June 2016, 19-year-old Brock Turner was sentenced to 6 months’ jail time for raping an unconscious female (King, 2016). Thus, creating a huge outcry from all over the US once surfacing media. King compares Turners case to Corey Batey an African American 19-year-old who also raped an unconscious female in 2013 and was sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison (2016). Batey’s crime was inexcusable and the judge and jury punished him accordingly states King (2016). “One man will spend the entire prime of his life in prison… the other will be out of jail before the summer heat disappears” (King, 2016). This case and many others prove there is indeed racism in the Judicial System.
The article “There is no evidence of racial discrimination in the Criminal Justice System” Perazzo (2013) argues that there is in no way racism in the CJS. Perazzo (2013) starts off talking about President Obama wanting to change the big differences in charges for crack and cocaine. And also wants to change how blacks and whites are charged differently for the same crime (Perazzo, 2013). Perazzo (2013) argue that this is no longer an issue and should be left in the past.
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Perazzo addresses the fact that the Congressional Black Caucus was worried that crack was destroying black neighborhoods so they asked for even more harsh punishment when convicted of such (2013). He goes on to ask why Obama only addresses that issue and doesn’t question the punishments for dealing methamphetamine which is arguably racists to Caucasians (Perazzo, 2013). Perazzo (2013) finishes off by stating that any accusations of racism in the justice system are simply pipe
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,
In many nation states, it is noticed that there is a disproportionate number of black people especially those youngsters going through the criminal justice system. The overrepresentation is illustrated by related data released by the U.S. Department of Justice and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee. In America, almost 3500 per 100,000 residents of the black male were sent to jail in 2013 which was over seven times more than the ratio their white counterpart had and in England and Wales, 8.5% of young black people aged between 10-17 were arrested during the same period .This essay aims to explore the reasons behind the ethnic overrepresentation in the criminal justice system and believes that the higher rate of offending for some race groups and the existence of systematic racist which partially stems from the contemporary media distortion are attributive to the overrepresentation.
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
Historically racism has pervaded the administration of justice in America and Canada. Racial biases against blacks are still apparent today through the many different arenas of the criminal justice system. Black Americans argue that they are treated unequally and more brutally than whites at all levels in the criminal justice system. As a result of this unequal treatment blacks are more likely to be arrested, charged, convicted and receive longer sentences then whites for the same crimes. Black Americans make up about 12% of the US population and they account for more then 30% of all arrests, 44% of all prisoners and 40% of prisoners on death row (Hunt, 1999:74).
In the graphic novel Race to Incarcerate the mass incarceration of black men is refereed to as a new form of slavery. The system is set up to drag minority men into imprisonment. Once blacks are arrested they are more likely than white counterparts to be charged, convicted and serve harsher prison sentences. Sentences that go on their permanent record, that is if they are released. In numerous cases black defendants are unable to higher a lawyer, and given a Public defender, who tend to push plea deals onto clients. Plea deals can be pushed even if the person is truly innocent, as a way to end the case. And the very few cases that make it to trial with jury’s have a disproportionate number of all white jury’s and black defendants. Ultimately, these factors increase the likelihood of imprisonment for African Americans. But perhaps the most significant factor in the astonishing rates of blacks behind bars is the ongoing and longest war in American
Sampson, Robert J. and Janet L. Lauritsen. 1997. "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States." Crime and Justice 21:311-74. doi: 10.2307/1147634.
For much of the twentieth century, punishment and crime have portrayed some of the most powerful signs of the racial divide in the United States. Marginalized and the poor remains the most biased against the criminal justice scheme (Barak, 2010). Throughout the Americas. racial minorities were tried in white courtrooms by white juries. Class and race are challenging.
In several cases and studies, there is a substantial amount of racial bias in the criminal justice system. In fact, the 1978 McClesky conviction has proven to support Baldus’s study in 1998. Warren McClesky, an African American male, was found guilty of killing a Georgia police officer. The legal team who represented McClesky exposed a study that showed how biased racial inequality is in the death penalty, but the court contended the argument because “disparities in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system” (Touré). Furthermore, race has always been a serious matter in the Supreme Court and other government administrations, but they fail to recognize the
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...
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. Racial disparity in the criminal justice system exists when the proportion of a racial or ethnic group within the control system is higher than the proportion of the group in the general population. The cause of this disparity varies and can include differences in the levels of criminal activity, law enforcements emphasis on particular communities, legislative policies, and/or decision making by one or more persons at some level in the criminal justice system.
This research essay discusses racial disparities in the sentencing policies and process, which is one of the major factors contributing to the current overrepresentation of minorities in the judicial system, further threatening the African American and Latino communities. This is also evident from the fact that Blacks are almost 7 times more likely to be incarcerated than are Whites (Kartz, 2000). The argument presented in the essay is that how the laws that have been established for sentencing tend to target the people of color more and therefore their chances of ending up on prison are higher than the whites. The essay further goes on to talk about the judges and the prosecutors who due to different factors, tend to make their decisions
The question becomes that, after all the progress we’ve made as a society, why do we still allow racism to exist, especially in our criminal justice system? The Sentencing Project, a non-profit organization that promotes changes in sentencing policies and fights against unjust racial practices, conducted a report in July 2009 and found that non-whites made up two-thirds of the people in the US with life sentences (Quigley, “Fourteen Examples of Racism in Criminal Justice System”). Our society is built upon the idea that whites are superior to all other races and, because of this, we may never be able to fully erase racism. However, we can try. Despite what these and other criticisms say, I believe that all humans are equal in all aspects of life, and that race cannot take away a person’s right to live happily and healthily in this world. Although we have come very far, we still have a long way to go. Our efforts will be worth it the day that jail sentences are based on the crime, not the race of the
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
Racial disparity is highly controversial in all areas of our judicial systems starting with the arrest and ending with the imprisonment. Racial and ethnic disparity exists in nearly all of America’s legal systems, despite the progress over the recent years in social and economic status; the numbers still remain high for minorities in our prison system.
Racism is the mistreatment of a group of people on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, place of origin, or ancestry. The term racism may also denote a blind and unreasoning hatred, envy, or prejudice (Dimensions of Racism). Racism has had a strong effect on society. Despite the many efforts made to alleviate racism, what is the future of African Americans' Racism's long history, important leaders, current status, and future outlook will be the main factors in determining how to combat racism. Racism is still present in many societies, although many people are doing their best to put an end to racism and its somewhat tragic ordeals.