Differences between disparity and discrimination

Disparity and Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

While the American criminal justice system claims to be blind to the defendant's race, religion, ethnicity, wealth, or other differences, it is difficult to examine it without seeing the obvious disparity between different groups of people. However, because there is disparity within the American justice system, many feel that it may be caused by discrimination within the system, as well as many of its members. These two terms, disparity and discrimination, may seem to have similar meanings, but they are actually very different, and this difference comes not in the statistics involved but in the intent behind those statistics.

Disparity can be defined as the condition of being unequal; a difference, or incongruity. In the criminal justice system, disparity happens when the members of one race make up a greater percentage of those who interact with the system than their percentage of the general population. For example, according to researchers, "in 2005, African-Americans represented 14% of current drug users, yet constituted 33.9% of persons arrested for a drug offense." (Reducing Racial Disparity, 2009, pp. 4-5) This kind of obvious disparity in the numbers can be caused by a number of factors, but since the disparity often occurs in terms of race, many claim that the disparity is caused by racial discrimination.

On the other hand is discrimination, which is the unjust, or prejudicial treatment of people based upon their being part of a particular group. Many researchers have conducted studies to determine the extent of racial discrimination in the American criminal justice system and the general consensus is that "although there is racial discrimination within the criminal justice system, the system itself is not characterized by racial discrimination." (Banks, 2009, p.83) Therefore, it can be concluded that the criminal justice system is not inherently racially discriminatory, but does contain members who do actively partake in racial discrimination.