Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

Racism in its most general sense can be defined as “social practices which (explicitly or implicitly) attribute merits or allocate values to members of racially categorized groups solely because of their “race” (Banks, 2013, p. 65). Individuals that are introduced into the criminal justice system are still citizens no matter the color of their skin. As a citizen of the United States you are afforded certain rights and protections while progressing through the steps of the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, not all individuals are treated the same once they are introduced into the system. Once an individual is introduced into the system, a series steps begins. As each of these steps is approached, decisions need to be made by the law

Extensive research has been conducted in different regions of the United States and each study has revealed the same thing, a person’s color affected the decisions of the law enforcement personnel involved and how their case progressed through the system. Racism is present in the criminal justice system of the United States. It should not be assumed that all practitioners within the criminal justice system display racial bias. However, the sentencing guidelines and punishments handed down by the courts show that the system itself may be set up in such a way that minorities are disproportionately affected by these guidelines and thus further the belief that the system as a whole displays racism and not necessarily those working in

108). The three reasons found through research that contribute to the disproportionate number of minorities in the system reinforce the fact that policies and select individuals are contributing this issue. It has been reported that individual acts of discrimination exist in the system; however, there is little evidence of systematic discrimination (Ray & Alarid, 2004, p.