Critical Race Theory and the Legal System

• It is necessary to consider extralegal factors when assessing outcomes across institutions of the legal system since factors, like race, gender, and politics, challenge the notion that the law is objective.
• Racism is embedded in the creation, enforcement, and interpretation of the law and is often disguised through discourses of colourblindness and universality.
• The dominant narrative equates legal equality with equality generally, yet the disproportionate outcomes for racialized individuals challenge this assumption.
• The monolithic approach to the legal system disregards the process of differential racialization, where each racial group is assigned negative assumptions through the media, all subordinate to the White upper-middle class.
• Overtly, slavery and the KKK ideologies were used to maintain the subordinate position of Black people and justify harsh punishment.
• Presently, discourses of colourblindness and socio-economic disadvantages are the new "Jim Crow", and a way to maintain the White upper-middle class and justify mass incarceration.
• Analyzing outcomes and objectivity based on gender reveals androcentric biases that challenge the neutrality of the criminal justice system.
• Feminist thought critically explores how gender contributes to systemic inequalities and historically, the legal system has ignored or mitigated the seriousness of crimes against women, reinforcing patriarchal ideals and maintaining the dominant position of the man.
• Discrimination against women in the legal system has morphed from overt forms, such as the absence of martial rape laws until the late 20th century, to covert forms of victim blaming discourses in sexual assault cases.
• Mediation forces victims to face their abuser, which ignores power imbalances and can allow disproportionate outcomes.
• Litigation abuse can financially pressure victims into agreements and by-pass no contact orders.
• Mistreatment and re-traumatization begins with the reporting process due to victim blaming discourses and invasive forensic examinations which are covert tools used by the legal system to deter victims from reporting a sexual assault.
• The perpetuation of gender bias demonstrates how it remains a critical extra-legal factor shaping legal outcomes.
• Legal and political institutions operate together to maintain dominant power structures.
• Politicians and legal actors use discourse techniques to discredit claims of inequality and discrimination.
• Discourses include denial (counter claims of discrimination with quantitative statistics), rationalizing the status quo (justifying inequalities by portraying them as natural and inevitable), reverse discrimination (framing efforts to address bias as an unfair advantage to marginalized groups), and the creation of the other through the media (reinforcing existing stereotypes and discrimination).
• When equality is recognized it is only because it benefits the dominant group, also known as interest convergence.
• Brown v. Board of Education was in the state’s best interest to project a commitment to equality and maintain political support.
• Considering extralegal factors when assessing outcomes of the criminal justice system, elements of race, gender, and politics reveal the socially situated nature of the truth and systemic inequalities that have morphed from overt to covert forms of discrimination overtime.
• The monolithic conception of law, justice, and objectivity fail to account for the diverse lived experiences of marginalized groups, drawing importance to a critical integrated approach.
• The legal system utilizes covert mechanisms to privilege the White upper-middle class male, examples include universal frameworks, legal colourblindness, construction of the victim, and political discourse.
• Behind a facade of neutrality, justice, and fairness the legal system acts as a circular tool that keeps historical inequalities in check since political discourse, quantitative evidence, and construction of the victim all work covertly across social realms to keep power in the hands of the White upper-middle class male experience.
• Race, gender, and politics are extralegal factors that significantly shape legal outcomes, challenging the dominant narrative of fairness and justice.
• Recognizing these biases is essential for criminological research and public policy to move toward a truly equitable legal system that serves all individuals, rather than reinforcing historical hierarchies of oppression.

The legal system should consider extralegal factors like race and gender. Racism is embedded in law creation, enforcement, and interpretation. Discourses of colourblindness are a new form of racial discrimination.