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Racial inequality in our police system
Racial disparity in the criminal justice
Racial disparity in the criminal justice
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Although people claim that our society is all good and nobody is racist our society is falling down and lately we have found lots of racist issues with our justice system. When the fourteenth amendment was established in 1886 it stated that all men would be equal for some reason the justice system has forgotten about this amendment, that many people have fought for like Martin L. King, and Alice Paul. There have been a lot of issues
According to Heather Donald’s article Is the Criminal Justice System Racist? “About one in 33 black men was in prison, compared with one in 205 white men”. The number of black men in jail is appalling enough on its own, but when it is compared to the number of white men in jail it is beyond outrageous. Why are there more Black Americans in jail than White Americans? As stated in What It’s Like to Be Black in the Criminal Justice System “Social science research shows striking racial disparities at nearly every level .”
Do you believe there is a new Jim Crow in America 's justice system? Well, in the book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander, Alexander believes that America 's criminal justice system is racially biased. Furthermore, she believes that the legal system is trying to punish African Americans. There are many people that believe Alexander statements is very bold and not true. Adam Gopnik who wrote the article How We Misunderstand And Mass Incarceration believes that America criminal justice system is not racially biased, but the system has political motives.
Coker gives great evidence that supports racial injustice in the criminal justice system. She discusses on the Supreme Court’s rulings and accusations of racial preference in the system. This article is helpful because it supports my thesis on race playing a role on the system of criminal justice. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes.
The Never Ending Racism Many people are not aware of how much racism still exists where our social lives are occurring. Racism is one of the worlds major issues today. It is obvious that it is as bad as it was many decades ago. Racism plays an important role in “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.
According to a report by the state of Washington, the answer seems to be no. For those convicted in trafficking drugs, offenders are almost always charged with the most serious (in the case of multiple charges). Usually, in order to facilitate a plea, the charges will be reduced. Whether or not the defendant pleads guilty at the trial is one of the most important elements in sentencing. Circumstances of the arrest are just as important.
Is it fair that an African American man is sentenced up to life in prison for possession of drugs when Brock Turner is sentenced to only 14 years, later to be reduced to six months for sexually assaulting an unconscious women. The judiciary system are believed to have a high african american incarceration rate as a result of discrimination. At a presidential debate on Martin Luther King Day, President Barack Obama said that “Blacks and whites are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, and receive very different sentences… for the same crime.” Hillary Clinton said the “disgrace of a criminal-justice system that incarcerates so many more african americans proportionately than whites.”
Are minorities unfairly targeted by law enforcement? Many people would answer yes to the controversial topic of do minorities get unfairly targeted by law enforcement. But not only are minorities targeted unfairly, they also get treated unfairly through the legal system. The bad treatment of minorities in the United States legal system starts at the beginning of that system, the investigation of suspected criminal activity by law enforcement agents.
1.The theory/concept of intersectionality is a theory centered around oppression, domination and discrimination through various mediums from the social and cultural elements of society. The theory can be applied in many ways toward women as well as their involvement in the criminal justice system. Some forms of discrimination that is more prevalent in perceiving the individual is using a woman's status, race, sexual orientation, ability and age, however there can be more added to this list. The wiki article said “The theory proposes that we should think of each element or trait of a person as inextricably linked with all of the other elements in order to fully understand one's identity.”
Even before our nation’s founding, people of color have been discriminated. Decades pass and the criminal justice system is still “racist” labeling people of color as criminal, meaning black equal criminals therefore is fine to discriminate people of color just because they’re criminals. In “The New Jim Crow” the system targets black men because they are associated with crime, meaning crime stands in for race. In the other hand, As Heather Mac Donald writes in her book “The War on Cops”, “The criminal-justice system does treat individual suspects and criminals equally, they concede. But the problem is how society defines crime and criminals” (154).
Policing in today’s society has been impacted through a multitude of influences including social, political, and economical to name a few. One factor that has, in more recent years, left its imprint within policing is race. Race, brings up the subtopics of ethics, corruption, accountability, and public views on policing. The following paper will discuss these subtopics to help further understand why and how race plays such a significant role in current day society and policing.
An institutional racism still faced both past and present can be found in incarceration and racial profiling. Our prison populations have skyrocketed since the 80 's and there is a disproportionate amount of black and Latino individuals who are incarcerated. Between New York’s stop and frisk policies and the insurmountable amounts of unarmed black and Latino men who are shot by police the discrimination by the police and law enforcement is clearly evident. Although black and Latino drivers are less likely than white to be carrying drug and other contraband the majority of car pulled over are the cars of black and Latino divers. The racial profiling is just one reason for the disproportionate black and Latino prison population.
One of the greatest challenges law enforcement are facing is providing effective policing for minority communities. Some factors that prevent minorities from gaining access to justice or being taken advantage of certain criminal justice services are language barriers, racial stereotyping, and cultural differences. Since the 30 's and 40 's, and even during the 60 's, civil rights activists damaged the police-minority relations in the United States, believing that police only interest are protecting white communities. A big explanation of why there 's a poor police-minority relations in the United States is racism on the part of the individual officers. Many minorities in the United States have continued to complain about being treated more harshly than whites and the Department of Justice believes that racial profiling and police discrimination will continue to be a big problem.
Racial inequality in the criminal justice system can be found on many different levels, from policies, to policing, down to the study of crime itself. This can be seen with the policies that are passes into law especially in regards to punitive measures. Non-Hispanic Whites are more likely to be in favor of punitive measures which will affect the overwhelmingly black prison population (Drakulich). The inequality within the polices becomes greater when one looks at the civil restrictions placed on ex-convicts, without the ability to vote on said polices the whites have a greater say in what will happen to the blacks that are imprisoned, exacerbating the racial inequality (Wheelock).
For years now there has been a lot of controversy involving the looming question: Is the criminal justice system racist? Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one 's own race is superior. Ever since the Trayvon Martin case of 2012, the justice system has been in a complete downfall including all of the police brutality cases since then also. According to sources, 1 of every 4 African American males born this decade are expected to go to prison in their lifetime. Census Bureau reports that the U.S. is 13 percent percent black, 61 percent white, and 17 percent latino.
