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Racial Bias In The Criminal Justice System

1044 Words5 Pages

One of the biggest controversies in society today is concerning whether or not the criminal justice system is racially bias. It is clear that blacks are overrepresented in America’s prison system. For example, they are incarcerated at nearly six times the rate of white people and “constitute for nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population” (Criminal Justice). Although this is true, the disproportionate number of black men serving time in the criminal justice system is due to circumstance, not necessarily race. While there are some judges, police officers, or other officials who may have a racial bias towards black people, in the majority of cases blacks are not arrested because their race, they are arrested because they …show more content…

Police are often accused of racial bias, but it 's not very likely that they are arresting innocent black people and letting white criminals get away. For example, if there had been a recent string of murders committed by a white woman, then the police would be on the lookout for and be more cautious around white women. Likewise, because statistically black men commit more crimes, officers are more likely to be more cautious when they see a black man doing something that looks suspicious. In most cases, an officer is not going to risk his badge and reputation by consistently bringing in innocent black men and accusing them of a crimes there is no evidence for. While there are racist cops out there who will pull black men over unnecessarily or beat them for no reason, these officers will have to face the consequence of their actions. The police arrest people who commit crimes, and if black men commit more crimes then it makes sense that more of them are arrested. It would be a little ridiculous, if officers had to bypass or ignore any black criminal they saw, just because they’d already arrested a number of black men proportionate to the population. According to data produced by the FBI, when compared, the number of black arrestees and offenders are almost identical (Rubenstein). “If police are arresting a larger proportion of blacks than the proportion of criminals victims say were black, it would be evidence of bias”, but this data shows the two figures are very similar (Rubenstein). Yes, there is a higher percentage of black people arrested and serving time in the criminal justice system, but it is because they commit more crimes, not because of a racial

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