Janae Taylor Evangeline Kroon Tutorial 8 May 2, 2024 Discretion and Policing How Race, Gender and Socioeconomic Status Intersect. Law enforcement, specifically police officers, are allowed to use their discretion to handle certain situations. Imagine discretion as the ability to use your experiences and viewpoints to deal with something without involving others. It’s all up to you and what you think and believe. Now think about ten other people using their discretion to handle the same situation, and that’s where problems arise. Everyone is different and therefore, their experiences and viewpoints are different too. Some police officers might have positive experiences and viewpoints about certain races, genders and socioeconomic classes, while …show more content…
Whether or not you are a racialized person, a man or woman, of high or low socio-economic status or maybe you are all of these combined, could determine your experiences with the police. Certain characteristics or combinations of characteristics could lead to positive experiences with the police, like if you are White, a woman, rich or a rich, White woman. Other characteristics or combinations of characteristics could lead to negative experiences with the police, like if you are Black, a man, poor or a poor, Black man. Due to the unfairness that certain individuals are treated for attributes they cannot control, law enforcement, starting with the police, needs to be properly educated on subjects like racism and discrimination to avoid causing negative experiences for citizens. Community policing could also be utilized to allow trust and collaboration to form between the police and citizens of all backgrounds. Increased diversity in law enforcement would also be a good way to combat this issue, as people of certain backgrounds will have insider information on the problems that others like them have faced and are still