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Sentencing disparities among race
Sentencing disparities among race
Racial discrimination in the united states
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Among the many issues in sentencing, racial disparities are perhaps most evident in the population of penal institutions / prisons and jails. Bartollas and Siegel state “research supportive of racial discrimination in sentencing generally shows… “those convicted of drug offenses, those who accumulate more serious prior criminal records, those who refuse to plead guilty and those unable to secure pretrial release -minorities are singled out for harsher treatment. Minority defendants receive harsher sanctions if their victims are white…” and “those who murder whites are more likely to receive the death penalty…” (2013). Given the socio-economic status of many of these individuals, and based on the information presented, an argument can be made
The US Justice Department statistics 2003 and onwards demonstrates significant disproportion in the incarceration rate of minority African American and Hispanic men between the ages of 25 and 29 years as compared to the rate associated with White men of the same age. Bell (2007), proposes that as minority groups grow in numbers within the dominant group they will experience greater equality. However, rate of incarceration among minority males remains alarmingly high and as compared to their White counterparts. As with health care there are racial disparities that will influence outcomes when an individual is brought before the criminal courts. Additionally, there is significant correlation between a person’s level of education and the likelihood of his involvement in criminal activities. Studies and statistics have shown that among male high school dropouts there is high incidence of unemployment, low income and rate of illicit drug use as compared to men with degrees from four year colleges. Further to this, although the rate of school dropout and even arrest is not significantly different across the race lines, literature alludes that African American men have a higher rate of conviction for the same crime committed.
“A report by the United States General Accounting Office in 1990 concluded that 82 percent of the empirically valid studies on the subject show that the race of the victim has an impact on capital charging decisions or sentencing verdicts or both” (86).
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
“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.
Race plays a large factor in showing how you are viewed in society. Although there is no longer slavery and separate water fountains, we can still see areas of our daily life clearly affected by race. One of these areas is the criminal justice system and that is because the color of your skin can easily yet unfairly determine if you receive the death penalty. The controversial evidence showing that race is a large contributing factor in death penalty cases shows that there needs to be a change in the system and action taken against these biases. The issue is wide spread throughout the United States and can be proven with statistics. There is a higher probability that a black on white crime will result in a death penalty verdict than black on black or white on black. Race will ultimately define the final ruling of the sentence which is evident in the racial disparities of the death penalty. The amount of blacks on death row can easily be seen considering the majority of the prison population is black or blacks that committed the same crime as a white person but got a harsher sentence. The biases and prejudices that are in our society relating to race come to light when a jury is selected to determine a death sentence. So what is the relationship between race and the death penalty? This paper is set out to prove findings of different race related sentences and why blacks are sentenced to death more for a black on white crime. Looking at the racial divide we once had in early American history and statistics from sources and data regarding the number of blacks on death row/executed, we can expose the issues with this racial dilemma.
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).
Turner, Billy. 1986. “Race and Peremptory Challenges During Voir Dire: Do Prosecution and Defense Agree?” Journal of Criminal Justice 14: 61-69.
...King, R., and Mauer, M., (2007). The Sentencing Project. Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_stateratesofincbyraceandethnicity.pdf
In the United States, the rate of incarceration has increased shockingly over the past few years. In 2008, it was said that one in 100 U.S. adults were behind bars, meaning more than 2.3 million people. Even more surprising than this high rate is the fact that African Americans have been disproportionately incarcerated, especially low-income and lowly educated blacks. This is racialized mass incarceration. There are a few reasons why racialized mass incarceration occurs and how it negatively affects poor black communities.
2010, “Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community”, African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies 4(1): 1-31, in this Albonetti’s study is discussed in which it was found that minority status alone accounted for an additional sentence length of “one to seven months.” African American defendants were “likely to receive pretrial release but were more likely to be convicted, and be given harsher sentences after conviction than white defendants charged with the same crimes.” One of the reasons behind this are the sentencing laws, it is seen that these laws are designed in a way that they tend to be harsher towards a certain group of people, generally towards the people of color than others thus leading to inequality with the sentencing
The criminal justice system in the United States seek to create equality for all its citizens under the law, however, existing systems give advantage to some groups over others. Systemic bias, along with prejudice and generalization, has created division among groups in many social issues. Uncovering disparities between various group interactions is crucial in addressing long standing social issues; this is a good first step at fixing these issues. This paper will analyze the U.S criminal justice system’s treatment of normative white groups over ethnic minorities through privilege, in areas of race, gender, and social class, to show the results of such interactions.
The article gives insight on racial disparity in the juvenile justice system and how it play a crucial role in sentencing. The article explain in depth detailed what is racial disparities, for example similar crime, but however dissimilar treatment based on race. The article argues how racial disparity is effecting the African American communities. The impact on the life prospects for the African American males. The article illustrates the prevalent nature how the juvenile justice process are enclosing an ethnic group in prison and leaving families to cope with the problem of having a love one incarcerated mostly their adolescent years; instead a given alternative that is more feasible. The article gives detailed how the greater population
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
The justice system is something everyone wants to believe is fair. So, in theory, if a person is innocent, there is no need to fear the justice system. The justice system has many layers, and in order for a suspect to determined guilty, he or she must go through all these layers. These layers start with the detection of a crime. Then, law enforcement must find proof, and arrest suspects. After filing a police report for the crime, a trial must take place, the proof is presented, and a jury and judge determine the guilt of the suspect. Only after passing through all of these layers can a suspect be determined guilty. Not to mention the constitution-the constitution contains many rights that protect a suspect from being determined guilty when
Evidence overwhelmingly shows that glaring racial disparities do exist in patterns of incarceration throughout the country. The racial group that has been consistently the most disproportionately affected is the African American community: while they make up only about thirteen percent of the United States population, they make up approximately half of the nation’s incarcerated population (Yates 1001). This indicates that external factors are likely at play. Previous research suggests three common theories for why this disparity may exist. The first is that African Americans break the law more often and commit more serious crimes than their white counterparts (Yates 1002). The second theory is that racial discrimination against African Americans on the part of criminal justice actors causes the disparity (Yates 1002). The third main theory is an economic one, that states that African Americans are more likely to become incarcerated since they are more likely to live in low-income communities that face high levels of poverty and unemployment (Yates 1002). Racial disparities in incarceration rates are complex phenomena, however, and cannot be attributed to any single factor (Yates