ABSTRACT

Racial disparities in conviction and incarceration have been lamentable features of legal systems for a long time. Research has addressed the attitudes and decisions of police, prosecutors, jurors, and judges in contributing to these disparities, but very little attention has been paid to defendants’ own team members—i.e., criminal defense attorneys. Researchers have specifically identified this as a “scholarly gap”. To address this, we conducted an empirical study of criminal defense attorneys practicing in forty-three U.S. states (N = 327). The attorneys completed both an implicit measure designed to capture racial bias (a race Implicit Association Test) and an explicit measure designed to capture interpersonal regard for clients. The results provided support for longstanding, but previously speculative, assertions of bias in criminal defense.

摘要

长期以来，定罪和监禁方面的种族差异一直是法律制度的可悲特征。研究已经解决了导致这些差异的警察、检察官、陪审员和法官的态度和决定，但很少关注被告自己的团队成员，即刑事辩护律师。研究人员特别指出这是一个“学术差距”。为了解决这个问题，我们对在美国四十三个州（N = 327）执业的刑事辩护律师进行了实证研究。律师们完成了一项旨在捕捉种族偏见的隐性测量（种族隐性关联测试）和一项旨在捕捉对客户的人际尊重的显性测量。结果为刑事辩护中长期存在但以前是推测性的偏见断言提供了支持。