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What Is Racial Sentencing

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Introduction and thesis: The topic chosen for this essay concerns the relationship between racial profiling and sentencing. It is relevant to the course material because it concerns the ways someone is treated depending on his or her ethnic origins, and it makes it an interesting sociological and criminological phenomena. This is the reason why I chose to write on this topic, and because I find it an important issue in our society. This essay will demonstrates that visible minorities are more likely to be subjects to harsher sentencing than the majority, and more than them. Literature review: Our society is made of a majority and minorities, and it allows diversity. However, the fact that everyone is different don’t necessarily mean that everyone …show more content…

By voting and adopting these laws, the majority of the society condemn then minorities by restricting their rights, and therefore engender more convicted offenders that are part of visible minorities. This racial profiling is not necessarily voluntary. It is caused by implicit bias, which means that multiple ‘‘social judgements’’ are made in an unconscious process that is racist and judgmental. It results in the harsher sentences often seen in courts (Lynch, 2013, p.100). Racial profiling is also due to the fact that differences can be seen as a threat. For example, African Women as well as Hispanic women are seen as showing less feminine behaviour that the others. By being perceived in such a way, it results as mean sentences toward them in court (Kamalu, Coulson-Clark & Kamalu, 2010, p.3). Women from visible minorities are not the only ones to be more likely to receive harsher sentences. In Britain, it has been proven that racial profiling exists. In a survey interrogating drug dealers, 65% of black drug dealers affirmed being arrested in comparison of 35% Caucasians (Siegel & McCormick, 2016, p.290). In Canada, Blacks form 2% of the total population, but 6% of all those incarcerated (A Profile of Visible Minority Offenders in …show more content…

Functionalism explains how the interactions between human beings shapes the rest of the society. Racial profiling results from the interactions between the individuals from different ethnic backgrounds. Their behaviour is shown through symbols like courts and jails. The way individuals are treated depending on their ethnic origins is shown through these institutions (An introduction to sociology, 2014, para

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