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Whether my reasoning, if applied consistently, would have implications for drug laws is not really relevant to this debate. The question to me is, given that w

Whether my reasoning, if applied consistently, would have implications for drug laws is not really relevant to this debate. The question to me is, given that we have decided to make certain things illegal, should we restrict employer's ability to make use of the public information about which laws people have broken. If particular laws are unjust that should be dealt with by changing those laws. The arguments that convictions can be used as a proxy for race is weak for two reasons. First, the crimes that are most prone to racial bias are also the least serious crimes and therefore the least likely to appear on a background test. Second, not much quantitative evidence has been given on how much the conviction rates for Blacks is distorted, relative to the true ratio of rates of crime.

SwellJoe 13y ago
"Second, not much quantitative evidence has been given on how much the conviction rates for Blacks is distorted, relative to the true ratio of rates of crime." I'm not sure what this means, but it sounds kinda like you're saying, "I've seen the research, but I think it's probably wrong, and black people are actually being treated fairly by the criminal justice system despite the huge swaths of evidence of dramatic imbalance in arrests and convictions and imprisonment...because of...um, distortions." It's trivial to google examples of blacks being arrested at a much higher rate than whites, including for crimes that whites commit at similar or higher rates, for example, the first thing I found when googling for something relevant to this particular case. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/04/race-marijuana/2389677/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/04/race-ma...
- yetanotherphd 13y ago
  "distortion" referred to bias created by discrimination in the criminal justice system. So you have interpreted me wrong, which seems to be a recurring pattern here. I am saying that while there may be discrimination, it's not clear how much this discrimination is able to account for different rates of convictions, and how much is due to Blacks committing more crime. You seem to have ignored my point about the discrimination being greatest for less serious crimes (a point made in the article you linked). The article also claims that even these crimes can be a problem for job seekers, however I think the effect is smaller, in terms of how long it stays on a person's record, whether it appears on a background check, and how employers would react.
  - SwellJoe 13y ago
    Apologies for misinterpreting you.

SwellJoe 13y ago

"Second, not much quantitative evidence has been given on how much the conviction rates for Blacks is distorted, relative to the true ratio of rates of crime." I'm not sure what this means, but it sounds kinda like you're saying, "I've seen the research, but I think it's probably wrong, and black people are actually being treated fairly by the criminal justice system despite the huge swaths of evidence of dramatic imbalance in arrests and convictions and imprisonment...because of...um, distortions." It's trivial to google examples of blacks being arrested at a much higher rate than whites, including for crimes that whites commit at similar or higher rates, for example, the first thing I found when googling for something relevant to this particular case. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/04/race-marijuana/2389677/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/06/04/race-ma...

yetanotherphd 13y ago
"distortion" referred to bias created by discrimination in the criminal justice system. So you have interpreted me wrong, which seems to be a recurring pattern here. I am saying that while there may be discrimination, it's not clear how much this discrimination is able to account for different rates of convictions, and how much is due to Blacks committing more crime. You seem to have ignored my point about the discrimination being greatest for less serious crimes (a point made in the article you linked). The article also claims that even these crimes can be a problem for job seekers, however I think the effect is smaller, in terms of how long it stays on a person's record, whether it appears on a background check, and how employers would react.
- SwellJoe 13y ago
  Apologies for misinterpreting you.