Systematic racism can be defined as how discrimination weaves its way into policies and practices that exist within an organization or society. Racism comes in many forms, but the one area that does not often get talked about is how it can affect young black children, specifically in the context of police brutality and the judicial system. Dehumanization occurs when one is deprived of their human qualities, or subject someone to inhuman treatment and conditions. Black children are more susceptible to being treated unfairly than white adolescents, and this stems from how their innocence is perceived. In multiple studies conducted by Phillip Atiba Goff and Matthew Christian Jackson, the sheer horrifying consequences of dehumanizing black children can be demonstrated.
It is unfortunate to say, but the perceptions held by law enforcement officers and court judges determine how they want to engage with black children in terms of aggression and sentencing. Male black children are more likely to be perceived as older and less innocent than they actually are, particularly after they turn 10 years old (Goff et al., 2014). This terrifying misperception can lead to potential harsher treatment and decreased protection that are commonly afforded to children of all races. However, this finding pertains to a more generalized context instead of a judicially-focused area. In terms of dehumanization, the association of black people and apes has been linked to the perception of male black children as more adult-like and less innocent (Goff et al., 2014). This specific instance of dehumanization has also been correlated with racial disparities in police violence in the sense that black children are more prone to experiencing aggressive force from officers than white children are (Goff et al., 2014). Misperceptions of age and innocence inherently cause black children to suffer unruly consequences that they realistically should be protected from. The biggest concern is that programs dedicated to reducing these misperceptions are either not implemented or are highly ineffective, given the results of these studies.
These behaviors of dehumanization are often implicitly found within police officers, meaning that their perceptions of black children are not overtly expressed before they engage in violent tendencies. Even when controlling for explicit racial bias, implicit dehumanization among police officers was still able to predict a greater use of force against black children (Goff et al., 2014). Essentially, the traditional measures of prejudice, like explicit racial bias, could not account for these findings, which only further demonstrates how negatively powerful the effects of dehumanization really are. The main determinant of these studies was that in contexts where dehumanization is present, the childhood identity belonging to black youth is diminished, which leads to misperceptions of age and criminal accountability.
How can programs be better implemented into police training programs so that the positive messages of identifying bias and dehumanization practices stick with law enforcement officers?