Implicit Biases and Stereotypes and Explicit Stereotyping and Attitudes.
In our day to day life, our attitudes about people, events, ideas, or objects determine how we treat them and the choices we make, whether consciously or subconsciously. For years the debate on the views of the minority in the society and issues to do with racism and other prejudices have been getting better compared to the past years. The country has sure progressed with the election of the first African-American president but it has also gone down with the increased racial stereotyping and bias in the media in the justice system and the police departments. In this paper, I will discuss the difference between explicit stereotyping and biases and explicit attitudes and stereotype, how they affect court proceedings and how racial race disparity in sentencing affects the judicial system.
Implicit bias is the stereotype or attitude that affects us in an unconscious manner in our decisions and actions. The biases are mainly involuntary and do include both unfavorable and favorable assessments of people without the assessor being aware of it or having any form of internal control over the matter. Implicit biases cause us to develop attitudes and feelings about the people around us subconsciously based on certain characteristics such as their age, race, appearance, and ethnicity (Dovidio, 2011). These biases and associations grow in people from when they are young depending on the exposure that they get, whether through direct or indirect messages. Additionally, media content has also been cited as one of the major influencers of implicit bias associations. Everyone does possess some form of implicit bias even the most thought to be impartial persons such as judges. (Dovidio, Kawakami & Beach, 2003).
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An explicit bias, on the other hand, is the belief and attitude that people have about a group of people or a particular person on a conscious level (Dovidio, Kawakami & Beach, 2003). Such attitudes are deliberately formed, known to people and are easily self-reported. Explicit stereotyping and attitudes are consciously expressed. In explicit stereotyping, an individual shows bias towards other people based on their race, gender, and their negative experiences with this person earlier on. Implicit stereotyping and attitudes, on the other hand, are automatically activated by the presence of an object or a person and function subconsciously. Explicit attitudes are able to change and evolve easily unlike implicit attitudes which are difficult to alter since they are usually rooted in habitual reactions learning (Dovidio, 2011). Generally, categorizing things and people that around an individual is automatic just like reading or speaking. Once you learn how to read and speak, it is hard to unlearn and it happens without effort. Attitudes and stereotypes function in a similar way.
How Biases Might Affect Courtroom Proceedings
Understanding biases and attitudes and their implications for courts behavior helps people to understand some of the outcomes of the legal systems. Bias is a preconceived notion that favors someone at the expense of the other. For example, when two women are fighting and one is covered in tattoos while the other is not and is officially dressed when the police question them, they are quite likely to have the preconceived judgment that the woman in tattoos is the one that would have started the fight of the two women here, and this could occur even before they have considered all of the facts of the case involving the two. This is because one of them was well dressed and did not give the feeling that she could start a fight. Closely in line with this, bias has the same effect in the matter of courtroom proceedings. Jurors when reviewing evidence and testimonies given by witnesses during a trial process might tend to view them in the lenses of their own beliefs and attitudes, the view might be consciously created or subconsciously created. The judges could also be biased towards the defendant because of their past criminal record or race. These biases on age, race, and sex do exist today even after the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 evidenced by various race and sex discrimination claims filed in courts to date.
Just like other human beings, court officers tend to make decisions about alleged wrongdoers based on preconceived notions and on circumstantial evidence, and this sometimes leads up to bad judicial outcomes. Things such as being nervous, perceived attractiveness, race and affability of a defendant does sometimes influence the rates of conviction and even the length of sentences they get which is really unfair. Fairness in a court of law is a product of the court staff, lawyers, and the judges. The messages, attitudes, and behavior that these court staff conveys in court will determine the outcome of the case and in extension, affect the public confidence and trust by the public on the legal system. There is a ricing issue whereby minorities in court are often given longer sentences and receive harsh punishments compared to other groups of people which make the country question if the minorities commit more crimes or if they are the ones that get caught more often.
How Racial Disparity in Sentencing Affects the Judicial System
In the criminal justice system, a racial disparity occurs when the proportion of the racial group within the control of the system is greater that the proportion of similar groups in the society. This disparity is caused by bias by law enforcement agencies on particular communities, the difference in the levels of criminal activities and poor policies by the legislators and the criminal justice system players who have the privilege to apply discretion in their decisions. The impact of racial disparity at one point of decision making in the justice system has a direct effect on the next stage. For example, discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity at the point of arrest will mean that a particular ethnic group or racial group will be account to the largest number of members when it comes to the trial stage and the subsequent sentencing and incarceration. This means that the minorities pay a higher penalty than the whites. The white offender gets reduced sentences as opposed to their black and Latino counterparts (Kansal, 2005). This has led to a lack of trust by the minority population in the judicial system since many view it as being biased towards the minority group.
In conclusion, there has been a racial disparity when it comes to the minorities in the criminal justice system in the United States. However much the country has progressed in leaving this matter behind from the days when the minorities had no say in the process and were not accorded the due process of the law, there are still problems in the justice system and they have to be addressed. Bias towards one group of people may create an impression that all the group has the same characteristics when in fact some are good people in the society and are not involved in any form of criminal activities. Courts should make conscious reforms and start treating minorities and viewing them just as they view other groups of people for justice to be served.
An article by Jeff Guo in the Washington post on racial bias in the criminal justice system argues that even though judges are supposed to be impartial, in practice, they cannot help but view the world around them through the lens of the experiences they have gone through (Guo, 2016). He argues that since the African American judges have gone through or experienced discrimination at some point themselves, they are able to recognize subtle forms of racial harassment and so they are more likely to rule in favor of victims of racial harassment unlike their white counterparts who are four times likely to dismiss such cases.
In conclusion, there has been a racial disparity when it comes to the minorities in the criminal justice system in the United States. However much the country has progressed in leaving this matter behind from the days when the minorities had no say in the process and were not accorded the due process of the law, there are still problems in the justice system and they have to be addressed. Bias towards one group of people may create an impression that all the group has the same characteristics when in fact some are good people in the society and are not involved in any form of criminal activities. Courts should make conscious reforms and start treating minorities and viewing them just as they view other groups of people for justice to be served.
References
Dovidio, J., Kawakami, K., Beach, K. (2003). “Implicit and Explicit Attitudes: Examination of the Relationship between Measures of Intergroup Bias” from Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology: Intergroup Processes . Blackwell Publishing.
Dovidio, J. (2011). Implicit vs. Explicit Attitudes, Biases, and Stereotypes. Retrieved from http://conference.novaresearch.com/srdh/presentations/dovidio.pdf
Guo, J. (2016). “Researchers have Discovered a New and Surprising Racial Bias in the Criminal Justice System,” Washington Post, Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/24/researchers-have-discovered-a-surprising-racial-bias-in-the-criminal-justice-system/
Kansal, T. (2005) Racial Disparity in Sentencing. Retrived from https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/reports/racial-disparity-sentencing
