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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.
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 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 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.
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.
In my free time at work I used to listen to You-Tube documentaries on serial killers. I thought it was interesting and it passed the time. Looking back, I now notice that most of the serial killers were white males, middle class, and heterosexual. Without reading this article I probably would have never thought of the fact that most of the serial killers were in fact of that nature. This article just continues to prove that people can not judge people based on race, social status, or gender. There is more that goes on in a person’s brain then what they look like or how they might seem on the
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
123) Is there a such thing as a solution to this exceptionally large issue present or will it just be an ongoing form of repression that all men of color will have to endure? Sadly, the only solution is to revamp the entire criminal justice system and schools of thought that have been engrained in people of authority’s minds for so many decades now. The same crimes that are committed in ghetto neighborhoods are committed on Wall Street, for example. The dilemma, however, is that not all people in the ghetto have a roof over their heads to commit said crimes and police officers closely patrol those neighborhoods because they are aware that they can easily arrest a ‘delinquent’. With this being said, while there may never be a sure fix, the possible solution to this problem is to teach police officers and those in authority that Blacks and Whites are one in the same. The same drugs that Blacks do, Whites do; furthermore, Whites can and do commit the same violent crimes, sometimes worse, that Blacks do. The color of a person’s skin or their gender does not dictate their level of violence or delinquency. To attempt to rectify this complication in society, police officers need to
This quote shows what a study found in Seattle, that the population in Seattle is seventy percent but most of the people in jail are blacks. Seattle has a problem where cocaine and crack are the main drugs being abused and sold, but the people who sell it the most are whites, but the majority who end up in jail for cocaine or crack charges are African Americans. Well this happens because black people do drugs but also white people, but the ones who are the victims of incarceration are blacks, this mainly due to the way the law enforcements act towards the poor colored communities. The issue arose from people that are non white abusing certain drugs, the drugs got outlawed every time a certain race abused it.
In the article, Debrabander describes real events in the article that strongly supports the article’s argument and persuades the audience towards his point of view. For example, Debrander starts out the article by explaining the Dunn-Davis case, which was about a man, named Michael Dunn, who decided to “open fire into a car full of black teenagers in a convenience store parking lot” when the teenagers refused to lower the, as Dunn called it, “thug music” (Debrander 1). By starting the article with this event, Debrander is able to show the reader how teenageers are dying from becuase of this law. Since Debrander wants to make the situation feel even more severe, he continues by talking about the Reeves-Oulson case. Next, Debrander describes how a retired policeman, Curtis Reeves, shot Oulson, who was sitting in the movie theater, for texting and throwing...
The 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.
Many Americans pretend that the days of racism are far behind; however it is clear that institutional racism still exists in this country. One way of viewing this institutional racism is looking at our nation’s prison system and how the incarceration rates are skewed towards African American men. The reasons for the incarceration rate disparity are argued and different between races, but history points out and starts to show the reason of why the disparity began. Families and children of the incarcerated are adversely affected due to the discrimination as well as the discrimination against African American students and their likelihood of going to prison compared to the white student. African American women are also affected by the discrimination in the incarceration rate. Many white Americans don’t see how racism affects incarceration rates, and that African Americans are more likely to face discrimination from the police as well as being falsely arrested.
Their race resulted in mass incarceration of people serving longer sentences for minor charges and long rap sheets just because the system believes more in incarceration rather than focusing on the root of crime. Yet the race is imprisoning the ones who identify as African American because they have always been seen as the ones too commit the crime. It may be hard for some people to come to terms with but the black race is sentenced more to jail or prison time than any others. It is not because they are the most likely to commit crime, but they have always fallen victim to the causes of it. This book helped me to take that all into perspective, like this system has been built of so much it would take the same amount of time to
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
From the article, Davis’s main argument is that the mainstream society has developed the perception the black men are to blame for the
According to Rachel Boba, “Crime analysis is a law enforcement function that involves systematic analysis for identifying and analyzing patterns and trends in crime and disorder” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime analysis).The information on these patterns can assist law enforcement agencies in the deployment of resources in a more effective manner; it can also help detectives to identify and catch suspects. Crime analysis also plays a role in improvising solutions to crime problems, and developing crime prevention strategies. There are various types of technology that is used in crime analysis. Crime analysis relies heavily on computer technology, and over the past fifteen years there has been a significant improvement in computer hardware and software that has led to tremendous developments in this field. One form of hardware that is used by Crime analysts to complete most of their work is Desktop personal computers, laptop computers are also used by crime analysts for fieldwork and presentations. Other forms of hardware that are used include color laser printers that can produce high-quality documents quickly, plotters which are printers that can produce large poster size color maps, scanners, and digital cameras, these specific types of hardware is mostly used by police departments when analyzing crime.