Critical Race Theory Essay

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Critical Race theory was developed in law school during the 1980s. The central explanatory variable for conflict theory went from class to race. The focus of race was used to understand crime and the criminal justice response in a capitalistic society. This led to concern over differential reactions to racial/ethnic groups by the law and criminal justice system. The biggest assumption is that racism is a predominant feature of American society. Society and higher authorities were not selecting people off their abilities rather used race to differentiate treatment. Critical race theory correlates opportunities with crime through race structure. Crime between race is inherently different. An example of this is the use of drugs in society and …show more content…

Over time with the mass production, these readily available drugs began selling for a cheaper price to gain more clientele and in turn gaining more profit. The upper-class was not okay with this and began to enforce rules and regulations against the use of cheaper drugs. Claims like opium causes violence were one among many excuses. The upper class spun this idea that certain groups are affected by drugs in a negative way causing them to become violent. This began the attempt of removing the “problem population” of the 1970s. The fear of the capitalistic society was that if people used drugs then they will stop spending time producing rather their focus would be using drugs. Spitzer stated that this problem population is created by either expression of fundamental contradictions in the capitalist mode of production or by indirect disturbances in the system of the class rule (Spitzer, 1975). Over time this view of problem populations creation of two groups known as the social junk and the social dynamite. Social Junks as described by Spitzer are groups that refuse to participate in the supportive roles of a capitalistic society. While Social dynamites, on the other hand, tend to be youthful, alienated, and politically volatile in comparison to the social junk (Spitzer,

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