ipl-logo

Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System

276 Words2 Pages

Justice is not colorblind. According to the Human Rights Watch, “people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites, but they have higher rate of arrests.” (Human Rights Watch) According to data found by the Department of Education, “96,000 students were arrested and 242,000 referred to law enforcement by schools during the 2009-10 school year.” (Washington Post). “Of those students, black and Hispanic students made up more than 70 percent.” (Washington Post) The deaths of Freddie Gray, Trayvon Martin and John Brown and the outrage these cases stirred, proves that racism does exist in the criminal justice system. Therefore, to prevent racial disparity in the criminal justice system it is crucial that America steps up in changing the way that officers respond to a victim of another race, reducing discriminatory mindsets, and lessening the victimizing that is set on these other groups of people. …show more content…

Maxine Waters, a member of congress, is convinced the system is racist, saying that “The color of your skin dictates whether you will be arrested or not, prosecuted harshly or less harshly, or receive a stiff sentence or gain probation or entry into treatment.” (Discover the Networks). “African-Americans comprise only 13% of the U.S. population and 14% of the monthly drug users, but are 37% of the people arrested for drug-related offenses in America.” (Huffington Post). If we trained our officers more thoroughly about how important it is to avoid discrimination we could avoid any accusations of unfairness and work to completely remove racism from the criminal justice

Show More
Related
1597 Words | 7 Pages

African Americans are more likely to be searched than a Caucasia due to racial bias from Caucasian officers. To most officers, a Caucasian does not look as suspicious as an African American which makes them more susceptible to searches. Even if a Caucasian is searched and caught for having illegal drugs, the consequences are usually not as bad for them. In fact, in Chicago alone, “White drug offenders are rarely arrested” and when they are caught and brought to court “they are treated more favorably at every stage of the criminal justice process” (189). All across the nation, African Americans are filling up our county jails at a higher rate than any other race in the United States, which is better known as mass incarceration.

Read More
374 Words | 2 Pages

There is racism in this country. Although this solution may be a problem to the criminal justice system, itself will aggravate race relations today. Whites takes blacks as self-evident because of their discrimination. Hundred years ago racism still continued out the U.S thought laws were made to protect colored, whites still found ways to make sure that would stay dominant.

Read More
983 Words | 4 Pages

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, M. (2012). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness (Rev. ed.). New York, NY: The New Press. Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era.

Read More
1515 Words | 7 Pages

Every day in America we hear the stories of unarmed black men or boys dying in the hands of police officers and the media portrays these brutal images in our televisions. Rather than focusing on the underlying cause of what morally made it acceptable for police officers to inflict violence on the black body, we find reasons to justify their actions. The storyline brought up to distract the police violence towards the black body is by portraying the victim as a drug seller or a violent person, and these kinds of stereotypes towards the victim overshadow the real problem within our criminal justice system. I will use the book, "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates to examine and understand the challenges African American face, especially

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way

Read More
908 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1806 Words | 8 Pages

The killing of a young African American Michael Brown by white police officer Daren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014 shed a light on something that had long been ignored by the white population of the USA, the obvious inequality between black and white individuals in the criminal justice system. This racial bias is no longer based on explicit racism which was outlawed by the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, instead it is influenced by implicit racial bias present in all aspects of the criminal justice system resulting in implicit assumptions that lead to quick and prejudice judgments based on negative stereotypes by the actors of the criminal justice system especially law enforcements which lead the uneven usage of “stop and

Read More
549 Words | 3 Pages

But the Department of Justice reports and charts show that among those put in jail on drug charges, 26% are whites, 45% are blacks, and 21% are Latinos. This might show that authorities actions are unjust but in certain situation it is acceptable because there are times where racial profiling isn’t unjust. Like in this article I read by John Stossel he wrote about a situation that occurred in Port Angeles authorities were in search for a Middle Eastern man when they saw Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian, after he crossed into the United States from Canada. The authorities decided to pull him over and check his car and what they found was shocking it was materials to create a bomb. The officers said if they didn’t use racial profiling many may have died because of the bomb that man was going to make and probably use.

Read More
181 Words | 1 Pages

It sad to see that more than half of the young men in our American cities are under the control of the criminal justice system. Where’s the justice when our system automatically demotes them to a permanent second-class status, and challenges their chances of happiness and freedom. When minorities from the justice system are released, they are harshly discriminated against. This discrimination does nothing but regenerates a cycle of imprisonment. With the world at their backs, the result usually ends up with repeated behaviors that places them back into the system.

Read More
1076 Words | 5 Pages

Racism is something that is still ongoing and has even gotten worse in recent years. No matter what efforts are taken to try and get something to change, equal representation in the justice system is something we may never get. The justice system was and still is racist. From the racial profiling, harsher sentencing for people of color, and the over-representation of people of color in the criminal justice system. According to the NAACP “If Black and Hispanic people were incarcerated at the same rate as White people, prison and jail populations would decline by almost 40 percent.

Read More
930 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

Law enforcement cannot be viewed as relatively neutral if there is still racial profiling covertly occurring. There are little to no positive outcomes that can be seen from this, but a number of negative effects are clear. Racial profiling in law enforcement is ineffective in fighting crime, leads to a loss of legitimacy in the police force, while also causing a diminished sense of citizenship for those who are being profiled. Despite these negative results, no bill has ever successfully been passed by Congress to try to end racial profiling, which is clearly demonstrated by the number of racial and ethnic minorities incarcerated compared to the number of Caucasians incarcerated. As of 2010, Whites (64% of the United States population) constitute 39% of the incarcerated population, while Hispanics (16% of the U.S population) account for 19% of the incarcerated population, and Blacks (13% of the U.S population) make up 40% of the incarcerated population (Prison Policy

Read More
1109 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
917 Words | 4 Pages

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

According to the article Racism and Police Brutality in America, “Whites believe that Blacks are disproportionately inclined to engage in criminal behavior and are the deserving on harsh treatment by the criminal justice system” (Chaney 484). The justice system has unfortunately followed this idea. The African American race has been a minority in the legal system in the past; however, it has been much worse as of 2015. Some individuals assume it is acceptable to refrain from acknowledging this fact. Racism is an issue in the midst of police brutality, and it should be resolved.

Read More

More about Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System

Related Topics

Open Document