Differential Treatment in the Criminal Justice System

In January of 1996, Dustin Higgs participated in the kidnapping and murder of three women: Mishann Chinn, Tamika Black, and Tanji Jackson (Chammah, 2021). Since the crime happened on federal land, the case could be prosecuted in federal court. The jury decided that Higgs should get nine death sentences noting that while it would not bring back the victims, it provided relief that justice would be served. On Saturday 16^th January in 2021, Higgs was executed in federal prison.

Notwithstanding Higgin’s gruesome crimes, his case presents a classic example of differential treatment in the American criminal justice system. Differential treatment in the criminal justice system occurs when the proportion of a group (based on race, for instance) in control of the system is greater than the proportion of the said group in the general population (Nembhard & Robin, 2021). As such, the minority group disproportionately interacts with the criminal justice system compared to the dominant group.

In the case of Higgs and the death row issue, people of color appear to end up on dea...