Art or Confession?: Evaluating Rap Lyrics as Evidence in Criminal Cases

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 320-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Cases ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Confession Evidence ◽  
Rap Lyrics

For decades, scholars have studied mechanisms that might explain racial disparities in the criminal justice system. One novel example of a practice that may contribute to continuing disparities is the introduction of defendant-authored rap lyrics as evidence in criminal trials. Across the United States, prosecutors are introducing rap lyrics as confession evidence to establish guilt. Concerns about this practice have been articulated by scholars and others but rarely empirically examined. This study begins to address this lacuna. In particular, this study examines how lyrics are evaluated when presented in a trial context and determines how individuals change their evaluations of the lyrics to support their verdict. Participants were tasked with evaluating evidence, including rap lyrics, independently and in the context of a trial and then rendering a verdict. Results indicate that rap lyrics are viewed as interdependent with other evidence when presented at trial. Furthermore, although evaluations of lyrics did not predict determinations of guilt, verdict affected whether the lyrics were evaluated as a confession, and this effect was stronger for participants who believed the defendant was guilty. These findings highlight how introducing rap lyrics might disproportionately advantage prosecutors and contribute to our understanding of racial disparities in the criminal justice system.

scholarly journals A Brief Literature Review of Juvenile Statistics, A Comparative Analysis of Current Racial Differences Within the Criminal Justice System

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip D. Clingan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Racial Disparities ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Racial Disparity ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
The United States

Youths under 18 years get trapped into the Juvenile Justice System after being suspected of committing a delinquent or criminal act. The United States tops in Juvenile arrests in the world. States like West Virginia, Alaska, Oregon, South Dakota, and Wyoming have the highest number of juveniles. However, an estimated 2.1 million youths under 18 years were arrested in the United States during a single year. This paper aims to address the current racial differences that exist within the criminal justice system. By addressing challenges like youths of color are more likely to be committed than white youths into the juvenile system will assist in curbing racial disparity. Statistics reveal that 42% of youths in the placement holdings are black youths, even though black youths make up for 16% of youths all over the United States. In California alone, African American juveniles take 27.5% while whites take up 15%. Even though the system’s laws contain no racial bias, research shows that discrimination can occur where the system allows criminal justice officials discretion in handling offenders. Black youths take up for 15% of the total number of youths in the USA get they have the highest juvenile detentions of 42%, but it is difficult to deny these records since there is evidence like arrest and imprisonment records to back up this claim. The racial disparities exist from targeting the blacks, arrest, sentencing, imprisonment, and release. These actions promote discrimination among the black youths, and black youths are likely to get significant sentencing compared to whites for the same crimes committed. Different states in the United States have different racial disparities, California and Texas, blacks serve long sentences, unlike the whites. There are various causes of racial disparities like; some black residences are known for crime, and they have huge offence rates, unequal access to resources, judicial decisions, and racial prejudice. After the research, it was evident that racial disparity exists, and it can only be corrected by looking at the root cause of the problem widely, which is discrimination. Race plays a significant role when it comes to juvenile detentions. Youths of color are four times more probable to be detained, unlike white youths. The research designed a method of tracking racial disparities via a hypothetical juvenile jurisdiction criminal justice system. The paper will extensively dive into juvenile population characteristics, juvenile justice system structure, law enforcement, juvenile crime, juveniles in court, juveniles on probation by the state, juveniles in the correction by the state and foreign nations, and an analysis of all the findings. The extensive research will be able to answer all the questions to the problem of racial disparity.

scholarly journals Mercy towards decarceration: Examining the legal constraints on early release from prison

Incarceration ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 263266632097780
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cox ◽  
Dwayne Betts
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Family Members ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Release ◽  
The Us ◽  
Legal Constraints ◽  
Release From Prison

There are close to seven million people under correctional supervision in the United States, both in prison and in the community. The US criminal justice system is widely regarded as an inherently unmerciful institution by scholars and policymakers but also by people who have spent time in prison and their family members; it is deeply punitive, racist, expansive and damaging in its reach. In this article, we probe the meanings of mercy for the institution of parole.

Criminal Justice in an Era of Mass Deportation

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid V. Eagly
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
State Level ◽  
Plea Bargaining ◽  
The United States ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Law Enforcement Agencies ◽  
Collateral Consequence

After a sustained period of hypercriminalization, the United States criminal justice system is undergoing reform. Congress has reduced federal sentencing for drug crimes, prison growth is slowing, and some states are even closing prisons. Low-level crimes have been removed from criminal law books, and attention is beginning to focus on long-neglected issues such as bail and criminal court fines. Still largely overlooked in this era of ambitious reform, however, is the treatment of immigrants in the criminal justice system. An unprecedented focus on immigration enforcement targeted at “felons, not families” has resulted in a separate system of punitive treatment reserved for noncitizens, which includes crimes of migration, longer periods of pretrial detention, harsher criminal sentences, and the almost certain collateral consequence of lifetime banishment from the United States. For examples of state-level solutions to this predicament, this Essay turns to a trio of bold criminal justice reforms from California that (1) require prosecutors to consider immigration penalties in plea bargaining; (2) change the state definition of “misdemeanor” from a maximum sentence of a year to 364 days; and (3) instruct law enforcement agencies to not hold immigrants for deportation purposes unless they are first convicted of serious crimes. Together, these new laws provide an important window into how state criminal justice systems could begin to address some of the unique concerns of noncitizen criminal defendants.

Do Americans Like to Punish?

Metamorphosis ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Ferguson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Values ◽  
The People ◽  
American Prison

This chapter addresses the question of whether Americans like to punish. The United States clearly punishes more heavily and for longer periods than other countries, with comparable social and political values. One can land in an American prison for life over minor offenses—a punishment not used for serious offenses in Western Europe. The leading comparativist on criminology, James Whitman, argues that a politics of dignity has instilled mercy and mildness in European systems, while leveling impulses, distrust of authority, and too much power in the people is said to have left the United States with a criminal justice system long in degradation and short on mercy.

Sex Panic and Denial

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-482
Author(s):  
Corey Rayburn Yung
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Sex Offenders ◽  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Goal ◽  
Residency Restrictions

The American criminal justice system regarding sex is not just logically incoherent, it is also often morally bankrupt because it remains unexamined and poorly understood. This Article contends that there are actually common roots underlying the seemingly oppositional forces of social panic and denial, which explain why the United States has an endemic sexual violence problem. Both panic and denial reinforce the implicit, and sometimes explicit, desire to avoid substantive engagement with socially contentious issues related to sex. The use of residency restrictions and civil commitment fit the modern social goal of putting sex offenders out-of-sight and out-of-mind. Yet, those same desires also explain America’s unwillingness to believe victims of sexual violence and police failure to properly investigate criminal complaints. In this way, sex panic dovetails with sex denial—in both instances, American culture only permits a limited discussion and understanding of sex and sexual violence. The result is that our nation fails to take sex crime complaints seriously while overreacting to the few convictions that emerge from the hostile criminal justice system.

Comparing Plea Bargaining and Abbreviated Trial Procedures

2019 ◽  
pp. 702-727
Author(s):  
Gwladys Gilliéron
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Civil Law ◽  
Plea Bargaining ◽  
The United States ◽  
Wrongful Convictions ◽  
The U.S

This chapter compares U.S. plea bargaining with plea-bargaining-type procedures and penal orders in Continental Europe, with reference to Switzerland, Germany, and France. It first considers consensual criminal procedures across jurisdictions and why they exist, focusing on plea bargaining in the U.S. criminal justice system and abbreviated trial procedures in European civil law systems. It then examines the extent to which abbreviated trial procedures in civil law systems differ from plea bargaining in the U.S. system, the problems inherent in consensual criminal procedures, and the question of whether there are any solutions. In particular, it explains how plea bargaining and penal orders may lead to wrongful convictions. Finally, it discusses prospects for reform of plea bargaining in the United States and in civil law systems in Europe.

The Criminal Justice System and the Racialization of Perceptions

2013 ◽  
Vol 651 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliya Saperstein ◽  
Andrew M. Penner ◽  
Jessica M. Kizer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Mass Incarceration ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Categories ◽  
Racial Perceptions

Recent research on how contact with the criminal justice system shapes racial perceptions in the United States has shown that incarceration increases the likelihood that people are racially classified by others as black, and decreases the likelihood that they are classified as white. We extend this work, using longitudinal data with information on whether respondents have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated, and details about their most recent arrest. This allows us to ask whether any contact with the criminal justice system triggers racialization, or only certain types of contact. Additional racial categories allow us to explore the racialization of crime beyond the black-white divide. Results indicate even one arrest significantly increases the odds of subsequently being classified as black, and decreases the odds of being classified as white or Asian. This implies a broader impact of increased policing and mass incarceration on racialization and stereotyping, with consequences for social interactions, political attitudes, and research on inequality.

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