Implicit Racial Bias and Wrongful Conviction of Minority Men

• In Event: Insider/Outsider Perceptions of the Justice System

Abstract

The current study explores the factors that place minority men at an elevated risk of wrongful convictions. Prior research has found that wrongful convictions in part result from eyewitness misidentification, false confessions, and other legal factors. The current study explores how implicit bias influences the discretionary decision making of police officers and jury members, ultimately leading to wrongful convictions of minority males. Implicit racial bias works through cognitive mental processes called heuristics to influence the perceptions and subsequent behavior of individuals. Law enforcement agents and jury members are believed to attribute suspicion and guilt to racial groups stereotyped as criminal. African American and Hispanic men are believed to be most affected by implicit bias processes as they have the most widespread association with criminality. As a result, the risk for erroneously convicting an innocent African American or Hispanic male is exacerbated when discretionary decisions are influenced by the processes of implicit racial bias. Highlighting the importance of implicit bias across criminal justice decision points can provide a broader understanding of how race influences the likelihood of wrongful convictions of minority men.

Author

• Jonathan C. Reid, Florida State University