Book Reviews : Race And Criminal Justice, edited by Michael J. Lynch and E. Britt Patterson. Harrow and Heston, 1991. 203 pp. paperback
| DOI | 10.1177/088740349100500409 |
| Author | Reid M. Golden |
| Date | 01 December 1991 |
| Published date | 01 December 1991 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
354
As
Paternoster
points
out,
many
believe
that
death
is
a
penalty
qualitatively
more
severe
than
any
other
and
thus
requires
special
and
separate
justification.
Oddly,
however,
he
undercuts
his
own
argument
with
the
contention
that
&dquo;lengthy
confinement ...
may
be
seen
as
a
long
and slow
way
to
die,
certainly
no
less
painful
than
execution&dquo;
(p.
242).
Given
this
concession,
all
the
weight
is
on
the
irrevocability
of
the
death
penalty.
It
is
not
clear
that
this
is
enough
of
a
difference
to
bear
the
weight.
Actual
revocation
is
rare
and
likely
to
become
more
so
in
the
absence
of
the
procedural
protections
associated
with
capital
sentencing.
The
book
assumes
no
prior
knowledge
of
any
of
the
material
or
fields
covered
and
thus
may
be
suitable
as
a
secondary
source
for
students,
although
findings
and
arguments
are
generally
not
presented
in
sufficient
detail
to
permit
an
independent
evaluation
without
consultation
of
the
primary
sources.
The
book
is
thoroughly
researched
and
may
be
of
use
as a
reference
work
collating
a
large
number
of
primary
sources,
though
those
familiar
with
the
death
penalty
debate
will
not
find
anything
new
here.
Deirdre
Golash
American
University
Race
And
Criminal
Justice,
edited
by
Michael
J.
Lynch
and
E.
Britt
Patterson.
Harrow
and
Heston,
1991.
203
pp.
paperback.
The
notion
that
differential
justice
continues
between
majority
and
minority
groups
in
the
United
States
has
been
accepted
in
the
criminological
literature
for
some
time.
However,
due
to
the
complexities
of
the
criminal
justice
system,
it
is
a
concept
that
is
problematic
to
verify
empirically.
Each
person
entering
the
criminal
justice
system
passes
through
numerous
decision
points
which,
cumulatively,
determine
their
eventual
disposition.
If
these
accumulated
decisions
reflect
biased
decision
making
processes,
then
they
are
posited
to
result in
systematically
negative
outcomes
for
racial
and
ethnic
minorities.
Race
and
Criminal
Justice,
edited
by
Michael
Lynch
and
E.
Britt
Patterson,
is
a
collection
of
research
which
addresses
the
difficulty
of
empirically
verifying
the
collective
impact
of
ethnic
and
racial
bias
in
many
parts
of
the
criminal
justice
system.
And
it
does
so
in
an
insightful
manner
for
both
students
and
practitioners
of
criminal
justice
alike.
The
introduction
sets
the
tone
of
the
book.
It
begins
by
reviewing
the
brutalizing
of
Rodney
King by
the
Los
Angeles
Police
Department,
pointing
out
that
this
was
far
from
an
isolated
incident.
This
incident
is
then
used
in
an
heuristic
manner
to
introduce
the
concepts
of
informal
racial
bias,
institution-
alized
racism
and
race
as
a
social
construct.
They
raise
the
important
point
that
&dquo;when
race or
ethnic
bias
occurs,
it
may
not
be
consciously
engineered;
it
may
simply
occur
because
those
involved
fail
to
consciously
design
out
racially
or
ethnically
biased
practices&dquo;
(p.2).
This
statement
underscores
the
stated
goal
of
the
book
which
is
to
explore
the
ways
in
which
forms
of
racial
bias
are
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