Systemic racism being an ever-present entity within the criminal justice system is an undeniable fact and manifests itself in different ways.
As I was reviewing my closed files for the year, I noticed a pattern. Ever curious, I reviewed my files over the past two years and confirmed that there was a consistent thread that ran through my domestic cases.
We frequently think about how systemic racism affects the accused. But that isn’t its only manifestation within the criminal justice system. What I noticed was that the race of the complainant was also a factor in how the police conducted their investigations. And this was a variable that operated separately and apart from the race of the accused.
In my view, there is definitely a difference in how police interview a witness in a domestic case when the complainant is white as opposed to a person of colour (POC). I found that police officers were far more skeptical when interviewing Black female complainants. They were more aggressive in their interviews and ready to question narratives given by those witnesses. Often, they would make their disbelief of that story apparent.
In other instances, the problem would be quite the opposite. Instead of asking important questions that would allow the complainant to fill out their narrative, the interview would be cursory, short, and lacking in any detail. Even in cases with serious allegations of sexual assault, police would often interview a Black female complainant for mere minutes. Complainants who were women of colour were more likely to be interviewed by men, or with a male interpreter, and forced to discuss very personal details of sexual abuse with those men. In subsequent statements, those same women would complain that they did not feel comfortable discussing what they said happened with the male officers who were interviewing them.
Contrast this with the experience of complainants who are white women. They were more likely to be interviewed by a female officer, in civilian clothes, in a ‘soft’ interview room. They were more often told that they were believed; brave for having come forward; and assured that they would be protected. These complainants were also afforded the opportunity to give a more fulsome account of what they said happened by being asked questions in a sensitive but probing manner.
I also found that there were differences in the follow-up stages as well. In cases with white female complainants, the police seemed more willing to interview other witnesses, find corroborating evidence, and ensure that disclosure was pushed through to the Crown’s office efficiently.
It should be noted that even though I looked at two years’ worth of files, this is still a very small sample size in the grand scheme of things. This was not a scientific study, but I do take the view that this is an issue that should be looked at closely. I wonder if these findings would be sustained by a more detailed and wide-ranging study. I also wonder if the police treat domestic cases involving same-sex or other non-heterosexual couples in the same manner that they investigate domestic cases involving straight couples.
The disparity in investigative vigor does not always assist in the defense of the accused. In fact, I would say that in many of the cases I considered, the less competent investigations hurt my ability to defend my client for a variety of reasons.
But that’s not the main issue. If these trends I observed hold up at a systemic level, it only adds another example of how systemic racism colours the administration of justice.