More handpicked essays just for you.
Racial disparities in the justice system essay
Racial inequalities in the criminal justice system
Racial disparities in the justice system essay
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Racial disparities in the justice system essay
In my opinion the trend in racial disparities in incarceration is of a strategic planning process designed by government officials in a political system that governs and regulates the corrections policy. Not to mention the money that is generated and the people who profit from it. Don’t misunderstand me some criminals belong behind bars to make the streets safe. But the system has mistreated minorities for decades and for this reason people of color has been marked to become victims of circumstance. Thus a criminal record hinders their future. Theses established government agencies have the authority to impose penalties to arrest more minorities than whites for committing the same crimes such as using and selling drugs no matter what communities
There is a strong inequality present in this problem as well, minorities who are often already at a disadvantage compared to their white classmates, are that much more dependent upon receiving an education as a way to break the chains of poverty, but it isn’t just learning, if they are not in school, they are not in an environment that is safe and constructive, therefore a suspension can be life altering (Nelson & Lind, 2015). Studies have shown it is the number-one predictor even more so than a student’s poverty level that the failure to receive an education greatly increases the likelihood of unemployment, and deviant behavior (Nelson & Lind, 2015).
The work by Victor M. Rios entitled Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys and Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness depict ways in which policing and incarceration affect inequalities that exist in society. In this body of work I will draw on specific examples from the works of Victor M. Rios and Michelle Alexander to fulfill the tasks of this project. Over the course of the semester and by means of supplemental readings, a few key points are highlighted: how race and gender inequalities correlate to policing and incarceration, how laws marginalize specific groups, and lastly how policing and incarceration perpetuate the very inequalities that exist within American society.
Nationwide, blacks are incarcerated at 8.2 times the rate of whites (Human Rights Watch, 2000).” This difference in proportionality does not necessarily involve direct discrimination; it can be explained by a number of combined factors. Correctional agencies do not control the number of minorities who enter their facilities. Therefore, the disparity must come from decisions made earlier in the criminal justice process. Law enforcement, court pre-sentencing policies and procedures, and sentencing all have a direct effect on the overrepresentation of minorities in the correctional population.
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
“Most modem sentencing systems in the United States express an explicit commitment to ensuring that a defendant 's sentence is not affected by the defendant 's race or gender (Hessick, 2010).” Even though individuals are protected through the Bill of Rights and Sentencing Reform Acts, there are still disparities in sentencing within the criminal justice systems. Often, race and gender bias negatively affects sentencing.
In recent decades, violent crimes in the United States of America have been on a steady decline, however, the number of people in the United States under some form of correctional control is reaching towering heights and reaching record proportions. In the last thirty years, the incarceration rates in the United States has skyrocketed; the numbers roughly quadrupled from around five hundred thousand to more than 2 million people. (NAACP)In a speech on criminal justice at Columbia University, Hillary Clinton notes that, “It’s a stark fact that the United States has less than five percent of the world’s population, yet we have almost 25 percent of the world’s total prison population. The numbers today are much higher than they were 30, 40
“Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men's skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.”(Lyndon Johnson). For generations in the United Stated, ethnic minorities have been discriminated against and denied fair opportunity and equal rights. In the beginning there was slavery, and thereafter came an era of racism which directly impacted millions of minorities lives. This period called Jim Crow was the name of the racial caste system up in till mid 1960s. Jim Crow was more than just a series of severe anti-Black laws, it became a way of life. Under Jim Crow, African Americans were positioned to the status of second class citizens. What Jim Crow did is represented the anti-Black racism. Further on, In 1970’s the term “War on Drugs” was coined by President Richard Nixon . Later President Ronald Reagan officially declared the current drug war. In reality the war had little to do with drug crime and a lot to do with racial politics. The drug war was part of a strategy of used by the government. The President identified drug abuse as national threat. Therefore, they called for a national anti-drug policy, the policy began pushing for the involvement of the police force and military in drug prohibition efforts. The government did believe that blacks or minorities were a cause of the drug problem. They concentrated on inner city poor neighborhoods, drug related violence, they wanted to publicize the drug war which lead Congress to devote millions of dollars in additional funding to it. The war on drugs targeted and criminalized disproportionably urban minorities. There for, “War on Drugs” results in the incarceration of one million Americans ...
Turner, Billy. 1986. “Race and Peremptory Challenges During Voir Dire: Do Prosecution and Defense Agree?” Journal of Criminal Justice 14: 61-69.
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.
The criminal justice system is united under one basic law body, in which no racism is present. Personal beliefs and anecdotes prove nothing, the criminal justice system isn’t racist. Although it may seem African Americans are highly discriminated upon in the justice system, there is ample amounts of data to prove otherwise. The criminal justice system is united under one basic law body, in which no racism is present. The system is not to blame for the racial differences found in the United States criminal justice system. The racial issues found in the system are due to inner city isolation and common crime patterns involving drugs even if it may seem as if the system is racist.
More people today are being incarcerated than ever before and is the unfortunate result of prejudice and the prison industrial complex. Racism has existed for centuries and has never been eradicated, but it has taken different forms of expression. Many people today suffer from mental illnesses, homelessness, and other social problems that may not let them experience a fulfilling life. This can be due to their fault, but it is also due to the government system not taking proper action against these issues. Instead, the government chooses to incarcerate many of these people with social problems for felonies. In fact, Angela Davis states in her article that over 70 percent of those who are imprisoned are people of color. This means that government and corporations are taking advantage of people who are of color
There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes African- Americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1
Racial Profiling has tremendously affected the mass incarceration rate in America. It has increased every year since 1920-2014. America’s prison system has become the world’s largest prison incarceration. To in prison an individual has become much easier than trying to actually rehabilitate them and put them back out in society. There are about 2.2 Million people in America's Prisons and Jails. The increase of mass incarceration started after the Sentencing Reform Act was passed which was part of the Comprehensive Reform Act of 1984. The “Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 Sets forth a new sentencing structure applicable to a defendant who is found guilty of an offense under any Federal statute. Permits an individual to be sentenced to a term of
In today’s time, there were twice as much criminals are locked up in prison. It is devastating that black people have the most percentage of prisoners of the race. They been put to prison for many sexual abuse, drugs, stealing, and robbing stores. The other horrendous fact about criminals is blacks getting killed by whites are high. Police puts black or african american people to prison because of racial experience and high uses of drugs, and high rate of crime
There is also legislation that discriminates against blacks. In an investigation of the effects of incarceration on job searches, Amanda Geller reports that incarceration does in fact have a negative effect on employment. She also states that for black men there is a 3:1 ratio of clean records to criminal records. This differs from the 2:1 ratio for white men. For any ex-inmate it is very hard time to find a job, but it is even harder for a black ex-inmate to find a job. Without a job ex-inmates need to make money somehow. This may cause them to to turn toward gangs or towards crime. This is part of the reason for the large amounts recidivism. Another part of it is legislation that is racist towards black men. An example of this is the federal sentencing for crack and cocaine. The sentence for “crack selling (more heavily sold and used by people of color) [results] in a sentence 100 times more severe than for selling the same amount of powder cocaine (more heavily sold and used by whites)”(Crutchfield). This law was passed so that the government would have more reason to keep black men in jail. By making the punishment 100 times more severe for practically the same offense is straight up racist. It is shown in Crutchfield's study that the longer men stay in prison the more likely they are to recidivate. So by