Myth: The criminal justice system is not biased against the poor.
Fact: Nearly everyone commits crime -- only the poor are generally punished for it.
Summary
All classes commit crime. However, the poor experience higher rates
of arrest, criminal charges, convictions, long prison sentences and denial
of parole. This winnowing process ensures that most rich criminals never
see the inside of a prison, while overflowing them with the poor.
Argument
Crime is an activity common to all classes. Even back in 1968,
when the crime rate was over a third lower than it is today, a President's
Crime Commission surveyed 10,000 households and discovered that "91
percent of all Americans have violated laws that could have subjected them
to a term of imprisonment at one time in their lives." The report
also found that 64 percent of all males, and 27 percent of all females,
in New York state had committed felonies.(1) Felonies, remember, are serious
enough to draw at least one year in prison; most people in prison today
are there on misdemeanors.
Yet America's prisons do not resemble a true cross section of society.
The majority of state prisoners in 1991 had incomes under the poverty level:
Annual income for inmates free at least a year, 1991 (2) Less than $9,999 53% $10,000-$14,999 17 $15,000-$24,999 16 $25,000 or more 15
By contrast, the U.S. median income for part-time and full-time males in 1991 was $20,469. Only a fourth of the male population made less than $10,000. (3) State prisoners were also disproportionately unemployed before arrest:
Job status of state inmates before arrest, 1991 (4) Employed 67% Full-time 55 Part-time 12 Unemployed 33
By comparison, the national unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in 1991. (5) The education level was also far below average:
Education attainment of state inmates, 1991 (6) No high school degree 65% High school graduate 22 Some college or more 12
By comparison, the national average for high school dropouts was 22
percent. (7)
But if 91 percent of our society has admitted to committing crimes
that would have required prison time, why do our jail-houses resemble the
national poor house? After reviewing the statistics, noted criminologist
Jeffrey Reiman writes: "For the same criminal behavior, the
poor are more likely to be arrested; if arrested, they are more likely
to be charged; if charged, more likely to be convicted; if convicted, more
likely to be sentenced to prison; and if sentenced, more likely to be given
longer prison terms than members of the middle and upper classes."
(8) This winnowing process insures that few wealthy criminals ever see
the inside of a prison.
Let's review the several levels of bias:
BIAS IN ARREST RATES
Numerous studies show that the middle class conducts just as much,
if not more, crime as the lower class. Even so, police choose to arrest
the poorer criminals at a higher rate. Most studies proving this bias have
been on juvenile delinquency, but keep in mind that teen-agers and early
twenty-year olds form the largest criminal age group.
One study interviewed 847 males and females between the ages of 13
and 16, and found that 88 percent of them admitted to committing at least
one delinquent offense. But 88 percent of these youth do not have police
records; generally, only the poorest do. (9)
A Philadelphia study of 3,475 juvenile delinquents found that police
referred lower class boys to juvenile court much more often than upper
class boys, even for equally serious offenses with similar prior arrest
records. When it came to upper class boys, the police were more inclined
to treat the matter informally with their parents. (10)
BIAS IN CONVICTIONS
The O.J. Simpson murder trial provided us with a snapshot of a
system that is heavily biased towards money -- even more so than race.
Without his Dream Team of lawyers, O.J. would have been convicted of murder
within a matter of weeks. Indeed, trial lawyers everywhere conceded that
death sentences have been handed out on lesser evidence. The counterpoint
to this observation is the true-life movie Dead Man Walking. In
the movie, white death-row inmate Matthew Poncelet tells Sister Helen Prejean:
"There ain't no money on death row."
The rich have several important, if not decisive, advantages when it
comes to handling the legal justice system. They can afford bail, which
allows them to conduct their own investigations and prepare for trial.
They can afford better attorneys (by itself an enormous edge), better expert
witnesses, better private detectives, better alibis. In fact, rich corporations
or individuals often threaten to put up such a huge legal battle that courts
often seek to plea bargain away or even dismiss the charges.
On the other hand, the poor are often represented by a harried public
defender or assigned attorney. One study found that most public defenders
spend an average of five to ten minutes with their clients; even then the
subject of conversation is not the facts of the case, but plea-bargaining
strategies. (11) Not surprisingly, public defenders win dismissals or acquittals
in 17 percent of their cases, compared to 18 percent for assigned attorneys,
and 36 percent for privately hired counsel. (12)
This situation becomes even worse in death penalty cases. Because of
the extreme poverty of most of the defendants, and the huge expense of
trying a prolonged capital case, few lawyers of merit are willing to take
them.
BIAS IN SENTENCING
There are two ways that sentencing is biased against the poor.
First, the rich either write or lobby for the very laws that purport to
oversee their behavior. Harsh sentences for the poor are softened whenever
legislators write them for the rich, even though their crimes may be many
times greater. Second, judges have shown themselves reluctant to make common
criminals out of the community's best and finest. Both of these biases
have created wide disparities in sentencing. For example, millionaire Jack
Clark received no fine and only one year in jail for cheating stockholders
out of $200 million. Yet in the same courthouse, a minimum wage worker
who had stolen $5,000 received four years in prison -- that is, 160,000
times the punishment. (13)
A study of federal and state courts found that the poor were not only
found guilty more often, but that they were not recommended for probation
27 percent of the time, compared to 16 percent for the upper classes. The
poor were also not given suspended sentences 23 percent of the time, compared
to 15 percent for the upper classes.
The disparities between the rich and the poor continue when it comes
to both sentencing and parole:
Sentences and paroles for different classes of crime, 1986 (14) Average Average time sentence served (months) (months) ---------------------------------------------------- Crimes of the poor: Robbery 128.5 46.5 Larceny/theft 36.9 18.3 Burglary 35.6 17.9 Crimes of the rich: Fraud 27.8 13.6 Embezzlement 23.8 11.4 Income tax evasion 18.3 10.3
To see how well the U.S. Criminal Justice System takes care of the
rich, consider what happens at the Securities and Exchange Commission,
the federal agency charged with keeping Wall Street honest. Researcher
Susan Shapiro writes:
"Out of every 100 suspects investigated by the SEC, 93 have committed
securities violations that carry criminal penalties. Legal action is taken
against 46 of them, but only 11 are selected for criminal treatment. Six
of these are indicted; 5 will be convicted and 3 sentenced to prison."
(15)
Interestingly enough, when the government cracks down on the poor, it's praised
for getting "tough on crime." But when it cracks down on the rich, it's condemned
for "excessive regulation."
Return to Overview
Endnotes:
1. Isidore Silver, "Introduction" to the Avon edition
of The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society (New York: Avon Books, 1968),
p. 31. Although this is an old survey, the results today are almost certainly
worse, because the crime rate has risen from 399 to 566 per 10,000 people
from 1970 to 1992 (Source: FBI). And although the late 60s were known for
their lawlessness, it is important to note that this survey asked about
crimes ever committed in a person's life - which, at the time, covered
the several quiet decades before 1968.
2. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Survey
of State Prison Inmates, 1991, March 1993, NCJ-136949.
3. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Current Population Reports, P60-188.
4. Survey of Prison Inmates, 1991.
5. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 2307.
6. Survey of Prison Inmates, 1991.
7. U.S. Bureau of the Census, U.S. Census of Population,
U.S. Summary, PC80-1-C1.
8. Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison
(New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1990), p. 81.
9. Jay Williams and Martin Gold, "From Delinquent Behavior to
Official Delinquency," Social Problems 20, no. 2 (1972), pp.
209-229.
10. Terence P. Thornberry, "Race, Socioeconomic Status and Sentencing
in the Juvenile Justice System," The Journal of Criminal Law and
Criminology 64, no. 1 (1973), pp. 90-98.
11. Jonathon Casper, "Did You Have a Lawyer When You Went to Court?
No, I Had a Public Defender," Criminal Justice: Law and Politics,
ed., Cole, pp. 239-240.
12. Dallin Oaks and Warren Lehman, "Lawyers for the Poor,"
Law and Order: The Scales of Justice, ed. A. Blumberg, p. 95.
13. Blake Fleetwood and Arthur Lubow, "America's Most Coddled
Criminals," New Times, Sept. 19, 1975, pp. 26-29.
14. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Statistical Report, Fiscal Year 1986.
15. Susan Shapiro, "The Road Not Taken: The Elusive Path to Criminal
Prosecution for White-Collar Offenders," Law and Society Review
19, no. 2 (1985), p. 182.