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This publication compiles statistics from data sources across the Criminal Justice System (CJS), to provide a combined perspective on the typical experiences of different ethnic groups. No causative links can be drawn from these summary statistics and no controls have been applied to account for differences in circumstances between groups (e.g. average income or age); differences observed may indicate areas worth further investigation, but should not be taken as evidence of bias or as direct effects of ethnicity.

In general, non-White ethnic groups appear to be over-represented at most stages throughout the CJS, compared with the White ethnic group, though this is not universal and does not appear to increase as they progress through the CJS. Among non-White ethnic groups, Black and Mixed individuals were often the most over-represented. Trends over time for each ethnic group have tended to mirror overall trends, with little change in relative positions between ethnic groups.


Racial Disparity Racial disparities refer to objective differences that exist in the real world. The report uses the term racial disparity to denote outcomes that differ by race or ethnicity. For example, if in a certain community, Black people experience greater levels of poverty than White people and per capita, Black people are arrested more frequently for violent crime than White people, then there would be racial disparities in poverty and in arrest rates for violent crime. A critical point is that these differences can be discussed without assuming that race, per se, gives rise to the observed differences. For example, Black people may be arrested more frequently in part because they experience greater poverty.

Racially Biased Behavior As used in this report, the term racial bias refers to a difference in a person’s behavior that is attributable to the race or ethnicity of another person. For example, if a police officer decides to stop and frisk Person A (who is Black), but does not stop Person B (who is White), and if the officer bases that decision entirely or in part on race, that behavior would constitute racial bias. Racial profiling is a subset of racially biased behaviors, as defined by the committee

Racial Animus The report will use the term racial animus to describe negative attitudes toward a racial or ethnic group or toward members of such a group. For example, an officer may dislike Black or Latino people and this attitude may lead to the racially biased behavior of an officer stopping Black or Latino people more frequently than White people with otherwise identical characteristics to those stopped. Racial animus thus refers to an internal, mental evaluation of individuals or groups based on race. Note that racial animus may give rise to racial bias in behavior, but it is certainly possible that an individual who harbors racial animus does not act on it. In such a case there would be racial animus but not racial bias in behavior. This report will use the phrase “racial animus” synonymously with “racial prejudice,” although social psychologists differentiate between the two dispositions.

Statistical Prediction The report will use the term statistical prediction to identify racially biased behavior that is due to individual or group predictions of behavioral outcomes. For example, statistical prediction occurs in the case where there is racial bias in the choice of individuals to stop on the street because of an assessment that Blacks and Latinos have different likelihoods of carrying weapons. Economists call such prediction “statistical discrimination.”
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