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Racial inequality in the Criminal Justice system
Racial inequality in the Criminal Justice system
Racial inequality in the judicial system
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Under the 13th amendment, slavery is now illegal, unless of course you are a criminal. This loophole led to injustice, racism, more profits for corporations and more poverty. Regarding justice, we have whites and minorities being treated differently in the court and with the police. For example, a white man in Florida can easily get away with murdering an innocent black teen because of the stand your ground law. Similarly, white rapists are treated differently from minority rapists. As an example, Brock Turner, a rapist was released from jail after 3 months. This would not be the case for minorities because they are labeled as “super-predators”. In regard to racism, the government is basically setting a model where it is acceptable
Gender and Race play the most prominent role in the criminal justice system. As seen in the movie Central Park 5, five African American boys were charged with the rape of the a white women. In class decision we’ve discussed how the media explodes when it reports cross-racial crimes. The Central Park 5 were known everywhere and even terms were being made up during the process such as wilding. Also, during one of the class discussions it was brought up that victims of crime are of the same race of the perpetrator. However, the media likes to sensationalize crime of the victim being of a different race, because it makes for a good story. By doing this, the media does create more of a division of race. As seen in the video Donald Trump was trying
The 15th Amendment was written by George Washington Julian. This amendment was passed on February 26, 1869 and was ratified February 3, 1870. The 15th Amendment was very significant to many Americans of different races because it changed their lives forever by allowing them to vote. “The present difficulty, in bringing all parts of the United States to a happy unity and love of country grows out of the prejudice to color. The prejudice is a senseless one, but it exists,” said U.S. Grant, 1869.
During the time of reconstruction, the 13th amendment abolished slavery. As the Nation was attempting to pick up their broken pieces and mend the brokenness of the states, former slaves were getting the opportunity to start their new, free lives. This however, created tension between the Northerners and the Southerners once again. The Southerners hated the fact that their slaves were being freed and did not belong to them anymore. The plantations were suffering without the slaves laboring and the owners were running out of solutions. This created tension between the Southern planation owners and the now freed African Americans. There were many laws throughout the North and the South that were made purposely to discriminate the African Americans.
All three types are prevalent throughout the criminal justice system and prevent justice for all. I recommend that in order to decrease disparity in all forms, we examine each case one by one and assign a sentence that fits each specifically. We need to make a clear set of guidelines across state lines, so everyone is on the same platform and treated equally. For gender disparity, we need to tackle the societal view of females in order to show that justice and the law sees no difference in man and women. For racial disparity, we need to train all law enforcement to acknowledge that there is no one race that is more guilty than the other. For age disparity, we need to examine each case on a case by case basis in order to better serve justice to each situation; then the court can decide if it should be tried in adult court or not. Overall, disparity is a major issue that is holding our criminal justice system back from its full potential; we can do better than
In the documentary, 13th, scholars, activists, and politicians scrutinize the 13th amendment and how it affects African Americans. The 13th amendment states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist within the United States, or any subject to their jurisdiction.” The “except as a punishment for crime” part was stressed heavily in the documentary. This section of the amendment created a loophole that led to prison boom over the years. The prison boom was basically a legal way to enslave African Americans again since America was now “land of the free.”
Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System “We simply cannot say we live in a country that offers equal justice to all Americans when racial disparities plague the system by which our society imposes the ultimate punishment,” stated Senator Russ Feingold. Even though racism has always been a problem since the beginning of time, recently in the United States, there has been a rise in discrimination and violence has been directed towards the African American minority primarily from those in the white majority who believe they are more superior, especially in our criminal justice system. There are many different reasons for the ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system between the majority and the minority, but some key reasons are differential involvement, individual racism, and institutional racism to why racial disparities exist in Institutional racism is racism that is shown through government organizations and political institutions. In a report done by David Baldus in 1998, he discovered that when it comes to the death penalty, blacks are more likely sentenced to death than whites, and those who kill whites are more likely to be given the death penalty than the killing of blacks (Touré).
Many inequalities exist within the justice system that need to be brought to light and addressed. Statistics show that African American men are arrested more often than females and people of other races. There are some measures that can and need to be taken to reduce the racial disparity in the justice system.
Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388). Such restrictions included: “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish...No public meetings or congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after sunset…” (Louisiana Black Codes 1865). A solution to this was the 14th Amendment. It meant now all people born in America were citizens and it “Prohibited states from revoking one’s life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This meant all states had to...
White privilege is the paramount example of normalized injustice that still remains in present day society. White people have been fortunate enough to be endowed with criminal immunity, societal advantages and even partisanship in the media, meanwhile people of colour, under the same circumstances are giving nothing. The legal justice system is a prime example of privilege that white people have become accustomed to. The criminal justice system favours white people over people of colour when dealing with criminal offences. People of colour are being subjected to harsher, unjustified punishments for almost identical crimes committed by their white counterparts. (ArrestRecords, 2014). This type of protection under the law serves as a safeguard
The 13th amendment was adopted speedily in the aftermath of the Civil War, with the simple direct purpose of forbidding slavery anywhere in the United States. The 13th Amendment took authority away from the states, so that no state could institute slavery, and it attempted to constitutional grant the natural right of liberty. Think that this amendment would suffice, Congressional Republicans pushed the amendment through. To counter the amendment, a series of laws called the Black Codes were enacted by the former Confederate states, which
Even though the 13th Amendment states that slavery shall not exist, due to convict leasing, debt peonage, and prison labor, involuntary bondage still remains present today. In 1865, the 13th Amendment declared “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” (13th Amendment, 1865). This Amendment supposedly abolished slavery, however people still were forced into labor back then and up to today. One way slavery remained was through convict leasing. Convict leasing was when convicts were loaned to companies for their labor. The prisoners were forced to work in brutal conditions enduring
When a person of color is being sentenced the unjustness of sentencing is blatantly shown such as in the article Race Sentencing and Testimony which stated, “ These scholars conclude that black male arrestees “face significantly more severe charges conditional on arrest offense and other observed characteristics” and attribute this primarily to prosecution charging decisions” (Mauer 4). This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race do these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin. The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but are being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years
America has 5% of the world’s population but also 25% of the world’s prisoners. The 13th amendment states that slavery and involuntary servitude is illegal unless as punishment for a crime. The exception of slavery and involuntary servitude being legal if it is punishment of a crime was a loophole. Because slavery was a major part of the economy in the South, they arrested African-Americans for extremely minor crimes and used the loophole to make them provide labor to rebuild the economy of the South. Doing so caused the first prison boom in America.
Slavery has been a part of human practices for centuries and dates back to the world’s ancient civilizations. In order for us to recognize modern day slavery we must take a look and understand slavery in the American south before the 1860’s, also known as antebellum slavery. Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines a slave as, “a man who is by law deprived of his liberty for life, and becomes the property of another” (B.J.R, pg. 479). In the period of antebellum slavery, African Americans were enslaved on small farms, large plantations, in cities and towns, homes, out on fields, industries and transportation. By law, slaves were the perso...
In the 21st century, justice and equality should not be two topics that Americans have a hard time recognizing. Americans should all feel like they are being treated the same, and that there is no more privileged group. Instead of prejudice and hatred, they expect to receive equal treatment and fairness through any situation. Unfortunately, this is not the case and the world is suffering from a dilemma because many feel that Caucasians are able to get away with crimes that African Americans are not. The definition of justice is the process or the result of using laws to fairly judge and punish criminals, but in today’s society this doesn’t mean a thing. Fairness, equality, and justice are just misused words in modern America because