Chapter 3 examines the common belief that those who are accused of crimes, particularly ethnic minorities, are probably guilty of something. The chapter begins by citing bias in news presentations of crime that reinforce the belief that people of color are criminally inclined. The process of criminalizing black and brown life begins early with disparities in discipline in schools resulting in the school-to-prison pipeline. Experiments on the shooting bias as well as actual police shootings is discussed next. The popularity of Stand Your Ground laws codifies white vigilantism. Biases that can enter all aspects of police investigation, criminal prosecution, sentencing, and the death penality are discussed. Experimental research exposing the role that harsh interrogations and false confessions in routing innocent suspects into the criminal legal system is presented as well. Juror behavior and their processing of evidence is also addressed in Chapter 3. The chapter concludes with suggested policy changes to prevent false confession and conviction, and toward more fairness in the criminal legal system.

Kristin Henning uses Nas’s 2018 song “Cops Shot the Kid” to make a case that the crisis in racist American policing begins with its children. The heartrending and evocative song features Kanye West and samplings from Slick Rick’s 1989 song “Children’s Story” and Richard Pryor’s 1973 film Wattstax. Nas’s theme is cogent and his lyrics powerfully capture what every black child knows—“white kids are brought in alive, black kids get hit with like five.” That is five bullets for normal summer adolescent fun like “slap-boxin’ in the street, crack the hydrant in the heat.” As Nas says “I don’t wanna hurt nobody. We just came here to party. See a few dames, exchange some names.” And yet he knows, every black child can expect to be criminalized, harassed, and even killed for doing what teenagers do all over the world—flirting with girls, rough-housing with their friends, sagging their pants, playing with toy guns, going to parties, laughing, and defying “authority.” Just as white youth are given the freedom to test boundaries and experiment with sex and drugs, black youth are treated as a threat to white America and deprived of the fundamental benefits of healthy adolescent development.