subject to a sentence enhancement.

In response to recommendations from the committee,  AB 333  was enacted in 2021 to modify the state’s gang enhancement statutes by reducing the list of crimes under which use of the current charge alone creates proof of a “pattern” of criminal gang activity and separates gang allegations from underlying charges at trial.

Impact Statements and Legislative Task Forces

Racial impact statements and data.

Legislatures are currently taking many steps to increase their understanding of racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. In some states, this has taken the form of racial and ethnic impact statements or corrections impact statements.

At least 18 states require  corrections impact statements  for legislation that would make changes to criminal offenses and penalties. These look at the fiscal impact of policy changes on correctional populations and criminal justice resources. A few states have required the inclusion of information on the impacts of policy changes on certain racial and ethnic groups.

Colorado has taken this approach. The state enacted  legislation in 2013  (SB 229) requiring corrections fiscal notes to include information on gender and minority data. In 2019, the state passed  legislation  (HB 1184) requiring the staff of the legislative council to prepare demographic notes for certain bills. These notes use “available data to outline the potential effects of a legislative measure on disparities within the state, including a statement of whether the measure is likely to increase or decrease disparities to the extent the data is available.”

Other states with laws requiring racial and ethnic impact statements include  Connecticut ,  Iowa ,  Maine ,  New Hampshire ,  New Jersey ,  Oregon  and  Virginia . Additionally, Florida  announced  a  partnership  in July 2019 “between the Florida Senate and Florida State University’s College of Criminology & Criminal Justice to analyze racial and ethnic impacts of proposed legislation.”  Minnesota’s Sentencing Commission has compiled racial impact statements for the legislature since 2006, though this is not required in law.

Legislative Studies and Task Forces

States are also taking a closer look at racial disparities within criminal justice systems by creating legislative studies or judicial task forces. These bodies examined disproportionalities in the criminal justice system, investigated possible causes and recommended solutions.

In 2018, Vermont  legislatively established  the state’s  Racial Disparities in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System Advisory Panel . The panel submitted its  report to the General Assembly  in 2019. Part of the report recommended instituting a public complaint process with the state’s Human Rights Commission to address perceived implicit bias across all state government systems. It also recommended training first responders to identify mental health needs, educating all law enforcement officers on bias and racial disparities and adopting a community policing paradigm. Finally, the panel agreed that increased and improved data collection was important to combat racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system. The panel recommended “developing laws and rules that will require data collection that captures high-impact, high-discretion decision points that occur during the judicial processes.”

State lawmakers are well positioned to make policy changes to address the racial and ethnic disparities that research has shown are present throughout the criminal justice system. As they continue to develop a greater understanding of these disparities, state legislatures have an opportunity to make their systems fairer for all individuals who encounter the justice system, with the goal of  reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities. 

• NCSL on View the PDF Report NCSL

DO NOT DELETE - NCSL Search Page Data

Related resources, juvenile justice legislation database, first appearance | may 2024.

Improving court appearance rates, plus a round-up of front-end justice policy, research and news.

2023 Policing Policy Legislation in Review

U.S. states and territories enacted nearly 400 of the more than 2,200 policing policy bills introduced in 2023. This story summarizes laws enacted in three main categories.

Contact NCSL

For more information on this topic, use this form to reach NCSL staff.

• What is your role? Legislator Legislative Staff Other
• Is this a press or media inquiry? No Yes
• Admin Email

Diversity in policing can improve police-civilian interactions, say Princeton researchers

Illustration by Egan Jimenez, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

The recent killings of Black Americans have reignited calls for policing reform, including proposals to diversify police departments, which have historically been made up of primarily white, male officers. Yet, few studies have examined whether deploying minority and female officers actually changes police-civilian interactions or reduces instances of shootings and reported misconduct.

Jonathan Mummolo

A study first debuted Feb. 7 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science  2021 Annual Meeting harnesses newly collected data from the Chicago Police Department to show that deploying officers of different backgrounds does, in fact, produce large differences in how police treat civilians.

The researchers link millions of daily patrol assignments with police officer demographics to show that Black and Hispanic officers make far fewer stops and arrests and use less force than white officers, especially against Black civilians, when facing otherwise common circumstances. Hispanic officers also engage in less enforcement activity. Female officers of all races also use less force than males.

The findings , featured on the cover of the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Science , suggest that increasing diversity within police departments may decrease police mistreatment of minority communities.  

“A first step in assessing the impact of diversity policies is to test whether officers with different demographic profiles actually do their jobs differently while holding circumstances constant,” said study co-author Jonathan Mummolo , assistant professor of politics and public affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs . “Using rare microlevel data on when and where thousands of officers are deployed over time, we are able to make these comparisons, and we find substantial disparities in officer behavior even when facing comparable places, times and civilians.” 

Mummolo co-authored the paper with Bocar Ba of the University of California, Irvine ; Dean Knox of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ; and Roman Rivera of Columbia University . Mummolo and Knox have published a number of studies together in recent years looking at policing tactics and reforms in the United States.

Given the recent widespread calls for law enforcement reforms, especially following the death of George Floyd in 2020, the researchers wanted to determine how the deployment of officers from different racial, ethnic and gender identities might affect the treatment of civilians.

They used new, high-resolution data on police personnel activity in Chicago, which has a history of racial tensions between residents and the police. This microlevel data indicated not just that an arrest had happened, but where, by whom, at what time, on what charge, plus many features of the civilian and officer involved. Chicago provided an invaluable opportunity to study diversity in policing as both the city and department are highly diverse.

The researchers drew on data assembled through years of open records requests, which included the race and ethnicity, language skills, daily shift assignments, and career progression of roughly 7,000 individual officers. They then linked these files to time-stamped, geolocated records of those officers’ arrests, traffic stops and use of force against civilians from 2012-15. These data included 2.9 million officer shifts and 1.6 million enforcement “events.” Due to limited data, the researchers only looked at only Black, Hispanic, and white officers, which made up 97% of the sample.  

The researchers then created a dataset documenting the circumstances and outcomes of each officer-shift, to allow for comparisons of officers of different demographic profiles working in highly similar places and times. This allowed them to see how officers of different backgrounds behaved in similar circumstances.

They found Black officers made substantially fewer stops, arrests and uses of force per shift than white officers, reductions equal to 29%, 21% and 32% of average white officer behavior citywide. The findings are similar for Hispanic and female officers, though the differences are more modest.

“These patterns are remarkably in line with the hopes of proponents of racial diversification, which seeks to reduce abusive policing and mass incarceration, especially in Black communities,” Mummolo said.

While the researchers cannot discern bias or intent based on these data, one explanation for the differences could be racial bias, they said. Further study with additional data is needed to understand the mechanisms behind these differences in police behavior.

The study also stresses that the effects of diversity in policing are more complex than often recognized. While this study focused on race, ethnicity and gender, police officers are multidimensional human beings. This means enacting effective personnel reforms will likely require thinking beyond these categories. Nevertheless, the study provides a framework for other scholars to evaluate and re-evaluate the effects of diversity in policing in America.

“ The role of officer race and gender in police-civilian interactions in Chicago ,” by Bocar A. Ba, Dean Knox, Jonathan Mummolo and Roman Rivera appears in the Feb. 12 issue of the journal Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abd8694 ).

Related Stories

Countering police bias with data .

Jonathan Mummolo examines how race factors into police encounters with civilians.

Police officers highly motivated by supervisor scrutiny .

Police officers are highly responsive to the scrutiny of their superiors, a Princeton study shows, and the findings suggest that rules and supervision can be effective at reforming police behavior.

UPDATED: Princeton voices: Speaking out about police violence in the nation .

At the close of the Derek Chauvin trial, Princeton scholars, experts and alumni are speaking to the moment across a range of platforms.

Militarization of police fails to enhance safety, may harm police reputation .

A new study shows that militarized policing is ineffective in decreasing crime and protecting police, and may actually weaken the public’s image of the police.

Hispanics face racial discrimination in New York City’s rental housing market .

Compared to whites, Hispanics in the rental housing market in New York City are 28 percent less likely to have a landlord return their calls and 49 percent less likely to receive a rental offer.

'Community swell' needed to address racial justice and policing in America .

More than two years after the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the fraught relationship between law enforcement and African Americans continues to spark controversy and calls for action. This tension — and how to address the divide between communities and the police — were examined at a policy forum held Friday, Dec. 9, at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

'Kaleidoscope' conference remarks by President Emeritus William G. Bowen .

Remarks by President Emeritus William G. Bowen prepared for "Kaleidoscope: An Alumni Conference on Race and Community at Princeton University," Nov. 10, 2006.

020 8064 2218

[email protected]

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Why is equity, diversity and inclusion in criminal justice important.

The CJA scrutinises criminal justice policies and practices for their discriminatory impact and calls for changes to improve outcomes for individuals with protected characteristics. Previous work has included warning that the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will deepen racial inequality in the criminal justice system; advocating for a greater focus on the needs of Black, Asian and minority ethnic victims of crime; and exploring the effectiveness of independent custody visitors in monitoring race and gender equality in police custody.

For the criminal justice system to be fair and effective, criminal justice agencies must ensure all individuals have an equal opportunity to thrive, regardless of their age, race, sex, religion or any other  protected characteristic . However, numerous landmark reviews have found that certain groups face poorer outcomes in the criminal justice system than their peers.

Public authorities, such as the government and the police, are required under the  Public Sector Equality Duty to consider how policies or decisions affect people with protected characteristics. Under the duty, public authorities must have due regard to eliminate unlawful discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. Read more about our work on public equality duty below.

We work to remove systemic bias in several ways. We hold policy makers to account, ensuring they are meeting their requirements under the Public Sector Equality Duty. We advocate for policies and services to be co-designed with people from minoritised groups. And we call for greater racial diversity in the criminal justice workforce and promote more inclusive practices from sector employers.

Our recent work:

The tackling racial inequality project.

The Tackling Racial Inequality Project aims to reduce racial inequality in the criminal justice system. The Project will hold the government to account on adhering to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) and producing rigorous Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs).

CJA Director discusses ways to improve race equality

Nina Champion recently appeared on the One Small Thing JUSTICE podcast and discussed the CJA’s work to build a more diverse workforce and ensure scrutiny and accountability in the criminal justice system.

New policing and sentencing bill will entrench racial inequality

The CJA coordinated an open letter to the Prime Minister, warning that the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill will deepen the racial inequality in the criminal justice system. In the open letter, we call on the government to remove the discriminatory elements of the Bill and lau nch a proper public consultation.  

Listen to young people highlight their concerns below.

Increasing the diversity of the criminal justice workforce

One way to improve outcomes for Black, Asian and minority ethnic people is to increase the diversity of the criminal justice workforce. In 2020, we  brought together experts from across the criminal justice system to explore how we can increase workforce diversity through recruitment, retention, progression and measuring impact.   

The Victims’ Code and Victims’ Law

In 2020, we raised our concerns that removing the right to be referred to a restorative justice service from the Victims’ Code could  indirectly discriminate against Black, Asian and minority ethnic  victims.  Read our response to the government’s consultation on  improving the Victims’ Code .  

We also contributed to the Victims’ Commissioner’s proposals for a Victims’ Law, drawing on a roundtable we held   to call for a greater focus on the needs of Black, Asian and minority ethnic victims. Read  a comment from Director Nina Champion on the Victims’ Law proposals .   

Diversity in law enforcement may improve policing, study shows

CHICAGO — In the last decade, high-profile police killings — including George Floyd in 2020 — have shaken the nation and led to widespread protests and calls for reform, including hiring more nonwhite and female officers.

But there was little research to back that up. Now, a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, suggests that diversity in law enforcement can indeed lead to improvements in how police treat people of color.

“It’s a system that very clearly needs reforming,” said University of Pennsylvania data scientist Dean Knox, a co-author of the study. “We just haven’t had good data on what reforms work.”

News Latino officers are helping diversify police. Can they help reform the ranks?

For the paper, Knox and his colleagues analyzed data on nearly 3 million Chicago Police Department patrol assignments. They found that compared to white officers, Black and Hispanic officers made far fewer stops and arrests — and used force less often — especially against Black civilians. They also found female officers used less force than their male counterparts.

“This is the best evidence to date” that officer demographics have an influence on policing, said Harvard sociologist Joscha Legewie, who was not involved in the study. “It’s an old question, and one that’s really hard to answer.”

Researchers spent three years fighting for detailed data from Chicago Police, and appealed some of their requests all the way up to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

“It’s a difficult, difficult thing to pull together these data sources,” said Thaddeus Johnson, a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice and a former Tennessee police officer who was not involved in the study. “This is the kind of research we really need.”

News Police killings of Latinos lack attention, say activists

Eventually, the team amassed data on 1.6 million enforcements — such as stops and arrests — by nearly 7,000 officers from 2012 to 2015.

By comparing officers working in similar areas, researchers noticed a difference across demographics. Relative to white officers on the same assignments in the same neighborhoods, Black officers were less likely to stop, arrest, and use force against civilians.

Over the course of 100 shifts, Black officers made, on average, about 16 fewer stops and two fewer arrests — a 20% to 30% reduction compared to white officers in comparable scenarios.

“We see two groups of officers going out, and they’re treating the same group of civilians differently,” Knox said. “It’s troubling.”

This disparity was most pronounced in majority-Black neighborhoods, researchers found, and was predominantly focused on minor crimes and not violent offenses.

Most officers respond the same way to violent crimes such as armed robbery or assault. With minor infractions, though, like traffic violations or drug possession, Legewie said, “There’s more leeway for the officer to make a decision.”

And in recent years, police response to minor infractions have set off many protests against police brutality — including the 2014 killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago.

“It can escalate,” said co-author and Princeton University political scientist Jonathan Mummolo. “These can have extreme consequences.”

The new study has its limitations.

Since the data was collected from 2012 to 2015, it doesn’t capture recent changes to policing in Chicago. The paper also doesn’t account for the department’s internal culture, which influences how recruits behave in the field.

And, as a case study of Chicago, the paper is not automatically generalizable to the country’s more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies, especially suburban and rural ones.

Still, the findings support what local community activists have argued for decades.

“That’s what we expect,” said Regina Russell, co-chair at the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “That’s why we’ve been pushing for this for years.”

Russell grew up in a predominantly Black area of Chicago, but said the police officers who patrolled her neighborhood were largely white — “Never anyone who looked like us.”

Chicago has long been plagued by tensions between police and residents, roughly half of whom are nonwhite.

Local activists have long called for diversity to reduce the harm of a “racially oppressive police department,” said Simon Balto, who researches history and African American studies at the University of Iowa.

During the early 1960s, Balto said, internal initiatives to increase recruitment helped diversify the Chicago Police Department — an effort further bolstered by a 1973 discrimination suit filed by the city’s Afro-American Patrolmen’s League. “By the ’70s, the CPD wasn’t some beacon of diversity or even representative of the city’s demographics,” Balto said, “but it made strides for the first time in history.”

Today, about half of Chicago Police Department officers are people of color and more than one-fifth are women.

Russell said it was exciting to watch this demographic shift happen in real-time. However, she said, “Just increasing diversity isn’t going to fix this.”

She and other local activists want to see more body cameras, community oversight of police, stringent use of force policies and more consequences for police officers who do harm while on the job.

Others, like Erika Maye, a senior leader for the nonprofit civil rights organization Color of Change, say pushes for diversity are a misstep. “They don’t go deep enough or tackle the root issues,” she said. “Police violence is not an issue of representation.”

Instead, Color of Change advocates for cities to divest from policing and invest in health care, education and job training. “To really protect Black lives, we feel we really need to upend the current policing system,” Maye said.

Maye, Russell and Balto said they hope for future research on other reform proposals that center on systemic change, such as initiatives to reduce the size and scope of police departments and reallocate those resources to create crisis intervention teams and other community-based programs.

Mummolo agreed. “We have a lot of policies that were adopted based on hunches or intuitions,” he said.

Data on fatal police encounters, body camera use, civilian complaints and officer political affiliation, for example, could be the focus of future studies.

“This (study) lays out a roadmap for other researchers,” said co-author and Columbia University economist Roman Rivera.

Follow NBC Latino on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .

The Associated Press

• Faculty of Arts and Sciences
• FAS Theses and Dissertations
• Communities & Collections
• By Issue Date
• FAS Department
• Quick submit
• Waiver Generator
• DASH Stories
• Accessibility
• COVID-related Research
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• By Collections
• By Departments

Show simple item record

Essays on Diversity

Files in this item

This item appears in the following Collection(s)

• FAS Theses and Dissertations [6566]

Show Statistical Information

Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.

Diversity in the criminal justice system

DOI link for Diversity in the criminal justice system

Click here to navigate to parent product.

Traditionally, the criminal justice system has recruited and empowered a monochromatic section of society to deliver and implement justice; typically carried out by White men. Meanwhile, minority communities and underrepresented groups such as black, Asian, and minority ethnic groups (BAME); lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans communities (LGBT+); and women, have been historically over-policed, persecuted, or neglected by key criminal justice institutions. Issues of marginalisation in relation to race, gender, and sexuality have led to lasting tensions and mistrust between diverse groups and criminal justice agencies. Such tensions have raised questions over the validity and legitimacy of the criminal justice system’s treatment of these groups. Key landmark events, such as the Wolfenden Report, the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and the Brixton Riots, have therefore led to changes in how justice is delivered to diverse groups. In response to these events, calls for diverse groups to be included in criminal justice agencies, practices, and policies have been made, in order to implement wider social change, build bridges with those who are marginalised, and improve the delivery of justice. Contemporary criminological evidence demonstrates that diversity within criminal justice agencies helps to implement appropriate organisational change and agility. This chapter examines how gender, race, and sexuality have been historically represented in the criminal justice system and explores contemporary modern mechanisms of diversity inclusion.

• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Cookie Policy
• Taylor & Francis Online
• Taylor & Francis Group
• Students/Researchers
• Librarians/Institutions

Connect with us

Registered in England & Wales No. 3099067 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG © 2024 Informa UK Limited

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Journal Menu

• Societies Home
• Aims & Scope
• Editorial Board
• Instructions for Authors
• Special Issues
• Sections & Collections
• Article Processing Charge
• Indexing & Archiving
• Most Cited & Viewed
• Journal Statistics
• Journal History
• Journal Awards
• Editorial Office

Journal Browser

• arrow_forward_ios Forthcoming issue arrow_forward_ios Current issue
• Vol. 14 (2024)
• Vol. 13 (2023)
• Vol. 12 (2022)
• Vol. 11 (2021)
• Vol. 10 (2020)
• Vol. 9 (2019)
• Vol. 8 (2018)
• Vol. 7 (2017)
• Vol. 6 (2016)
• Vol. 5 (2015)
• Vol. 4 (2014)
• Vol. 3 (2013)
• Vol. 2 (2012)
• Vol. 1 (2011)

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

Diversity and Inclusion in Policing: Its Role in Criminal Justice

• Print Special Issue Flyer
• Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

• Published Papers

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 March 2023) | Viewed by 11901

Share This Special Issue

Special issue editor.

Dear Colleagues, 

Diversity and inclusion in policing is multifaceted. It is about the recruitment and inclusion of people from diverse communities into policing as well as the recognition of inclusivity of practice when police interact or engage professionally with all members of society regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender, ability, or status. It is also about outcomes of justice for all citizens.

Societies is pleased to announce that it will publish a Special Issue on diversity and inclusion in policing, and its role in criminal justice. The guest editor is currently soliciting manuscripts to be considered for inclusion in this Special Issue. Papers that focus on a wide-range of topics relevant to the theme are welcome, including but not limited to a) theoretical contributions on police/policing; (b) diversity and inclusion in police/policing practice, training, etc. in police organizations; (c) police training/policy/engagement with vulnerable populations/diverse people/minority group members; (d) policing LGBTQIA+ people; (e) policing race/ethnicity; (f) policing mental health; (g) policing domestic violence in vulnerable populations/diverse people/minority group members; (h) policing homelessness; (i) policing disability; (j) policing and religion; (k) police recruitment; (l) police culture and diversity and inclusion; and (m) diversity and inclusion and criminal justice outcomes. We welcome theoretical contributions as well as original, empirical analyses that employ quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods. All submitted manuscripts should seek to advance theory, policing practice, and/or policy regarding diversity and inclusion in policing and its role in criminal justice. Comparative work or analyses that focus on diverse locations from around the world are encouraged. All submitted manuscripts will be peer reviewed.

Contributions have to follow one of the three categories (article/review/conceptual paper) of papers for the journal and address the topic of the Special Issue. Please read the details at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/societies/instructions .

Dr. Toby Miles-Johnson Guest Editor

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website . Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form . Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (3 papers)

Further information, mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

Featured Topics

Featured series.

A series of random questions answered by Harvard experts.

Explore the Gazette

Read the latest.

Examining the duality of Israel

One way to help big groups of students? Volunteer tutors.

Footnote leads to exploration of start of for-profit prisons in N.Y.

Illustrations © John Jay Cabuay

An overhaul for justice

But how do you translate an appetite for change into reality?

Ana Billingsley

To anyone reading the headlines, it’s clear there are serious problems with our criminal justice system, but to people trapped within it, the harms run deeper than the headlines can convey.

I saw this every day when I worked for the New York City Department of Correction on Rikers Island, creating employment and reentry programming for young adults. From the overly wide net law enforcement casts in Black and Latinx neighborhoods to the lack of comprehensive support available to people upon release, every stage of the criminal justice system is more harmful to people of color and those without access to wealth. Watching the students in my programs cycle in and out of the jails, I witnessed the incredibly high cost paid by the justice-involved, their families, and their communities for these systemic failings.

We know what some of the solutions are: connect people to resources that address their underlying needs instead of locking them up; allow those who can’t afford bail to return to their families and jobs instead of awaiting trial in jail; dispatch trained professionals like social workers to appropriate 911 calls instead of police officers. But what’s not always clear is the how . How can under-resourced governments shift to these new systems — and how can they demonstrate that reforms are resulting in better and more just outcomes?

I wanted to understand not only what changes we needed to make, but how we were going to make those changes a reality. That’s what led me to the Harvard Kennedy School’s Government Performance Lab (GPL). Our goal is to speed up progress against problems by innovating around the how . To do this, we embed teams with local governments to provide technical assistance, collaborating closely to test solutions that allow governments to transform their social service systems.

I’m leading a team in Harris County, Texas, that was formed after county leaders reached out to the GPL requesting support for their criminal justice reform projects, including helping manage the response to the ODonnell federal consent decree mandating an overhaul of its bail practices.

“There’s no system too big to reimagine — not even the criminal justice system.”

In 2016, Maranda ODonnell was arrested in Harris County for driving with an invalid license and held in jail pretrial because she couldn’t afford her $2,500 bail. Like thousands of other people in the country, arrest swept ODonnell through the front doors of the system and into wealth-based incarceration. The impact of being jailed before trial can be lasting and severe: in addition to job loss, disruption in benefits like health insurance, and debt creation from being unable to work, it also increases your chances of pleading guilty and receiving a harsher sentence. Because low-income people and people of color are arrested and jailed at disproportionate rates, the consequences are felt even more deeply in these communities.

My team and I are supporting Harris County government leaders as they take bold steps to make changes to their pretrial justice system: improving bail practices, enhancing early diversion and pretrial supervision, and exploring new ways to approach crisis response and alternatives to policing. Today, the majority of people in Harris County arrested on a misdemeanor charge are set free with a reminder to come back to court — no cash bail is required to get out — and people working in the criminal justice system are trained on both the impact of cash bail and how to identify supports for people who need help getting back to court.

While there is more work to be done, these reforms are working : the system is decreasing the wealth-based detention of poor people and shrinking the racial disparities in who gets released, all without a subsequent increase in crime.

But our work in Harris County and with other jurisdictions across the country is not just about implementing changes to improve the criminal justice system in that particular city, county, or state. It’s about testing and capturing innovations to shift from automatic punishment, which we know can magnify economic inequities and compound the effects of systemic racism, to community-based solutions that enable people to thrive. It’s about creating a roadmap that other governments can use to make their own systems more just. It’s about realizing there’s no system too big to reimagine — not even the criminal justice system.

About the author Ana Billingsley is an assistant director with the Government Performance Lab at the Harvard Kennedy School. Learn more about GPL’s work at https://govlab.hks.harvard.edu/

Share this article

You might like.

Expert in law, ethics traces history, increasing polarization, steps to bolster democratic process

Research finds low-cost, online program yields significant results

Historian traces 19th-century murder case that brought together historical figures, helped shape American thinking on race, violence, incarceration

Bringing back a long extinct bird

Scientists sequence complete genome of bush moa, offering insights into its natural history, possible clues to evolution of flightless birds

Women who follow Mediterranean diet live longer

Large study shows benefits against cancer, cardiovascular mortality, also identifies likely biological drivers of better health

Harvard-led study IDs statin that may block pathway to some cancers

Cholesterol-lowering drug suppresses chronic inflammation that creates dangerous cascade

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

Suggested Results

Antes de cambiar....

Esta página no está disponible en español

¿Le gustaría continuar en la página de inicio de Brennan Center en español?

al Brennan Center en inglés

al Brennan Center en español

Informed citizens are our democracy’s best defense.

We respect your privacy .

• Analysis & Opinion

New Essay Collection from Columbia University Press Offers Latest and Best Thinking on Criminal Justice, and What Must Be Done 

New Essay Collection from Columbia University Press Offers Latest and Best Thinking on Criminal Justice, and What Must Be Done 

Edited by the Brennan Center’s Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Excessive Punishment is a reality check on crime and justice in 2024

• Changing Incentives
• Cutting Jail & Prison Populations
• Prison and Jail Reform
• Social & Economic Harm

Anti-mass incarceration efforts have succeeded in bringing reform without sacrificing public safety, but an overreliance on punitive responses have limited their impact, especially for people of color

Contributors include Paul Butler, Alexes Harris, Michael Mendoza, Nkechi Taifa, Bruce Western

Today Columbia University Press published Excessive Punishment: How the Justice System Creates Mass Incarceration . Lauren-Brooke Eisen , director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, solicited 38 essays from criminal justice scholars, practitioners, and advocates, as well as former law enforcement and people who have experienced incarceration. 

“The noise and disinformation about crime is hitting its usual election-year peak. This book cuts through all that,” says Eisen. “It shows that public safety, justice, and fairness are compatible goals that must be achieved together if they are to be achieved at all. The current dominant method— the blend of mass incarceration and perpetual punishment – has failed on all three counts: public safety, justice, and fairness.”

The contributors to the collection include Paul Butler , Jennifer Chacón , Khalil Cumberbatch , Alexes Harris , Michael Mendoza , Nkechi Taifa ,  Jeremy Travis, Bruce Western , and many others (complete list below). They delve into the unfinished work of the criminal justice reform movement. Why does so much of the criminal justice system remain locked on overincarceration? How do factors like structural racism and economic incentives work against commonsense reforms?   A sampling:

• “ Race, Mass Incarceration, and the Disastrous War on Drugs ” by Nkechi Taifa, civil rights attorney
• “ Monetary Sanctions as a Pound of Flesh ” by Alexes Harris, University of Washington
• “ Providing Hope and Freedom to Overpunished People: Where Both Seem Impossible to Achieve ” by David Singleton, University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law
• “ Addressing Violent Crime More Effectively ” by David Alan Sklansky, Stanford Law School
• “ The Inhumanity of Solitary Confinement ” by Christopher Blackwell, who is incarcerated at the Washington Corrections Center in Washington state

The book has earned advance praise for its depth, scope, and solutions from U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner (ret.), Judith Resnik (Yale), Emily Bazelon ( The New York Times Magazine ), James Cadogan (National Basketball Social Justice Coalition), and more. (Their comments are below.) 

On Wednesday, April 3 , at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, the Brennan Center along with the Commonwealth Club of California and The Last Mile will host a panel at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (live-streamed as well) to discuss the themes and questions raised by Excessive Punishment . Eisen will be joined by fellow contributor Michael Mendoza, along with retired Superior Court of Northern California Judge LaDoris Cordell , Kevin McCracken of The Last Mile, and Ken Oliver of the Checkr Foundation. To RSVP for an in-person spot or for the live stream, please email John Zipperer at the Commonwealth Club. 

On Wednesday, April 17 , at 3 p.m. ET, the Brennan Center will also host a live, virtual event. Eisen will moderate a conversation with fellow contributors Jeremy Travis of the Columbia Justice Lab , Khalil Cumberbatch of the Council on Criminal Justice, and Nkechi Taifa , a civil rights attorney. RSVP here . Excessive Punishment will be the subject of other upcoming events. Please email Derek Rosenfeld to find out more.

In addition to leading the criminal justice work at the Brennan Center, Eisen is a former prosecutor and the author of Inside Private Prisons (Columbia, 2017).

Advance Praise for Excessive Punishment

“This book weaves a path toward reform of the fragmented system of criminal punishment in the United States, which produces too many harms and too little safety for anyone. Essays brilliantly distill the histories of control and racism, and they map how to reorient interactions on streets, in prisons, and after release to recognize the political voice and social worth of all members of the country.” –   Judith Resnik, Arthur Liman Professor of Law, Yale Law School

“This book breaks through the tropes about what it takes for our criminal legal system to ensure public safety; it smashes the generalizations that have fueled our failed experiment in mass incarceration for the past several decades. And it does so with experts of all kinds—scholars, activists, practitioners—who chronicle how our system went off the rails and, more important, how to fix it.” –  U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner (ret.)

“This book brings together an amazing array of contributors to outline the biggest problems with American conceptions and implementation of punishment—and also to propose solutions.” –  Emily Bazelon , author of Charged: The New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration and staff writer, The New York Times Magazine

“In 2020, millions of Americans came together in an unprecedented call for a more just society. This collection of essays by some of the country’s foremost thinkers continues that work—helping us understand the history of our carceral system and offering a blueprint for how we can create safe, healthy, and thriving communities from coast to coast.” – James Cadogan , executive director, National Basketball Social Justice Coalition

“As someone who endured fourteen years within the confines of federal prison, I have witnessed the stark and often brutal realities of our criminal justice system. Excessive Punishment is a beacon of insight onto the cycle of mass incarceration that grips our nation.” – Louis L. Reed , activist and film producer

Contributors to Excessive Punishment

Related Issues:

• Cutting Jail & Prison Populations
• Social & Economic Harm

How Profit Shapes the Bail Bond System

The for-profit bail bond industry is an overlooked but significant factor in pushback against attempts to reform or end the cash bail system.

DeSantis’s Suspension of Orlando-Area Prosecutor Is Counterproductive Justice Policy

State Attorney Monique Worrell was elected running on evidence-based reforms.

America's Dystopian Incarceration System of Pay to Stay Behind Bars

To reduce unnecessary incarceration, focus on public safety and prison reduction, a new idea on justice reform, the federal government must incentivize states to incarcerate fewer people, criminal justice reform halfway through the biden administration, informed citizens are democracy’s best defense.

Diversity in Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies: Volume 27

Table of contents, introduction: diverse voices in the fields of criminology and criminal justice, part i: diversity in the profession, diversity in teaching and researching criminal law and criminology.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to examine the field of criminal justice and assess how diversity influences what is taught and, how research is conducted in the field.

Methodology/approach – This chapter looks at the historical exclusion of feminist and integrative theories on crime and criminal justice. A socio-legal analysis of how the increase in the number of women faculty and faculty of color has influenced teaching and research in the field of criminal justice .

Findings – As more women and persons of color become faculty and practitioners in the field of criminal justice, then more diverse perspectives will be promoted. It is not enough to change a discriminatory law or engage in affirmative action to hire more women and persons of color, it is important to understand how preconceived biases about women and non-white persons impact who we define as criminal, how we educate students in the field, and how we respond to the needs of offenders and victims .

Originality/value – Research on diversity in the field of criminal justice has focused on historical discrimination. More research is needed on the impact that diversity has in research performed and what is being taught in the field of criminal justice.

Lurking with/in Mainstream Criminologies as a Queer Criminologist: Learnings and Reflections

Purpose – This chapter ruminates on a range of different ways that the author experiences being what the author calls a “lurker” in mainstream criminologies as a queer criminologist.

Methodology/approach – Drawing on the work of Jack Halberstam, Michel Foucault, Heather Love, Sarah Ahmed, and other queer theorists, the author explores their positionality as a lurker in mainstream criminologies, and policing particular, to better understand how “[d]isciplines qualify and disqualify, legitimate and delegitimate, reward and punish” (Halberstam, 2011, p. 10), and how leaders of these disciplines make calculated decisions about who qualifies as legitimate scholars of policing knowing .

Findings – The discussion steps through some significant moments of discomfort that have emerged in lurking around with/in these disciplines, and in doing the work of queer research with queer people about queer policing .

Originality/value – The author finishes by sharing strategies and learnings that have emerged out of these research and disciplinary contexts. The author suggests that it is most valuable to continue to lurk so their position of discomfort and potential failure persists as a more productive positionality than conforming with the mainstream .

Anti-Blackness, Criminology and the University as Violence Work: Diversity as Ritual and the Professionalization of Repression in Canada

Purpose: To critically explore the implications of the August 2020, decision by Carleton University’s Institute for Criminology and Criminal Justice (ICCJ) to end to its intern program with the Ottawa police, the RCMP, Correctional Services Canada and Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre starting in Fall 2021 .

Findings: In contrast to the negative reaction of Kevin Haggerty to this decision, the authors offer a strong but qualified endorsement of the ICCJ’s move to put an end to its internship with coercive institutions. The ICCJ strategically mobilized discourses of anti-Blackness and inclusion in response to the murder of George Floyd and the individual and communitarian traumas of Black, First Nations and Metis and students colour in its program. The ICCJ did not, however, substantively engage with the ways that criminology, sociology and the university are complicit through the legitimation practices and processes of ideology, professionalization and research in the ‘violence work’ of the state. The critique, ethics and logical conclusion of abolitionism are obfuscated.

Methodology/Approach: The authors explicitly draw on the Black Radical Tradition, Neo-Marxism and radical neo-Weberianism to sketch research possibilities that resist the university as a space of violence work, both in criminology and in the professionalization of policing.

Originality/Value: The debate between the ICCJ and Kevin Haggerty is an important opportunity to critically analyze the limits of critical criminology and lacunae of a debate about abolitionism, anti-criminology and university-state nexus as a site for the production of ideological and hardware violence work. Grounded in the Black Radical Tradition, neo-Marxism and radical neo-Weberianism, the authors sketch a framework for a research agenda toward the abolition of criminology .

Black on Blue, Will Not Do: Navigating Canada’s Evidence Based Policing Community as a Black Academic – A Personal Counter-story

Purpose – This chapter explores how select “evidence-based” police scholars act as gatekeepers to research opportunities, in Canada, thus impeding critical research that pertains to Black communities.

Methodology/Approach – Using the critical race method of counter-storytelling, the following narrative demonstrates how race and racism may play a role in the collection and dissemination of research that examines racial bias in Canadian policing. This methodology aims to refute the notion of critical objectivity, which is often used to promote the principles of evidence-based policing (EBP) .

Findings – Findings suggest that through various powers and levels within both the policing and academic community, a select number of scholars have influence over Canadian policing research that explores racial bias and discrimination. As such, research that may help to develop effective and efficient policing programs to address racial bias, is thwarted .

Originality – No Canadian study explores anti-racist training programs or evaluates their effectiveness. This chapter demonstrates that this may be the result of gatekeeping. The following chapter provides insight into how this is done within EBP circles .

Part II: Decolonizing Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies

Power and place: mapping indigenous grassroots organizing and mobilizing for the mmiwg2s+ people.

Purpose – Having concluded that the long-term and ongoing murders and disappearances of Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA (MMIWG2S+) people is genocide, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (NIMMIWG) (2019) made 231 Calls for Justice in relation to culture, health, security, and criminal justice to broadly address the ongoing colonial dispossession and systemic, racialized, and gendered violence against MMIWG2S+ people. In response to these Calls for Justice, this article traces Indigenous grassroots initiatives to show the many ways that justice can be broadly conceived and mobilized to address the murders and disappearances.

Methodology/Approach – Drawing on the Unearthing Justices Resource Collection of 500+ Indigenous grassroots initiatives for the MMIWG2S+ people, this work theorizes a spatial approach to justice using mapping methodologies .

Findings – Not only have Indigenous families and communities been calling for justice, but they have also been cultivating justice across the land by building constellations of resource and support. The author traces the land-based activities specific to community patrols, land-based commemorations, search support, and walks and journeys to show the vast resources, skills, and strengths that already exist in Indigenous communities and how justice can be conceptualized within its local and spatial arrangements, and beyond the imaginaries of a criminal justice system .

Originality/Value – Where the ongoing colonial dispossession and systemic, racialized, and gendered violence against MMIWG2S+ people is well documented, there has been less consideration of how Indigenous families and communities have navigated a terrain where justice continues to be absent,elusive, or invasive .

The Canadian Residential Schools and Indigenous Human Rights

Purpose – To assess the potential significance of the gravesites of Canadian residential schools to criminology.

Methodology/Approach – The current state of criminological theory with respect to crimes against humanity committed by the state is assessed, particularly with reference to any insights it may offer on the gravesites .

Findings – Denunciation of crimes against humanity is the one facet of successful prosecutions that would have value for residential school survivors. The current state of criminological theory for crimes by the state against humanity is inadequate for analyzing how and why those crimes are committed by democratic countries. The capacity of prosecutions by themselves to address the underlying social problems that fuel human rights abuses is limited. There is a need to explore how multi-faceted resolutions can both provide accountability for crimes against humanity and pursue long-standing solutions against further human rights abuses .

Originality/Value – Gaps in criminology with respect to analyzing crimes against humanity committed by the state that are in need of further exploration and study are identified. There is a need to develop methodologies for analyzing crimes against humanity committed by democracies. Further study would have significance not only for Indigenous peoples, but also more broadly for racial minorities who are victimized in democracies. Denunciation of crimes against humanity is the only realistic benefit of prosecution. There is therefore a need to explore multi-faceted and enduring resolutions that are not limited to punishment .

The Intersection of Race and Gender in Human Trafficking Vulnerability and Criminalization

Purpose – This chapter examines the relationship between intersections of race and gender for vulnerability for human trafficking and criminalization of exploitation in the United States that is rooted in the broader socio-historical contexts dating to colonization and chattel enslavement.

Methodology/approach – This chapter utilizes intersectional criminology and historical intersectional criminology as epistemological frameworks to contextualize the construction of race and gender that began with colonization of indigenous populations to chattel enslavement of Africans and their descendants. Overall, this chapter’s approach is a call for contextualization within the study of human trafficking and an intersectional approach to understanding the structures that enable trafficking and the ramifications it has for victims .

Findings – Through an application of intersectional criminology, the findings herein demonstrate how racial ideologies and legacies within the United States contributed to the vulnerabilities of race and gender for sex trafficking predation as well as criminalization for Black and Native American girls and women. The gendered analysis of men and women who chose to become sex traffickers reveal different gendered pathways into trafficking offending and addresses the significance of these pathways for trafficking victims and potential future traffickers. These analyses demonstrate that intersectional criminology problematizes current research on human trafficking and future directions research should incorporate .

Originality/value – Current criminological research has a scarcity of intersectional criminological applications and fewer that offer a critical analysis of structural inequalities, histories of colonization and chattel enslavement, and interrogation of identities in both vulnerabilities for trafficking victims, how they may interact with agents from the criminal justice system, and the impacts of intersecting identities for traffickers and their offending. If criminology scholars aim to use their research in anti-trafficking efforts and policy recommendations, these analyses are vital both for addressing victimization and offending pathways for exploitation victims and their exploiters .

Part III: Axes of Inclusion and Exclusion

The nature and necessity of intersectionality to feminist criminological work on intimate partner violence.

Purpose – This chapter explores the nature of feminist research and its contributions to criminology, with a specific focus on intersectionality and intimate partner violence (IPV) research.

Methodology/approach – Feminism, feminist criminology, and intersectionality are used to consider approaches to research and criminological knowledge-production broadly, and IPV research specifically .

Findings – An analysis of feminism and feminist criminology in early movement and contemporary contexts demonstrates the necessity of intersectionality to feminist praxis. Feminist criminology, as a reflexive and evolving field, maintains a commitment to progressive social change and addressing inequality. In the context of IPV, this commitment tasks feminist criminology with examining the consequences of historical, carceral feminist approaches related to the over-policing and criminalization of racialized, Indigenous, and immigrant communities. In working to prevent IPV, feminist criminology should prioritize interdisciplinary work and engage broader social movements, recognizing the interconnectedness of gender justice with racial, economic, and health justice .

Originality/value – Through a consideration of feminist approaches to research and the importance of intersectionality to IPV research specifically, this analysis links broader feminist research principles and intersectional understandings with contemporary anti-carceral movements and interdisciplinary, public health-driven understandings surrounding IPV .

Personal Troubles are Public Issues: End Mass Incarceration

Purpose – This chapter provides an overview of the importance of seeing personal troubles as public issues when examining the mass incarceration of people of color, specifically Black Americans in the United States. A response to the mass incarceration of Black Americans unrooted in a sociological understanding may lead to victim-blaming. This chapter demonstrates how personal problems are often intertwined with public issues. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the importance of shifting blame away from the victim and appropriately addressing systemic challenges.

Methodology/approach – This chapter applies sociological theories to examine high rates of incarceration of people of color that get attributed to personal problems. The authors based the analysis on previous research and governmental reports.

Findings – Sociological theory can offer new solutions to transforming the criminal justice system to alleviate injustices in communities of color. The criminal justice system has negative consequences, but resistance to accepting new ideas perpetuates inequality and limits opportunity for social change. The authors recognize that policy changes must occur at the institutional and structural levels to expose social injustice.

Originality/value – A dearth of research examines the approach of framing personal troubles as public issues to reduce mass incarceration. The authors intend to expand the discourse on how personal troubles intersect with public issues and how the authors must examine mass incarceration as the typical response.

Prenatal Testing, Down Syndrome, and Selective Termination: A (Critical) Criminology of Genocide?

Purpose – This chapter examines the relationship between prenatal testing, Down syndrome identification, and selective termination practices, and it does so by considering whether the selective termination of fetuses with Down syndrome might constitute genocidal practices.

Methodology/approach – Exploratory and speculative in nature, this chapter brings the phenomenon of prenatal testing and selective termination practices together, and explores whether the increasingly widespread termination of fetuses with Down syndrome fits within definitions of genocide.

Findings – Addressing perceptions of Down syndrome and disability, and integrating aspects of crip politics and definitions of genocide, this chapter concludes that the phenomenon of selective termination involving fetuses with Down syndrome can constitute genocide when particular definitions and interpretations are adopted.

Originality/value – This chapter is perhaps the first academic text to critically evaluate the relationship between prenatal testing, selective termination of fetuses with Down syndrome, and criminological genocide scholarship. Importantly, it does not evaluate individual decision-making practices regarding termination, but instead focuses on collective practices and conditions that work to minimize the number of people with Down syndrome in society.

Blurred Consent and Redistributed Privacy: Owning LGBTQ Identity in Surveillance Capitalism

Purpose – This chapter considers the economic and political relationship between artificial intelligence tools such as facial recognition software and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) identity construction and identification. In doing so, the chapter considers the threats and opportunities to diverse LGBTQ identities from algorithmic governance.

Methodology/approach – The author analyzes public discourse on these issues and its relationship to agency for LGBTQ communities. The conceptual approach integrates research into surveillance capitalism and neuroliberalism with “digiqueer” criminology to map the relationship between digital media technologies, institutional legitimacy and negotiations for LGBTQ rights, recognition and resources.

Findings – The discussion shows that the surveillance capitalist principles of blurred consent and redistributed privacy are underpinned by geopolitical and technological forces that have undermined the legitimacy of governments and big tech companies. LGBTQ community resistance to harms perpetrated through digital media platforms is one positive consequence of the ambiguities of surveillance capitalism, but which also reflects the investment required by such communities to secure basic protections that the general population might take for granted.

Originality/value – Research into the relationship between recognition and redistribution through access to rights granted to different social groups on the basis of sexuality, sexual expression and identity is under-interrogated. This chapter responds to that gap with a focus on the role that digital media technologies can play in securing recognition and redistribution of resources for LGBTQ communities, or the significance of their absence and/or diminution in current contexts.

• Derek M. D. Silva
• Mathieu Deflem

We’re listening — tell us what you think

Something didn’t work….

Report bugs here

All feedback is valuable

Please share your general feedback

Join us on our journey

Platform update page.

Visit emeraldpublishing.com/platformupdate to discover the latest news and updates

Questions & More Information

Answers to the most commonly asked questions here

The University of Chicago The Law School

College essays and diversity in the post-affirmative action era, sonja starr’s latest research adds data, legal analysis to discussion about race in college admissions essays.

Editor’s Note: This story is part of an occasional series on research projects currently in the works at the Law School.

The Supreme Court’s decision in June 2023 to bar the use of affirmative action in college admissions raised many questions. One of the most significant is whether universities should consider applicants’ discussion of race in essays. The Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. Harvard did not require entirely race-blind admissions. Rather, the Court explicitly stated that admissions offices may weigh what students say about how race affected their lives. Yet the Court also warned that this practice may not be used to circumvent the bar on affirmative action.

Many university leaders made statements after SFFA suggesting that they take this passage seriously, and that it potentially points to a strategy for preserving diversity. But it’s not obvious how lower courts will distinguish between consideration of “race-related experience” and consideration of “race qua race.” Sonja Starr, Julius Kreeger Professor of Law & Criminology at the Law School, was intrigued by the implication of that question, calling the key passage of the Court’s opinion the “essay carveout.”

“Where is the line?” she wrote in a forthcoming article, the first of its kind to discuss this issue in depth in the post- SFFA era. “And what other potential legal pitfalls could universities encounter in evaluating essays about race?”

To inform her paper’s legal analysis, Starr conducted empirical analyses of how universities and students have included race in essays, both before and after the Court’s decision. She concluded that large numbers of applicants wrote about race, and that college essay prompts encouraged them to do so, even before SFFA .

Some thought the essay carveout made no sense. Justice Sonia Sotomayor called it “an attempt to put lipstick on a pig” in her dissent. Starr, however, disagrees. She argues that universities are on sound legal footing relying on the essay carveout, so long as they consider race-related experience in an individualized way. In her article, Starr points out reasons the essay carveout makes sense in the context of the Court’s other arguments. However, she points to the potential for future challenges—on both equal protection and First Amendment grounds—and discusses how colleges can survive them.

What the Empirical Research Showed

After SFFA , media outlets suggested that universities would add questions about race or identity in their admissions essays and that students would increasingly focus on that topic. Starr decided to investigate this speculation. She commissioned a professional survey group to recruit a nationally representative sample of recent college applicants. The firm queried 881 people about their essay content, about half of whom applied in 2022-23, before SFFA , and half of whom submitted in 2023-24.

The survey found that more than 60 percent of students in non-white groups wrote about race in at least some of their essays, as did about half of white applicants. But contrary to what the media suggested, there were no substantial changes between the pre-and post- SFFA application cycles.

Starr also reviewed essay prompts that 65 top schools have used over the last four years. She found that diversity and identity questions—as well as questions about overcoming adversity, which, for example, provide opportunities for students to discuss discrimination that they have faced—are common and have increased in frequency both before and after SFFA.

A Personally Inspired Interest

Although Starr has long written about equal protection issues, until about two years ago, she would have characterized educational admissions as a bit outside her wheelhouse. Her research has mostly focused on the criminal justice system, though race is often at the heart of it. In the past, for example, she has assessed the role of race in sentencing, the constitutionality of algorithmic risk assessment instruments in criminal justice, as well as policies to expand employment options for people with criminal records.

But a legal battle around admissions policies at Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology—the high school that Starr attended—caught her attention. Starr followed the case closely and predicted that “litigation may soon be an ever-present threat for race-conscious policymaking” in a 2024 Stanford Law Review article on that and other magnet school cases.

“I got really interested in that case partly because of the personal connection,” she said. “But I ended up writing about it as an academic matter, and that got me entrenched in this world of educational admissions questions and their related implications for other areas of equal protection law.”

Implications in Education and Beyond

Starr’s forthcoming paper argues that the essay carveout provides a way for colleges to maintain diversity and stay on the right side of the Court’s decision.

“I believe there’s quite a bit of space that’s open for colleges to pursue in this area without crossing that line,” she said. “I lay out the arguments that colleges can put forth.”

Nevertheless, Starr expects future litigation targeting the essay carveout.

“I think we could see cases filed as soon as this year when the admissions numbers come out,” she said, pointing out that conservative legal organizations, such as the Pacific Legal Foundation, have warned that they’re going to be keeping a close eye on admissions numbers and looking for ways that schools are circumventing SFFA .

Starr envisions her paper being used as a resource for schools that want to obey the law while also maintaining diversity. “The preservation of diversity is not a red flag that something unconstitutional is happening,” she said. “There are lots of perfectly permissible ways that we can expect diversity to be maintained in this post- affirmative action era.”

Starr’s article, “Admissions Essays after SFFA ,” is slated to be published in Indiana Law Journal in early 2025.

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

• Cultural Issues and the 2024 Election

7. Crime, policing and the 2024 election

Table of contents.

• Voters’ views about race and society, the impact of the legacy of slavery
• Most voters, but not all, view the nation’s diversity as a strength
• How should the country handle undocumented immigrants currently in the U.S.?
• Attitudes toward hearing other languages in public places
• Biden and Trump supporters’ views about discussing America’s historical successes, failures
• How does the U.S. compare with other countries?
• Views of women’s progress
• How much of a priority should marriage and children be?
• Abortion, IVF access and birth control
• Views of gender identity
• Voters’ attitudes toward use of gender-neutral pronouns
• Societal impact of more social acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual people
• Religion and government policy
• How much influence should the Bible have on the nation’s laws, if any?
• Views on the federal government’s role in promoting Christian values
• Most voters say it is not necessary to believe in God to be moral
• Is the justice system too tough on criminals, or not tough enough?
• Policing and law enforcement
• How Trump, Biden supporters view gun rights and ownership
• Views on the increasing number of guns in the U.S.
• Acknowledgments
• The American Trends Panel survey methodology

Republicans and Democrats have long diverged on the topics of how much of a problem crime is in the country and how to approach policing and the criminal justice system.

Those differences are reflected in the current survey in how supporters of the two major party candidates for president view the treatment of criminals by the American justice system and in law enforcement priorities.

Even as there have long been substantial partisan differences in evaluations of how police around the country perform aspects of their job , there is some common ground between Biden and Trump supporters when it comes to what people think law enforcement priorities are.

A majority of registered voters (61%) say that the criminal justice system in the United States is not tough enough on criminals, while 25% say the system treats criminals about right and 13% say it is too tough.

Trump supporters overwhelmingly say the system is not tough enough (81%).

Biden supporters are more divided: 40% say the criminal justice system is not tough enough on criminals, while about as many – 36% – say it’s about right in its treatment of criminals. And 21% say this system is too tough on criminals.

Perceptions of the fairness of the criminal justice system differ by age, race and ethnicity

Across demographic groups, Biden supporters are less likely than Trump supporters to say that the justice system is not tough enough on criminals. But within both coalitions of support, there are demographic differences in these views.

Race and ethnicity

While majorities of both White and Hispanic Trump supporters say the justice system is not tough enough on criminals, White Trump supporters are especially likely to say this: 85% hold this view, compared with 63% of Hispanic Trump supporters.

About half of Hispanic and Asian Biden backers say the criminal justice system is not tough enough. Somewhat smaller shares – around four-in-ten (38%) – of White and Black Biden supporters say this.

Overall, older voters are more likely than younger voters to say the criminal justice system isn’t tough enough on criminals. And that pattern is seen in both coalitions:

• 87% of Trump supporters ages 50 and older say this, compared with 72% of those under 50.
• 48% of Biden supporters 50 and older say this, compared with 30% of those under 50.

Among Biden voters, there are differences on this question across educational groups: Biden supporters with more formal education are less likely than others to see the criminal justice system as not tough enough.

• About a third of Biden voters with bachelor’s degrees or more education (32%) say this. Among those without bachelor’s degrees, nearly half (47%) hold this view.

Among Trump voters, roughly eight-in-ten of those with (84%) and without (80%) college degrees say the system is not tough enough on criminals.

Over nine-in-ten voters view “keeping communities safe” and “treating people of all racial and ethnic groups equally” as extremely or very important to the job for policing and law enforcement in the country.

Smaller, though still wide, majorities say maintaining public respect for police officers (78%) and protecting the rights of people suspected of crimes (65%) are at least very important.

Far smaller shares view any of these as of less importance. Still, a quarter of voters (25%) say that protecting the right of suspected criminals is somewhat important. And about one-in-ten voters (9%) say that protecting the rights of suspects is not too or not at all important.

Biden and Trump supporters aligned on some areas of importance for law enforcement, diverge somewhat on others

Both Biden and Trump supporters overwhelmingly say keeping communities safe is extremely or very important for law enforcement, as is treating all racial and ethnic groups equally.

Majorities in both groups also place importance on maintaining public respect for police officers, and on protecting the rights of people accused of crimes.

But there are also substantial differences in the extent to which supporters of each of the candidates prioritize these law enforcement concerns.

• Trump supporters place greater importance than Biden supporters on maintaining public respect for the police: 88% of Trump supporters say this is at least very important, including 63% who say it is extremely important. By comparison, 69% of Biden supporters see this as at least very important (38% say it’s extremely important).
• In contrast, Biden supporters are more likely than Trump supporters to place importance on protecting the rights of people suspected of crimes: 72% of Biden backers say this is extremely or very important. A narrower majority of Trump supporters (58%) say this.

Even on the two domains where about nine-in-ten or more in both groups place a great deal of importance – public safety and treating racial and ethnic groups equally – there are gaps between the two coalitions:

• 80% of Trump supporters say keeping communities safe is extremely important, as do 68% of Biden supporters.
• 77% of Biden backers say treating people of all racial and ethnic groups equally is extremely important, as do 60% of Trump backers.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivery Saturday mornings

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

• Criminal Justice
• Discrimination & Prejudice
• Donald Trump
• Election 2024
• Gender Equality & Discrimination
• Gender Identity
• Immigration & Language Adoption
• LGBTQ Attitudes & Experiences
• Marriage & Divorce
• Partisanship & Issues
• Political Issues
• Racial Bias & Discrimination
• Religion & Government
• Religion & Politics
• Unauthorized Immigration

More than half of Americans are following election news closely, and many are already worn out

Americans have mixed views about how the news media cover biden’s, trump’s ages, an early look at black voters’ views on biden, trump and election 2024, voters’ views of trump and biden differ sharply by religion, in tight presidential race, voters are broadly critical of both biden and trump, most popular, report materials.

1615 L St. NW, Suite 800 Washington, DC 20036 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of  The Pew Charitable Trusts .

© 2024 Pew Research Center

Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Modern society is becoming increasingly diverse, and, as rightfully stated by Haberfeld (2016), “law enforcement personnel are supposed to epitomize tolerance” (p. 307). As a result, diversity training has naturally become a part of the modern socialization process at a criminal justice workplace (Stojkovic et al., 2011). Moreover, it is a part of the organizational culture management since diversity within organizations is naturally increasing as well.

For example, Stojkovic et al. (2011) point out that even if an organization lacks diversity due to its small size and existence in a homogenous culture, it is likely to experience an influx of female employees in the previously male-dominated environment (p. 254). Administrators are expected to control the organizational culture and respond to the development of the environment by facilitating organizational change, and one of the tools that can help to achieve this aim is diversity training. The key aim of such training consists in the increased diversity awareness; the expected outcome is the lack of discrimination, harassment, and the promotion of a positive, inclusive environment at the workplace.

For example, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (2010) believes that diversity can be transformed into an advantage and seeks to empower its employees with the help of an inclusive and positive environment. As a result, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Human Resources Division (2015) has introduced a four-hour diversity training course that is “designed to increase awareness and understanding of the differences in our workplace, leading to positive communication and inclusion, and embracing respect and equality for all agency employees” (p. 3).

Similarly, in 2015, the Phoenix police introduced an eight-hour training that was aimed primarily at the improvement of ethnic and cultural diversity awareness and communication skills enhancement (Rummel, 2015). It appears to be more extensive and focused than that of the Texas Department, but the lack of reports on the results of these programs makes it difficult to compare them.

Diversity training is supposed to aid criminal justice administrators in the protection of the rights of their employees. In particular, it helps to educate employees on discrimination-related issues, which is a preventive measure concerning harassment and discrimination. As a result, diversity training is supposed to enable the diverse population of the criminal justice employees to coexist and create a respectful, dignified attitude towards each other and the community (Haberfeld, 2016).

Indeed, although Stojkovic et al. (2011) primarily consider diversity training from the point of view of the impact that it has on the inter-organizational relationships, it is also of great importance for the duties of the criminal justice workers, as they are bound to interact with the diverse community that they serve. As pointed out by Haberfeld (2016), increased diversity competence is a crucial skill for criminal justice workers as it facilitates communication and potentially can reduce misconduct.

Also, the improved communication is likely to enhance the relationships between the organization and the community, and greater diversity competence can help the employees to maintain the reputation of their organization and criminal justice in general. Thus, diversity training programs assist criminal justice organizations in protecting their employees and complying with the law in more ways than one.

It is noteworthy that diversity training can be ineffective, which is why in this paper, the expected outcomes are considered. Admittedly, diversity training is challenging, and it does not always achieve its aims; in fact, Haberfeld (2016) insists that many of the modern programs resemble token activities that have been introduced for the sake of introducing. As a result, they may remain ineffective and unimproved, and the attitude of the employees who are expected to undergo this training is negatively affected by these factors.

In particular, it may be suggested that four- or eight-hour training seems dissatisfactory, even though it should be pointed out that the time, which is allocated to a program, is of secondary importance. However, it is also noteworthy that training is only one of the tools that are aimed at the creation of an inclusive environment, employee rights protection, and effective criminal law application (Stojkovic et al., 2011). The varied tools are expected to be used in a system to achieve noticeable results and improve the effectiveness of modern criminal justice diversity management.

Haberfeld, M. (2016). The triangle of recruitment, selection, and training in 21st century policing. In M. Deflem (Ed.), The Politics of Policing: Between Force and Legitimacy (pp. 295–313). Bradford, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Rummel, C. (2015). Phoenix Police Department to start new diversity training. KTAR-News . Web.

Stojkovic, S., Kalinich, D., & Klofas, J. (2011). Criminal justice organizations (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice Human Resources Division. (2015). Training Course Catalog. Web.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice. (2010). PD-10 (rev. 3), “Workforce Diversity”. Web.

• Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
• Course Request: Sexual Harassment at the Workplace
• Sexual Harassment in Workplace
• Islamic Jurisprudence: Questions on Maslahah Mursalah
• Lawyer Profession and Its Prospects
• Women Working in the Criminal Justice System
• Mock Trial Experience at Brooklyn Federal Court
• Legal Deregulation for Client Confidence and Quality
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, April 8). Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees. https://ivypanda.com/essays/diversity-training-for-criminal-justice-employees/

"Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees." IvyPanda , 8 Apr. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/diversity-training-for-criminal-justice-employees/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees'. 8 April.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees." April 8, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/diversity-training-for-criminal-justice-employees/.

1. IvyPanda . "Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees." April 8, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/diversity-training-for-criminal-justice-employees/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Diversity Training for Criminal Justice Employees." April 8, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/diversity-training-for-criminal-justice-employees/.

CU-Lock Haven Criminal Justice Club hosts presentations

Posted: Jun. 6, 2024

This spring, the Criminal Justice Club at Commonwealth University-Lock Haven organized a series of informative sessions featuring five special guests on campus. The presentations provided students with valuable insights into various career opportunities within the criminal justice field. 

Jared Fencil, assistant regional manager of PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) Region 1, highlighted the numerous positions available with the department including park resource ranger, law enforcement ranger and park manager. He also mentioned the proximity of Bald Eagle State Park, one of the largest state parks in Pennsylvania. 

Pennsylvania State Police recruiter, Trooper Clinton, engaged with students throughout the day of his visit and led a physical fitness activity on the nearby dike. 

Lt. Kurt Cortazzo from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections discussed the shift towards rehabilitation in correctional facilities and the diverse job prospects in the sector. 

Mike Grassmyer, executive director of Abraxas South Mountain, provided insights into juvenile justice and rehabilitation, inviting students to explore these avenues further through facility tours. 

U.S Border Patrol interior recruiting team supervisor, Fataou Morou, presented the unique roles within the Border Patrol, including positions requiring work with horses and K-9 units. 

Feedback from students was overwhelmingly positive. Junior Hunner Lindsey, of Beech Creek, expressed that the presentations broadened his perspective on the criminal justice system, while Tiffany Brugard, president of the Criminal Justice club, praised the quality and engagement of the speakers. 

“Looking ahead, the Criminal Justice Club aims to continue this initiative, planning to offer more presentations in future semesters to further enrich the educational experience of Commonwealth University students,” said Lock Haven native, Ashton Peters, club vice president.

The club is advised by Drs. Edward Bowman and Michael McSkimming.

Categories:

• Criminal Justice
• Presentation

You May Also Like

CU-Mansfield faculty member publishes article, presents 2 papers

Dr. Justin N. Crowl, associate professor of criminal justice at Commonwealth University-Mansfield and assistant chair of the Department of Anthropology, Criminal Justice and Sociology, published the...

CU-Lock Haven brings prominent artist to campus

Commonwealth University-Lock Haven art and design faculty member, Jason Bronner, invited prominent artist, Mark Schultz, to campus to speak with art students about his experience and professional...

Lock Haven Alumna Serves as Presenter During Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training Series and Women's Empowerment Dinner

Commonwealth University (CU) recently welcomed back 1998 Lock Haven University alumna LaToya Smith as part of CU's third annual Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training series. Smith, the...

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Why we support ICC prosecutions for crimes in Israel and Gaza 

• Why we support ICC prosecutions for crimes in Israel and Gaza  on x (opens in a new window)
• Why we support ICC prosecutions for crimes in Israel and Gaza  on facebook (opens in a new window)
• Why we support ICC prosecutions for crimes in Israel and Gaza  on linkedin (opens in a new window)
• Why we support ICC prosecutions for crimes in Israel and Gaza  on whatsapp (opens in a new window)

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The attacks by Hamas in Israel on October 7 and the military response by Israeli forces in Gaza have tested the system of international law to its limits. This is why, as international lawyers, we felt compelled to assist when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, asked us to advise whether there was sufficient evidence to lay charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Today, the prosecutor has taken a historic step to ensure justice for the victims in Israel and Palestine by issuing applications for five arrest warrants alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity by senior Hamas and Israeli leaders. These include applications for a warrant of arrest against the political and military commanders of Hamas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

For months, we have engaged in an extensive process of review and analysis. We have carefully examined each of the applications for arrest warrants, as well as underlying material produced by the prosecution team in support of the applications. This has included witness statements, expert evidence, official communications, videos and photographs. In our legal report published today , we unanimously agree that the prosecutor’s work was rigorous, fair and grounded in the law and the facts. And we unanimously agree that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the suspects he identifies have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity within the jurisdiction of the ICC.

It is not unusual for the prosecutor to invite external experts to participate in an evidence-review, under appropriate confidentiality arrangements, during the course of an investigation or trial. And this is not the first time an international prosecutor has formed a Panel of Experts to advise on potential charges related to a conflict. But this conflict is perhaps unprecedented in the extent to which it has given rise to misunderstandings about the ICC’s role and jurisdiction, a particularly fractured discourse and, in some contexts, even antisemitism and Islamophobia. 

It is against this backdrop that, as lawyers specialised in international law hailing from diverse personal backgrounds, we felt we had a duty to accept the invitation to provide an impartial and independent legal opinion based on evidence. We were selected because of our expertise in public international law, international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law, and, in the case of two of us, experience as former judges of international criminal tribunals. Our common goal is advancing accountability and we have reached our conclusions based on an assessment of the warrant applications against an objective legal standard. We have reached these conclusions unanimously. And we believe it is important to publish them given the extent to which discourse has been politicised, disinformation has been rife and international media has been denied access to the front lines.

The Panel unanimously agrees with the prosecutor’s conclusion that there are reasonable grounds to believe that three of Hamas’s most senior leaders — Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh — have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity for the killing of hundreds of civilians, the taking of at least 245 hostages and acts of sexual violence committed against Israeli hostages. The Panel also unanimously agrees that the evidence presented by the prosecutor provides reasonable grounds to believe that Netanyahu and Israel’s minister of defence Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. This includes the war crime of intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the murder and persecution of Palestinians as crimes against humanity. Our reasons for reaching these conclusions are set out in our legal report.

It is important to understand that the charges have nothing to do with the reasons for the conflict. The charges concern waging war in a manner that violates the long-established rules of international law that apply to armed groups and the armed forces in every state in the world. And, of course, the warrant applications announced today are just the first step. We hope that the prosecutor will continue to conduct focused investigations including in relation to the extensive harm suffered by civilians as a result of the bombing campaign in Gaza and evidence of sexual violence committed against Israelis on October 7. 

There is no doubt that the step taken today by the prosecutor is a milestone in the history of international criminal law. There is no conflict that should be excluded from the reach of the law; no child’s life valued less than another’s. The law we apply is humanity’s law, not the law of any given side. It must protect all the victims of this conflict; and all civilians in conflicts to come.

The judges of the ICC will ultimately determine which warrants, if any, should be issued. And as investigations continue, we hope that state authorities, witnesses and survivors will engage with the judicial process. Ultimately, we hope that this process will contribute to increased protections for civilians and sustainable peace in a region that has already endured too much.

Lord Justice Fulford , retired lord justice of appeal, former vice-president of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and former judge at the International Criminal Court

Judge Theodor Meron CMG , visiting professor at the University of Oxford, honorary fellow, Trinity College, and former judge and former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

Amal Clooney , barrister, adjunct professor at Columbia Law School and co-founder of the Clooney Foundation for Justice 

Danny Friedman KC , barrister, expert in criminal law, international law and human rights

Baroness Helena Kennedy LT KC , barrister, member of the House of Lords and director of the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute

Elizabeth Wilmshurst CMG KC , former deputy legal adviser at the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office and distinguished fellow of international law at Chatham House

Promoted Content

Follow the topics in this article.

• Panel of Experts in International Law Add to myFT
• Law Add to myFT
• Israel-Hamas war Add to myFT
• International Criminal Court Add to myFT

Comments have not been enabled for this article.

International Edition

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

Hunter Biden Should Take a Plea Deal. Quickly.

By Sarah Isgur

Ms. Isgur is a senior editor at The Dispatch and the host of the legal podcast “Advisory Opinions.” She served in the Department of Justice from 2017-2019 as the director of the Office of Public Affairs and senior counsel to the deputy attorney general during the Russia investigation.

Hunter Biden faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted on three felony gun charges in a trial that is set to begin in Wilmington, Del., on Monday. In the meantime, his father is behind in many polls, his financial benefactor is reportedly “tapped out” and his best legal arguments require gutting federal gun control laws. An embarrassing trial that he is likely to lose will only make things worse.

An early plea agreement — in which he agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and enter into a deferred prosecution agreement on the gun charges — fell apart last summer. But a criminal defendant can accept a plea deal from the prosecution anytime before the jury returns its verdict, which means that he might still have a chance to avoid a full trial.

If he can, he should.

To bring federal charges, the Department of Justice manual advises that a prosecutor should believe that the defendant is guilty, that the prosecutor believes he has evidence that will prove the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and that the prosecutor believes that a reasonable jury would convict the defendant. In practice, this means that once the Department of Justice has indicted you, they believe they will win. And they almost always do.

Over a 12-month period ending last fall, just 290 of the nearly 72,000 federal criminal defendants charged by the Justice Department were acquitted at trial. That’s less than one half of 1 percent. (Of course, only 1,379 were convicted at trial — a paltry 2 percent.) The vast majority facing a D.O.J. indictment decided either to plead guilty outright or accept a plea deal, believing that the prosecutors had correctly weighed their chances of winning in front of a jury before bringing the case in the first place.

Hunter Biden has argued that he was only charged because of his last name. And he has a point — there are far more gun crimes committed than can be handled by federal prosecutors. The main charge is that he had a gun while using cocaine, which is a rarely used part of the statute. But that’s usually because drug use is hard to prove compared to other gun charges, like being a felon with a gun. Here, though, prosecutors have noted that “investigators literally found drugs on the pouch where the defendant had kept his gun.” And when prosecutors do bring this charge, people who are found guilty are often sentenced to real prison time — over a year for someone in Hunter Biden’s shoes.

That would be enough of an incentive for most people to plead guilty to federal gun charges. Hunter Biden has even more.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Read The Diplomat , Know The Asia-Pacific

• Central Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Environment
• Asia Defense
• China Power
• Crossroads Asia

Flashpoints

• Pacific Money
• Tokyo Report
• Trans-Pacific View
• Photo Essays
• Write for Us
• Subscriptions

As International Justice Fails, Solidarity Must Prevail

Recent features.

Keeping Kyrgyz Journalism Afloat While the Island of Democracy Sinks

Corruption Issues Loom Large as Mongolia Prepares to Vote

Low Voter Turnout, Apathy Mar Bangladesh’s Local Elections

Decoding India’s Elections: How Modi’s Grip Loosened 

China’s Quest for New Heroes

Modi Wins a Third Term But the Opposition INDIA Bloc Cuts Incumbent BJP Down to Size 

In the New Cold War, Europe’s Approach to China Is Already Outdated

Banning the Bomb in Asia and the Pacific

Facing up to China’s Hybrid Warfare in the Pacific 

How Politics Holds Back Pakistan’s Economy

Papua New Guinea: All Geopolitics Is Local

‘The Fear Is Palpable’: Karachi’s Law and Order Problem

The debate  |  opinion.

From Gaza to Myanmar, the current constellations of geopolitics pose one of the most significant barriers to justice.

In this Oct. 29, 2013, file photo, soldiers of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) stand on guard in Laiza, a border town of China and Myanmar, Kachin State, Myanmar.

As grisly milestones mount globally, our collective humanity is collapsing under the weight of unaccountable atrocities. More than three million people have been displaced since Myanmar’s 2021 coup, while millions more Syrians face acute hardship, as aid is cut and war continues. Five years after a popular uprising ousted the dictator, Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is on the precipice of collapse . The struggles of these three much-lauded people’s revolutions lay bare the barriers to historical justice and contemporary emancipation. While Israel’s unrelenting violence in Gaza compounds this bleak reality, recent actions by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) have renewed considerations of accountability and justice. Although laudable against a baseline of impunity, we must prioritize supporting those on the frontlines against tyranny, amid the current crisis in global governance .

Challenging Oppression in the Search for Justice

The dynamics of popular resistance, violent suppression and justice are acutely intertwined in Myanmar . Military generals have routinely got away with brutalizing the population, their decades of post-independence tyrannical rule reaching a crescendo with the genocide against the Rohingya. International courts and sanctions have continually proven impotent in preventing or even reducing the military’s depravity. At the same time, colonially constructed borders are used as a veil for international neglect by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and others. The most recent coup, in February 2021, has provided yet another encore of systemic violence and repression, but the military regime faces unprecedented domestic opposition . As the revolution gains territory, the military has responded with indiscriminate military airstrikes that amount to war crimes. Despite these attacks, the resistance is unwavering .

Myanmar is not alone, as popular uprisings in Sudan, Syria, and elsewhere grind on against all odds and in the face of international apathy. ICC indictments failed to constrain al-Bashir, and it was widespread mobilization that ultimately dislodged him from power. International mechanisms have similarly proven futile for Bashar al-Assad’s atrocities in Syria, while global backing for the Syrian revolution has withered. Hope and possibility have been superseded by timidity and complacency. As Gaza is destroyed, red lines may cease to exist , but pursuits of justice do not.

Looking Forwards over Lamenting Backwards

The failures of international systems to – at a bare minimum – protect civilians, demands a rethink in how we conceptualize and pursue justice. Various global mechanisms and the surrogate human rights industry remain wedded to a technocratic logic. This is underpinned by an often-infantilizing belief that the rule of law can resurrect our fledgling collective humanity.

This creates a façade and seeming self-appeasement, where different states claim they are taking definitive action. As horrendous violence spread across Syria, Canada and the Netherlands belatedly filed an ICJ case against Assad for torture and France recently convicted three senior Syrian officials (in absentia). Yet, the same war crimes continue unabated, as Western legal constructs grasp for practical relevance. Global events continue to reinforce that justice is best sought proactively rather than tediously pursued, after the act.

This means shedding our preoccupation with retrospective justice, a dominant concept, despite its lack of efficacy, as the mass atrocities mount. It fails not just on deterrence and accountability, but in doing so, becomes antithetical to even the revered rule of law. The notion of the “ rules-based order ” rings hollow when war criminals walk free; curtailing their international travel hardly counts as a win.

Proactive Justice and Embracing Complexity

Whether it’s decades of occupation in Palestine or generations of military rule in Myanmar, proactive justice is not abstract, but crystallizes with and is defined by those opposing tyranny. In the former case, sovereignty and freedom are central, in the latter, federal democracy and inter-ethnic equity. Both demand peace, not systemic violence. Rather than the reductionism associated with international courts, where even the most glaring atrocities take years to prosecute, if at all, people challenging tyranny continue to articulate far more nuanced and locally relevant concepts of justice. This is centered on emancipation and addressing key drivers of inequity, namely political solutions rather than technical legalities. None of this is new, yet the urgency for reconfiguring our approach grows more acute by the day.

The current constellations of geopolitics pose one of the most significant barriers to justice, whether the United States and Germany’s morally untenable support for Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, Iran and Russia’s propping up of Assad, or the United Arab Emirates fueling of the war in Sudan. Rather than perpetuate complacency, such challenges reinforce the necessity of alternatives. A resurgence in Global South solidarity, from Colombia to Indonesia to South Africa, and defiant voices of reason in Ireland, Norway, and Spain, indicate that geopolitics is more than nefarious terrain. Such progress must, however, connect with locally-led movements, symbolic actions matched with tangible assistance.

Liberation Beyond Alleviation

Myanmar’s current situation is again salient. As the resistance has made remarkable battlefield progress since October, the international community remains stuck on providing piecemeal humanitarian funding . Lessons from Syria must be heeded, specifically that the revolution’s success is not assured, and that appropriate support now is the best inoculation for tyranny later. This means looking beyond international aid agencies to instead support emancipatory movements.

For just one example, preventing the Myanmar military’s ability to carry out airstrikes will save civilian lives, reduce humanitarian needs, and accelerate the liberation of territory. Such thinking is hardly profound, yet remains sequestered to Ukraine, while multiple countries are more willing to export weapons that kill in Gaza than support Myanmar’s revolution by defending civilians against airstrikes.

A commitment to proactive justice means aligning support with the people opposing tyranny – and not just during moments of success, but also when the challenges are mounting. It means looking beyond alleviating hardship to supporting liberation. It entails dynamic activism  and requires prioritizing locally relevant justice rather than internationally defined. Perhaps above all else, from Myanmar to Gaza, Sudan to Syria, it demands an end to pervasive global inertia . Humanitarian needs must be met, but solidarity must prevail.

Have the Gates of Hell Been Opened Upon Myanmar?

By andreus sang.

Myanmar’s National Unity Government Must Be Doing Something Right

By than n. oo.

Military Conscription in Southeastern Myanmar Demands International Intervention

By nai aue mon and maggi quadrini.

Welcome to World War III

By michael vatikiotis.

By Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

By Maximilian Mayer and Emilian Kavalski

Why the EU’s Deforestation-Free Regulation Is Not Working in Southeast Asia

By lauren mai.

Why Is the RSS Distancing Itself From the BJP?

By sudha ramachandran.

By Aigerim Turgunbaeva and Sher Khashimov

By Michael Kohn

By Saqlain Rizve

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Trump is found guilty on 34 felony counts. Read the counts here

Ximena Bustillo

Hilary Fung

Jurors in the New York criminal trial against former President Donald Trump have convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsified business records.

4 takeaways from the historic felony conviction of Donald Trump

Legal experts say Trump's conviction is unlikely to lead to a prison sentence

This is the first time a former or sitting U.S. president has been convicted of criminal charges.

The jurors said they unanimously agreed that Trump falsified business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

Here are the details of those 34 felony counts: