New Study Shows Racial Bias in the Courtroom

In the courtroom, does it matter if you're black or white?

We write frequently in this space about how our criminal justice system is deeply unequal — from issues of skewed legal representation to the selective enforcement of laws. Over the years, such factors have conspired to fill prisons with people of color — more than half of the state and federal prisoners in the U.S. are black or Latino.

But that's not all. A new study shows that even when you control for these factors, racial bias still rears its ugly head. That's what two University of Hawaii researchers found when they conducted an experiment to test racism inside the courtroom. In their experiment, they showed mock jurors a photo of a defendant and then read them facts from an armed robbery case. Some jurors saw a photos of a dark-skinned defendant and others saw a light-skinned defendant, but everything else was identical.

And sure enough, when jurors were asked about the defendant's guilt or innocence, they were more likely to find the dark-skinned suspect guilty.

Our court system decides the fate of thousands of people each day. We can't eliminate the fact that everyone brings their personal history and philosophy to the courtroom — judges, jurors, lawyers, defendants, witnessess and the media. But we can work to prevent injustice by ensuring that safeguards in the system — like the right to a robust criminal defense — are firmly protected. At the same time, everyone involved in the court system also must work to acknowledge their own biases — whether they're based on race, economic standing, gender or anything else.

Regardless of the reforms we pass, as this new study shows, all participants in the system need to fight their own biases in order to make the system fair.

Photo Credit: Florida Department of Corrections