The chapter attempts to set the framework for a critical analysis of the overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system. It describes the racial and ethnic categories used in the United States; the quality of data on race and ethnicity reported by different criminal justice agencies; the distribution of racial and ethnic groups in the United States; and the distinction between disparity and discrimination and what difference it makes with respect to interpreting the criminal justice system. Discussions of race include the problematical nature of traditional categories of race in American society, where many people have mixed ancestry; the impact of a Multicultural category; the politics of racial and ethnic labels; and the theoretical perspective about crime and criminal justice that guides the chapters that follow. Figures, notes