1. Why do Black and Minority Ethnic young people experience differential treatment in the Youth Justice System? This essay will explore whether there is equality in the criminal justice system. It aims to look at statistics, legislation and studies from the past 30-40 years to get a thorough analysis of the processes and experiences different races in particular black and ethnic minority youths have been through within the criminal justice system. There have been various alterations to the definition of “Black”. In the USA Frederickson (1987) Illustrated in 1705, the state of Virginia boldly declared any child, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild of a Negro, would be deemed as a Negro. Consequently, in 1866, Virginia stated any individual with one fourth of Negro heritage should be deemed as a “coloured person”. This percentage was altered again in 1910; Individuals with one sixteenth of Negro blood would be classified as black. The last amendment was made in 1924 with the implementation of the Racial Black Purity Act; however the previous percentages were eradicated and a penultimate decision was made: a black person is any one person with black Ancestry. This definition was often referred to as the “One drop” rule. However, the act was seen as problematic, as it became apparent not all individuals` knew or had the resources to access or trace their Ancestry roots. The term Black and Minority ethnic (BME), is now widely used. BME was mainly used to prescribe people with colour (dominantly black), usually of Caribbean, African, or Asian descent (Somerville & Steele, 2002) .(BME) communities are comprised of people from different “national backgrounds and ethnicities “ living within the UK (Casey & B... ... middle of paper ... ...awerence Inquiry. London: Home Office. Moore, W. E. (1971). American Negro Slavery and Abolition: a socialogical study. United states of America: Arno press Inc. Smedley, A. (1997). Origin of the idea of race. chicargo: livingston press. Somerville, P., & Steele, A. (2002). 'Race', housing and social exclusion. London: Jessica Kinsglsy Publishers. Uunever,T (1980). racial differences in the criminal justice system. sociological quarterly, 197-205. Walters, R. (1990). ethinic minorities and the criminal justice system. England: Gower. Wasserman, A., & Horwitz, A. (1980). Formal rationality, substantive justice and discrimination. Law and human behaviour, 103-115. Weston, T. (2002). An Overview on Employment in Britain. Newcastle: Flo House Inc. young, j., & lea, j. (1993). what is to be done about law and order? crisis in the communites . london: pluto press.
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Show MoreThe 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.
In the essay “The One-Drop Rule Defined,” an excerpt from the book Who is Black? One Nation’s Answer, F. James Davis asserts that the one-drop rule classifies anyone with a single drop of “black blood” as black. It was introduced in the American South, in an attempt to keep the power and money in the hands of the whites. The rule, however, has outgrown the South and is now used by the nation in order to determine who is black. It
Altman, Linda Jacobs. Slavery and Abolition in American History. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 1999. Print.
Many would argue that the reason why the incarceration rate for African Americans is sustainably higher compared to white American is because of economic situations, and because of past arrest patterns. While it is true that the economic opportunity someone has will affect their decisions, this argument doesn’t fully explain the real reason of why the rates are higher. To fully understand the reason why one must look back on America’s history and how African Americans were treated. The past arrest patterns do not explain why the gap continues to increase, however it is clear that the past arrest patterns is more an indicator of institutional racism that exists in this country. One study found that African Americans believe the reason for the high incarceration rates is becau...
For most American’s especially African Americans, the abolition of slavery in 1865 was a significant point in history, but for African Americans, although slavery was abolished it gave root for a new form of slavery that showed to be equally as terrorizing for blacks. In the novel Slavery by Another Name, by Douglas Blackmon he examines the reconstruction era, which provided a form of coerced labor in a convict leasing system, where many African Americans were convicted on triumphed up charges for decades.
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
racial minorities were tried in white courtrooms by white juries. Class and race are challenging
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
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.
Weich, R., & Angulo, C. (2002). Racial disparities in the American criminal justice system. Rights at risk: Equality in an age of terrorism, 185-218.
Discrimination against the minority population is a major problem in the United States society’s justice system. There are many examples where African American and low-income minorities are treated differently and not given the chance to prove their innocence. The law enforcement promises to treat all men or women equal opportunity, but the same system has put 120,000 innocent African Americans in prison. While most of them still remain in prisons, injustice by law enforcements is still a burden to the minorities in America. Moreover, wrongful conviction is a horrible injustice when a person spends years in jail. This is getting recognized by the U.S. system but often late. In many cases by the time a person is proven innocent, he or she might
Johnson, J. B., & Secret, P. E. (1990). “Race And Juvenile Court Decision Making Revisited.” Criminal Justice Policy Review, 4(2), 159-187.
Racism within the Justice System. Living in the twenty first century, Americans would like to believe that they are living in the land of the free, where anyone and everyone can live an ordinary life without worrying that they will be arrested on the spot for doing absolutely nothing. The sad truth, with the evidence to prove it, is that this American Dream is not all that it appears to be. It has been corrupted and continues to be, everyday, by the racism that is in the criminal justice system of America. Racism has perpetuated the corruption of the criminal justice system from the initial stop, the sentencing in court, all the way to the life of an inmate in the prison.
An individual’s decision to commit crimes is not something that is passed on from their parents. In our urban communities, more often, among most populations that are nonwhite, the children of these households are exposed to the criminal justice system more frequently than their white counterparts. This happens because of the extreme disparities present in the prosecution of brown people in general. Children of our nonwhite families grow up with parents, uncles, siblings, and friends who are in and out of the jails and prisons in our country. This creates a normalizing undertone to criminal behavior and exposure to the criminal justice system. 75 percent of nonwhite youths between 15 to 18 years of age, would admit they expect to go to prison at some time in their lives. This acceptance of incarceration is a very undesirable aspect to our inner-city communities. The decision to commit crime is no longer weighed against incarceration or consequence because there is no shame or fear to the incarceration
The United States of America is by all rights a multi-racial, multi-ethnic society comprising mainly of Whites, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asian and Native Americans. This multi-racial society has seen with it the development and manifestation of racial disparity since its inception. Such notions are commonly based on beliefs that some races are more superior to others. Such notions have found root to the core of the American society, and to this end to the justice system which is by all means a social element. Under criminal law, this may be reflected in regards to legal factors as well as extralegal factors. Whereas the legal influences may contain aspects like the seriousness of the crime as well as the criminal records, extralegal notions are based on factors like gender, race, and class amongst others. These thus fail the test of criminal behavior as they are based mainly on the group membership an individual belongs to.