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Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
Racial prejudice in the court system
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In the first article the big argument that Morris was presenting in the article was the connection between crime and race, that how it influences the outcomes of what happens to the individual. He connects the statistics to compare them between both white and black males; within these given numbers he shows how race plays a huge part in the outcomes of some of the major crimes being committed in our country. In his article he gives five basic facts on the statistics of crimes associated with race most specifically those between the white and black race. In one of the facts that he presents in this article is that “ for every white male in prison there’s more than seven black males in prison” and here he points out race as being a target for crimes committed against them as well “1 in 30 (black babies) will die a victim of intentional or non-negligent homicide”(Slotnick, pg.324).
The first topic or issue he touches up on is comparison of professional vs. citizen obligations; he covers the fact that once again race plays a huge part in the statistics found within the neighborhoods where the most crime is reported. He speaks of how max weber talks of ones obligation as a citizen and also as a professional; basically if as lawyers we see racial discrimination being a factor within the system we have a professional obligation to do something about it and work to correct the problem. The second issue he touches on is the crime rate that is often associated with race and the data he has gathered together about the rates coming from both white and black males. These numbers are very relevant as to why he feels race plays a big role in how people are seen crime rate data, and how there are some crimes that whites commit more than black v...
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...greatest threat would have to be the fact that people are being convicted based on race is a problem because then you get wrongful convictions that are more than often done due to race discrimination, just because a black man happens to be walking through a neighborhood where a crime was committed doesn’t mean he was the one who committed it; but because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time the law enforcement at the scene of the crime that he happened to be near or walking by assume because he fits the profile of the criminal it must be him. Now the one that is the least of our problems has to be the changing role of federally appointed trial judges and this being due to the fact that most of these changes that are have been occurring in the federal judiciary system are ones that are not so complicated that they can’t be ironed out and dealt with simplicity.
In Race, Ethnicity, Crime, and Justice, Shaun Gabbidon explores the histories of Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa and their difficulties involving race, ethnicity, crime, and colonization. Gabbidon uses Tatum’s colonial model to explain the experiences of racial and ethnic minorities in these five selected countries and concludes that the colonial model suffices as the best criminological theory to understand the development of racial and criminal issues in these countries. Gabbidon then attributes minority oppression and overrepresentation in the criminal justice system to the colonial model and colonization in each of these countries. Gabbidon concludes that colonization had far-reaching effects on each
Just Mercy’s Bryan Stevenson exposes some of these disparities woven around his presentation of the Walter McMillian case, and the overrepresentation of African-American men in our criminal justice system. His accounts of actors in the criminal justice system such as Judge Robert E. Lee and the D.A. Tom Chapman who refused to open up the case or provide support regardless of the overwhelmingly amount of inconsistencies found in the case. The fact that there were instances where policemen paid people off to testify falsely against McMillian others on death row significantly supports this perpetuation of racism. For many of the people of color featured in Stevenson’s book, the justice system was unfair to them wrongfully or excessively punishing them for crimes both violent and nonviolent compared to their white counterparts. Racism towards those of color has caused a “lack of concern and responsiveness by police, prosecutors, and victims’ services providers” and ultimately leads to the mass incarceration of this population (Stevenson, 2014, p. 141). Moreover the lack of diversity within the jury system and those in power plays into the already existing racism. African-American men are quickly becoming disenfranchised in our country through such racist biases leading to over 1/3 of this population “missing” from the overall American population because they are within the criminal justice
In 1999, black men are much more likely to be stopped and searched by six percent than Asian and White men. The Macpherson inquiry report generated institutional racism after the death of a young black man named Stephen Lawrence. There are disproportionately large number of crimes committed by young black men, according to police records that leads to inequalities (Parliament u.k., n.d.). In the light of, policy makers tried their best to ameliorate the racism problem and to prosecute racist offenders (Phillips, 2007). However, the implications of institutional racism affect black men and remains prevalent up to these days based on statistic records.
While he explored a much wide range of issues within the justice system based on racism, he made me consider and ponder on many issues that I have overlooked concerning racial discrimination towards blacks. For instance, discrimination by prosecutors and judges towards black defendants, racial appeals made by attorneys in criminal trials, and by police and politicians who neglect the public safety of minority neighborhoods. Not to mention, that he fears that blacks making false allegations of racism will only contradict themselves and make white Americans or officials not support racial prejudice. I agree with Kennedy regarding that these issues have been overlooked for decades now. The most convincing part to me was the material that focuses on the history of the legal system, which he makes note of criminal law has been flooded with racism. He makes many valid arguments that I agree with in reference to racial discrimination against African Americans; mainly about the criminal justice system fails to protect African Americans, specifically, stereotyping all blacks as criminals. Over some time now the United States criminal justice system has been corrupted and officials have abused their power which causes African Americans to not respect officials or white people. Moreover, Kennedy touches on very important factors in relation to the race question in criminal law and the effect race
Welch, Kelly. 2007. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Justice 23(3): 276-288 also talks about the discrimination within the courtroom, in the court it has been shown that the prosecutors when fighting a case against the defendant who’s client is Black use their race as an argument to win the case. They try to show how Black people are prone to be violent due to racial factors and therefore should be sentenced harshly. Given the history, unfortunately this argument sets in well and therefore leads to sentencing and prison time for the Black
Is race and ethnicity a contemporary issue in today’s modern criminal justice system, or is it an issue of the past. Race and ethnicity plays a huge role in our justice system, to say that is doesn’t would be false. We can look back through history and we can see many example of how much of a role it has played. There are many studies that prove that race and ethnicity is still a current issue in our contemporary criminal justice system. There are many debates about whether it does or does not still impact our justice system as well. We cannot deny that race and ethnicity impacts the operations of our justice system, not justice in our system, but in other systems around the world. In particular, race and ethnicity still impacts our system
...ere taken in the initial discussions of getting tough on crime in the late 1960s and early 1970s: the conservative side which argued that “poverty was caused not by structural factors related to race and class but rather by culture – particularly black culture” and the liberal side which argued that “social reforms such as the War on Poverty and civil rights legislation would get at the root causes of criminal behavior and stressed the social conditions that predictably generate crime” (Alexander, 2012, p. 45). The liberals were definitely onto something. The process by which we address crime must account for the intersectionality of our country relative to crime. We must respond by shaping our legal framework around a system that is not racially biased, that takes care of the poor and that accounts for gender differences that largely separate males and females.
Crime has always been a hot topic in sociology. There are many different reasons for people to commit criminal acts. There is no way to pinpoint the source of crime. I am going to show the relationship between race and crime. More specifically, I will be discussing the higher chances of minorities being involved in the criminal justice system than the majority population, discrimination, racial profiling and the environment criminals live in.
These authors’ arguments are both well-articulated and comprehensive, addressing virtually every pertinent concept in the issue of explaining racially disparate arrest rates. In The Myth of a Racist Criminal Justice System, Wilbanks insists that racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is a fabrication, explaining the over-representation of African Americans in arrest numbers simply through higher incidence of crime. Walker, Spohn and DeLone’s The Color of Justice dissents that not only are African Americans not anywhere near the disproportionate level of crime that police statistics would indicate, they are also arrested more because they are policed discriminately. Walker, Spohn and DeLone addi...
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
In Bryan Stevenson’s essay, “Close To Death: Reflections on Race and Capital Punishment In America” he claims that there is a tremendous racial problem in our criminal justice system. Stevenson explains,
The article “What It’s like to Be Black in the Criminal Justice System “ say that blacks are more likely to be jailed while awaiting trial. Many would say that the defendants and their families could not afford to pay their bail, which may have been true, but he may have not even been allowed a bond at all. Not being able to be bailed out of jail causes a lot of hurt to a family physically, emotionally and economically. According to the article “Is the Criminal Justice System Racist” racism is not why more blacks were in prison proportionately than whites and for longer terms. They say blacks are more likely to be imprisoned for crimes, but who really knows the truth. All we know is that blacks are not treated fairly when it comes to bonds and
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
Hart discusses the article he read from the 1980s. These articles were designed to elicit fear in white Americans. The articles stated fallacies like black men became homicidal and were not affected by bullets. These types of stories are still heard today. The most recent example would be the reporting on the Michael Brown case, the media played on the fact that he was on THC and that he was invincible to the bullets, further feeding into the stereotype that black men are violent on drugs and bulletproof.
Scapegoating is when a person irrationally blames their failures on others, therefore not taking responsibility themselves. The “scapegoating theory says that prejudiced people believe they are society’s victims” (Schaefer 38). It is always someone else’s fault that things do not go their way and the person “… transfers the responsibility for failure to some vulnerable group” (Schaefer 38).