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Essay On Racial Disparities In The Criminal Justice System

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Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System
Introduction
The United States criminal justice system is the largest in the world. In 2015, there were more than 6.7 million people under some form of correctional control within the United States, including 2.2 million incarcerated in federal, state, or local prisons and jails. By being the world leader in incarceration rates, the United States eclipses the rate of any other nation. These statistics from “The Sentencing Project” emphasize the significance of mass incarceration in America and the racial inequality that takes form in its criminal justice system. Extensive evidence from the American Bar Association shows that African Americans are incarcerated at a rate higher than white …show more content…

Methods such as the Implicit Associate Test, IAT, which “measures the strength of associations between concepts and evaluations or stereotypes to reveal an individual’s hidden or subconscious biases” (Loyola) and was first published in 1998 by Project Implicit and has since been continuously updated, would aid in the evaluation and prevention of implicit bias in the criminal justice system as it “bypasses the social biases that happen when using explicit techniques that can influence responses” (BitBrain). The IAT is already commonly used by academics and businesses to assess implicit attitudes (BitBrain), and for this to take place in the justice system, state governments, judicial ethics organizations, Congress, and state and local legislatures should “provide regular and routine training programs for court personnel on implicit bias” (Transforming) and consider the ample research that shows discrimination in their system. Still, it’s impractical to screen all decision-makers due to the considerable amount of people involved–but no matter how extensive, work must be done in order to protect the lives of innocent Americans that are being disadvantaged because of the racism that takes place in a system that is supposed to be “believing in the interest of justice or the public good, or such like, and not any view to pleasure or glory”

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It is clear that African American defendants were subjected to harsher sentences. Did not receive adequate legal representation. And were more likely to be wrongly convicted. By combining individual stories with statistical data the book convincingly demonstrates the underlying racial bias within the criminal justice system. Another source that supports this argument is an article titled "Racial Disparities in Sentencing: Implications for the Criminal Justice System and the African American Community" from the Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.

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100). At the same time, however, police officers also target more Africa American communities due to high crime rates. Even though the crime rates in Black communities are not as high as it has been, those communities are still targeted. Mass incarceration, on the other hand, is not due to the fact of these crime rates. According to Alexander’s (2011) studies, “As of September 2009, only 7.9 percent of federal prisoners were convicted of violent crimes” (West & Sobol, 2010, p. 101).

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Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.

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Moreover, the criminal justice system plays a significant role in perpetuating systemic racism. Black individuals are disproportionately targeted, arrested, and incarcerated compared to their white counterparts. According to one research study conducted in 2022, despite the advancements of incarceration policies in recent times, Black adults were imprisoned at a rate four times higher than their White

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Discrimination and racial disparities exist at every phase of the U.S. criminal justice system, especially when it comes to sentencing. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, as there are over 2 million people imprisoned today. The drawing is a visual representation of my annotated bibliography. In it, I stated that the criminal justice system is broken, as it discriminates against people of color. The left side of the illustration depicts the scene of the courtroom during the trial of a white defendant.

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In this article, the authors examine the research of how the criminal justice system forms racial profiling in the United States as incarceration increases. The authors use longitudinal data to find information of how one’s skin color can affect one’s punishments compared to someone who is white due to the stereotypes that revolve around their race. As they further investigate they found that “there is a stereotypical link between race and crime” (Saperstein et al., 2014) as arrest and the consequences associated with the crime are increased to people who are minorities. The article strongly suggests an extensive impact on increased policing and rise of incarceration on racialization and stereotyping with results of groups, police judgments

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African Americans are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and sentenced to harsher penalties compared to their white counterparts for similar offenses. The over-policing of African American communities, racial profiling, and biased sentencing practices contribute to the lack of opportunities and a cycle of incarceration. Reforming the criminal justice system by addressing racial bias, implementing alternatives to incarceration, and focusing on rehabilitation can help create a more equitable society and provide opportunities for individuals to reintegrate successfully into their

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Racial disparities in sentencing. Implications for the criminal justice system and the African American

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The social issue I have chosen to focus on is the problem of violent crime and the inequalities and disparities in sentencing. This issue is rooted in systemic racial inequalities, which can result in harsher sentences for individuals from marginalized communities who are convicted of violent crimes such as murder. There is a growing body of research that highlights the need for reform within the criminal justice system to address these disparities and ensure that all individuals are treated fairly and justly. The history of racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the U.S. has been longstanding.

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The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.

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These issues are particularly pronounced in the criminal justice system, where African Americans are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated. This inequality is a direct result of the legacy of Jim Crow laws and continues to perpetuate racial inequities in the United States

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The Huffington Post says, “The U.S. incarcerates nearly seven times as many people, measured as a share of population, as Canada does. People of color are disproportionately represented in the American prison population and are typically punished more severely than white peers for the same crimes” (Daniel Marans). Racism against people of color has caused them to be represented poorly in society as potential criminals, especially black. MIT informs its viewers that “according to the United States census Bureau, blacks are twice as likely to be poor compared to other races, and eight times as likely to be imprisoned. Blacks are also three times more likely to be convicted of drug violations than whites.

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