Black vs. White, Life vs. Death; Using Automatic vs. Controlled Processing as a Framework for Understanding Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System

Abstract

An extensive amount of social science research has been conducted on issues related to the criminal justice system. From the moment a crime is witnessed until a verdict and sentence have been rendered there exists opportunity for the human cognitive system to distort and misinterpret data about a crime, about the suspect, and about the process itself. The research presented here describes, in easy to understand terms, some of the empirical research that points out disadvantages minorities face within the system, differences in the way in which trial information is received and evaluated, and provides a framework that may potentially lend itself to methods for mitigating these disadvantages and individual differences.