By Shanaya Malik
Abstract
This paper looks at how racial stereotypes and public opinion affect the sentences given to Black and white defendants for similar crimes. Instead of collecting new court data, the study uses a comparative review of three academic articles that focus on sentencing patterns, public attitudes toward crime, and judicial decision-making. The sources were compared to see whether Black defendants receive harsher punishments, and whether these differences can be linked to race rather than only legal factors like criminal history. Overall, the studies show that Black defendants are more likely to receive longer or more severe sentences than white defendants charged with similar offenses. The findings also suggest that stereotypes about crime and race, along with public pressure to be “tough on crime,” can influence judges and the legal system, even if this influence is not always obvious. At the same time, the size of these differences changes depending on the type of crime, the judge, and the social setting. This shows that race-related sentencing gaps are real, but they do not appear in exactly the same way in every situation.
Introduction
Policing in the United States is an important public safety institution but has long been accused of showing racial disparities, particularly in stops, searches, and uses of force. Black and Hispanic communities are often maligned, leading to not only interpersonal interactions but also impressions of fairness and justice in society at large. As a result of these patterns, there are many social implications that affect trust in law enforcement and participation in the legal system by others.
This paper is going to discuss the research question: “How do racial disparities in police stops and use of force in the U.S. affect long-term community trust and legal outcomes for Black and Hispanic people?” According to existing research, these disparities are systematic and often the case, but we pay less attention to how they affect our community and how the law operates. According to the paper, racial disparities in policing erode the trust of communities. Such eroded trust then produces negative legal outcomes. They include the reporting of crime or cooperating with law enforcement as well as police bias. In using both research studies and policy reports as sources, this paper indicates the broader impacts of racial bias in policing and identifies the gaps in our understanding that this research addresses.
Literature Review
Numerous research works provide insights on racial disparities in policing. Pierson et al. (2020) analysed nearly 100 million traffic stops across the United States and found that Black and Hispanic drivers were more likely to be stopped and searched than White drivers, despite similar rates of illicit discovery. Moreover, black people were found equal or more likely to possess illicit material during a search. This evidence is indicative of systemic bias and demonstrates the magnitude of race differences in widespread, even everyday, policing encounters.
According to a report by the Center for Policing Equity (2024), Black and Latino people endure greater quantities of physical force during police encounters. This statement remains true when accounting for differences in situations and events. This paper highlights how racial bias is pervasive in non-mandatory stops as well as use of force.
According to data provided by the Prison Policy Initiative (2024), the pattern of police contact and arrest rates shows how policing took place on community-wide levels. This affects Black and Hispanic communities at not just one or two stages, but multiple. Finally, the Public Policy Institute of California (2025) discusses how police encounters are intrusive. Perceptions of unfairness, this research shows, go beyond physical force and arrest to the complete encounter with law enforcement in minority communities in the US.
While these studies together establish clear evidence of racial disparities, very few directly explore the link between these disparities and community trust or legal outcomes. Thus, this paper builds on existing research by connecting patterns of biased policing to their social and legal consequences, which offers a more complete picture of the long-term impact on affected populations to the readers.
Data and Methodology
This research combines data from peer-reviewed studies, government statistics, and policy reports. The main sources used include Pierson et al. (2020), Center for Policing Equity (2024), Prison Policy Initiative (2024), Public Policy Institute of California (2025), and San Francisco State University Criminal Justice Studies (2024). The data is mainly observational and quite descriptive, mainly collected from national traffic stop datasets, surveys of community trust, and documented use-of-force reports. The methodology involves a comparative analysis of findings across sources to see correlations between racial disparities in policing and community trust, along with the negative effects on legal outcomes.
Main Body and Analysis
Racial Disparities in Police Stops and Searches
Actual evidence shows us that Black and Hispanic individuals face disproportionate scrutiny in police stops. Pierson et al. (2020) report that minority drivers are stopped and searched at higher rates than White drivers, even when controlling for things like contraband smuggling. This means that discretionary policing is influenced by racial bias, rather than neutral indicators of criminal behaviour. These disparities are quite widespread and persistent, showing systemic issues in society rather than just a few cherry-picked incidents.
Racial Disparities in Police Use of Force
The Center for Policing Equity (2024) shows that Black and Latino individuals experience physical force more frequently during police encounters than White individuals, as well, even after adjusting for many situational factors. These encounters, whether involving handcuffing or other force, contribute to society’s perceptions of unfair treatment. Over time, repeated exposure of these things reinforces collective distrust within communities, which amplifies the social impact of individual incidents.
Impact on Community Trust
Trust in law enforcement is also an important measure of police legitimacy. The Prison Policy Initiative (2024) tells us that Black and Hispanic communities report lower levels of trust in police and higher concerns are raised by them about misconduct. Negative experiences, combined with awareness of systemic disparities, influence a perception that the justice system is biased, which discourages cooperation and engagement with many legal processes. The Public Policy Institute of California (2025) shows us that even non-arrest encounters, such as intrusive questioning or searches, contribute to some extent to these perceptions, which further shows us that trust is affected by the overall policing experience, not only by arrests or convictions.
Legal and Justice Outcomes
Degrading trust in law enforcement has actual and measurable effects on legal outcomes. Communities with low trust are less likely to report crimes or provide information during investigations, which can reduce clearance rates and obstruct things like prosecutions (Prison Policy Initiative, 2024). Along with this, repeated police encounters increase the likelihood of arrest and the creation of criminal records, which have long-term negative consequences for things like employment, housing. These patterns suggest a feedback loop in the system: racial disparities in policing ruin trust, which in turn contributes to systemic inequality within the justice system.
Counterarguments and Limitations
Some people may argue that observed racial disparities are partially explained by differences in crime rates or socioeconomic factors, rather than discrimination alone. But, while crime rates vary by community, Pierson et al. (2020) show that disparities persist even after controlling for these variables. Another limitation is that police data may underestimate the frequency of biased interactions, since not all encounters are documented. Despite these warnings, the consistency of findings across many independent sources strengthens the conclusion that racial disparities in policing are quite real and impactful, in ways which harm many vulnerable stakeholders within society.
Discussion and Results
Combining the evidence shows us a clear pattern, based on which we can say that racial disparities in policing negatively affect both community trust and legal outcomes. Minority populations experience more frequent stops, searches, and use-of-force incidents, leading to widespread perceptions of injustice, according to multiple evidence. This, in turn, affects cooperation with law enforcement, crime reporting, and engagement within the legal system. These results show us the social consequences of biased policing and they devalue the need for reforms that address systemic inequality and restore trust in law enforcement.
Conclusion
Finally, we can conclude from this research that racial disparities in policing have visibly major and lasting effects on Black and Hispanic communities in the United States. Disproportionate stops, searches, and use-of-force incidents take away trust in law enforcement for these communities and negatively influence legal outcomes. By combining data from peer-reviewed studies and policy reports, this paper shows that biased policing is both systemic and consequential. Addressing these disparities is important not only for fairness but also for improving the overall legitimacy and effectiveness of the criminal justice system in the US. Future research should explore intervention strategies that reduce bias in policing and strengthen community trust, ensuring better and equitable outcomes for all populations.
Bibliography
Graham, M. A., Neath, S., Buchanan, K. S., Mulligan, K., Lloyd, T., & Solomon, P. A. (n.d.). Racial disparities in use of force at traffic stops.
Marroquin, G. (2024). Police use of force and the racial disparities in policing. Annual Review of Criminal Justice Studies, 2, 187–217.
Pierson, E., Simoiu, C., Overgoor, J., et al. (2020). A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States. Nature Human Behaviour, 4(7), 736–745. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0858-1
Prison Policy Initiative. (2024, December 19). Despite fewer people experiencing police contact, racial disparities in arrests, police misconduct, and police use of force continue. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2024/12/19/policing_survey_2022/
Public Policy Institute of California. (n.d.). Racial disparities in law enforcement stops. https://www.ppic.org/publication/racial-disparities-in-law-enforcement-stops/
Phillips, C., & Bowling, B. (n.d.). Racism, ethnicity, crime and criminal justice. In Crime, inequality. Taylor & Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003060581-30
Weitzer, R. (1996). Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system: Findings and problems in the literature. Journal of Criminal Justice, 24(4), 309–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/0047-2352(96)00015-3
