ABSTRACT
The most important role of government is to secure the physical safety of those governed. Many institutions participate in that process: the police; the legislature; the bar, specifically prosecutors and defense attorneys; the courts, including judges and juries; and the prisons. In a democracy, those institutions must serve and protect all communities with equal vigor and equal fairness. This chapter explores whether Hispanic communities are being well and fairly served by those institutions. The last ten years have provided the beginnings of studies and documentation that will help, in part, to answer the question. Still, too often the facts and figures are provided in an amalgam of “minority” statistics, leaving the scholar to interpret the specific relation of that information to Hispanic communities. In the decade to come, researchers would be wise to increase focus on Hispanic communities as worthy of independent study. Indeed, legislators should mandate the collection of data on Hispanics.
