Racial Politics, Racial Disparities, and the War on Crime

Abstract

Racial disparities in the justice system have steadily gotten worse since 1980, primarily because of politically motivated decisions by the Reagan and Bush administrations to promote harsh drug and sanctioning policies that, existing research and broad agreement among practioners concur, could not significantly reduce crime rates or drug use. It is difficult to imagine a persuasive ethical defense of promotion of policies that were unlikely to achieve their ostensible goals but were foreseen to have an adverse disparate effect on Blacks.