NYC Criminal Justice Statistics: Examining Equal Treatment Under the Law

The criminal justice system is made up of three primary institutions: the police force, prosecution and defense lawyers, and courts and prisons. While the Mayor’s Office1 has improved equal enforcement of the laws in NYC within all three institutions, there is still room for improvement. 

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Low-income communities of color are more likely to be targets of unfair enforcement. A lack of diversity across the judicial system has also contributed to distrust between communities and law enforcement. To establish a safer, more equitable city, New York will need to build greater trust between its police force and the community and diversify the judicial system.

NYC Criminal Justice Statistics Point to Unequal Representation in the U.S. Judicial System

Patching the Police-Community Relationship

The police are the first point-of-contact between communities and the U.S. criminal justice system. Because local police and communities rely on each other for an effective justice system, a strong relationship and mutual trust between them is crucial. According to the U.S Department of Justice, “Police officials rely on the cooperation of community members to provide information about crime in their neighborhoods, and to work with the police to devise solutions to crime and disorder problems. Similarly, community members’ willingness to trust the police depends on whether they believe that police actions reflect community values and incorporate the principles of procedural justice and legitimacy.”2

Unfortunately, this critical relationship is strained. In a 2018 survey, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU)3 reported 67 percent of New Yorkers living in heavily-policed neighborhoods lived in fear of having a friend or family member killed by police officers. 15 percent of individuals in lightly-policed neighborhoods felt similarly. In the same survey, 41 percent of people living in heavily-policed neighborhoods reported actually experiencing extreme physical force from a member of the New York Police Department.

Made famous by the Los Angeles Police Department and later adopted by law enforcement across the United States, “To Serve and Protect” encapsulates what the relationships between police and their communities were designed to be.4 While New York has come a long way in terms of public safety as a result of the police force’s service, these statistics demonstrate the feeling of protection is highly-reliant based on factors like zip code, economic status, ethnicity, and more.

Advocating for and encouraging diverse law enforcement is a step in the right direction for strengthening the police-community relationship. Psychology Today magazine reports, “Most officers agree that in order to be effective, police need to understand the people in the neighborhoods they patrol. Yet the degree to which officers value local knowledge varies significantly by the officer’s race and gender. Fully 84 percent of black officers and 78 percent of Hispanics say knowledge of the people, places, and culture of the neighborhoods they patrol is very important to be effective at their job, a view shared by 69 percent of whites.”5 Organizations such as the NYCLU are imploring the NYPD to hear the concerns of their community and act to help make New York an even safer place for all to live.

Diversifying the Judicial System

From police encounters to trials and conviction, the inequitable treatment of minority groups in the judicial system is unfortunately common. In NYCLU’s survey, 62 percent of LGBTQ New Yorkers in heavily-policed neighborhoods claim that they asked for help from the police and did not receive it; while people of color and low-income and homeless individuals report feeling targeted by police in their day-to-day activities. In New York prison systems, 72 percent of the prison population is either black or Hispanic. Back in 2004, the Innovations for Poverty Action recorded African-American males were incarcerated at seven times the rate of white males and made up 40 percent of sentenced inmates in the United States.6

Racial disparities have also extended into the American court system. According to the American Constitution Society, white men make up over half of state court judges at 58 percent:7 only 30 percent of state court judge roles are held by women and 12 percent by men of color. Because state courts manage over 95 percent of America’s court cases, the discrepancy between the composition of courts and the communities they serve is troubling.

One way of combatting discrimination in the criminal justice system is by encouraging diversity in key roles within the judicial process. With fewer than 10 percent minority equity partners at big law firms, The New York City Bar Association has made a push for diverse representation in the law profession.8 The City Bar’s Office for Diversity and Inclusion’s 2016 Diversity Benchmarking Report found that “after decades of slow but seemingly steady advances in diversifying the profession, progress for Black/African American and Latinx lawyers, in particular, has appeared to stagnate or, based on recent trends, regress.” In efforts to diversify the profession, NYC Bar Association is attempting to nurture the passion for law at an early age and provide resources and mentorship for future lawyers.

The NY Daily News9 reports NYC’s overall crime rate dropped 3 percent from the previous year. While NYC is working hard to establish a culture of safer, more equitable, city, it still has room to grow - and diversifying the criminal justice system is a good place to start. Advocate for a fair and just criminal justice system in NYC by supporting criminal justice organizations such as The Innocence Project, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City Bar Association, New York Civil Liberties Union, and the Correctional Association of New York.

 

Our Sources

1 https://billdeblasio.com/accomplishments/criminal-justice-reform

2 https://www.justice.gov/crs/file/836486/download

3 https://www.nyclu.org/sites/default/files/field_documents/nyclu_20180919_shattered_web.pdf

4 https://www.policemag.com/338692/to-serve-and-protect

5 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/empathy-and-relationships/201701/police-officer-diversity-status-impacts-their-perceptions

6 https://www.poverty-action.org/study/discrimination-judicial-system

7 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b2c07e2a9e02851fb387477/t/5c5ae47a971a184de7158ad9/1549460603410/CANY+Issue+Brief+-+Population+Profile.pdf

8 https://www.gavelgap.org/

9 https://biglawbusiness.com/nyc-bar-vows-to-battle-stagnating-diversity-numbers-in-the-law

10 https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-september-crime-rate-nypd-20191008-ehytlritnjh2fkcepvqk2ngzia-story.html

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