VCU professor co-authors article examining failure of Criminal Justice System to deter criminal behavior

Share this story
Current policies and practices in the United States criminal justice system may promote criminal behavior rather than deter it, according to a new article co-authored by a Virginia Commonwealth University professor.

Faye Taxman, Ph.D., a professor in the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU, produced the article, “Racial Disparity and the Legitimacy of the Criminal Justice System: Exploring Consequences for Deterrence,” with two colleagues from the University of Massachusetts: James Byrne, Ph.D., a professor, and April Pattavina, an assistant professor. It was published in the November edition of the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.

The article suggests the criminal justice system may contribute to the recycling of minorities through the system, particularly in “those areas that are plagued with disadvantages such as persistently high concentrations of poverty.” Minorities constitute nearly half of the population under correctional control.

The article focuses on potential reasons for feelings of disenfranchisement among the defendant population in the criminal justice system. Previous researchers have argued that defendants who perceive their cases have been unfairly handled are less likely to conform in the future to rules and laws.

Taxman points to insufficient evidence to determine the impact specific policies have on perceptions of fairness or to measure whether changed experiences would reduce churning, a term that describes the recycling of individuals through the correctional system. However, the article lays out a research agenda.

“The purpose here is to illustrate how the policies and procedures of the criminal justice system may affect the perception of (il)legitimacy of the criminal justice system,” the article reads. “Together, these policies and procedures may serve to undermine the individual’s conformity to rules in society and an individual’s belief that the criminal justice system can provide the treatments and services necessary to equip him/her to contribute to society.”

In particular, the paper examines the differential involvements of minorities at each stage of the criminal justice process. In some instances, the process does not appear to work for minority offenders the way it is designed to operate.  

“We have identified areas in which services are not available to the offender, despite constitutional guarantees of or legal and parole-board mandated conditions requiring the use of these services,” the article reads. These include pre-trial services, pre-trial detention, legal counsel, sentencing, parole and probation conditions, drug treatment services and police interaction.

The gaps in service may lead to churning, she argues. Churning means offenders do not leave the criminal justice system rehabilitated -- they become repeat offenders or fail to meet the conditions of their probation or parole and return to prison.

The full text of “Racial Disparity and the Legitimacy of the Criminal Justice System: Exploring Consequences for Deterrence” can be found at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_health_care_for_the_poor_and_underserved/v016/16.4
Btaxman.html.