The criminal justice system functions as a hierarchy-maintaining instrument

Evidence

One finding from the study of institutional discrimination and associated forms of terror is that the legal and criminal justice systems are among the major instruments used in establishing and maintaining the hierarchical structure of intergroup relations. Admittedly, the internal security and criminal justice systems are designed to maintain “law and order.” However, from a social dominance perspective, in the aggregate, “law” is often written and enforced so as to favor the interests of dominants and “order” is often defined as those social conditions that disproportionately protect and maintain the interests of dominants. Therefore, contrary to the commonly held assumption that discrimination against subordinates within the criminal justice system is relatively rare, nonsystematic, and completely overshadowed by the everyday realities of basic fairness and equity, social dominance theory suggests that discrimination within the criminal justice system is quite systematic and comprehensive in its effects. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3199

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the diamond-trade and law-merchant findings — legal systems serve dominant-group maintenance rather than neutral justice.
• DEEPTHINKING: A paradigm-level claim that reframes ‘law and order’ itself as an instrument of hierarchy, resisting a one-line summary.