African Americans And The Criminal Justice System

Jury Selection of the 1930’s was very racially bias and prejudice towards the African American race by the white society. Also the men of white society minimized women's rights by not letting them participate in the jury. The jury selection process has changed vastly from the 1930’s until now. It is more complex and safe and open to all race and gender, people can’t just be on the jury there is a selection process for it. I believe that in 1933, Tom Robinson was unjustly charged because the process based on jury selection, jury selection experts, and the extreme difference in racial bias from then until now.

The criminal justice system in the United States is evident of several deep flaws relating to the treatment of black men and women accused of committing criminal offenses. It is logical to believe that due to the U.S.’s rather dark past surrounding the treatment of black Americans, systematic racism is included under the guise of the criminal justice system. The U.S. is historically infamous for it’s open racial discrimination against black Americans, up until systematic racism became one of the more dominant forms of discrimination in the most recent years. Systematic racism has been shrouded under societal ignorance and regulated particularly by social and political groups in order to keep the human rights of black Americans frigid and

It has been brought up that certain race and ethic affects a person’s sentencing. Many studies have addressed the question are African Americans treated more severely than similarly situated whites? (Mitchell, 2005). Observers had indeed noted that black defendants get more severe sentencing than white defendants do (Spohn, 1981). For many years’ social scientist has examined this theory and came up with three explanations, racial discrimination, Wealth discrimination, and legal factors (Sellin, 1928). These three explanations all direct back to blacks because blacks are more likely to be poor, so they are wealth discriminated. Also, legal factors point to blacks because black defendants are more likely to have a serious charge or criminal record than whites do. Some researchers examine whether race has an impact on juveniles being convicted in the adult system (Howell, 2012) as well.

Although saying the criminal justice system is racist is a controversial statement, there is evidence and statistics that prove it to be true. Research and evidence validate the issue of racism to be undeniable. Equality and justice are out of reach with the racism that takes place in our criminal justice system and our country. Racial discrimination is prevalent amongst the African American culture in issues regarding drug use, and incarceration which creates unfair inequality for this race. I will use peer reviewed articles to verify the racial disparity in the criminal justice system.

The past quarter century has seen an enormous growth in the American incarceration rate. Importantly, some scholars have suggested that the rate of prison growth has little to do with the theme of crime itself, but it is the end result of particular U.S. policy choices. Clear (2007) posits that "these policy choices have had well-defined implications for the way prison populations have come to replicate a concentrated occurrence among specified subgroups in the United States population in particular young black men from deprived communities" (p. 49).

Racial biases present a detrimental flaw in the U.S Court system, providing the possibility of false convictions. A study conducted by Carnegie Mellon University finds all white juries convict African American defendants a significant 16% more often than white defendants (Anwar, p.2). The statistic above shows the factual effect of race in the justice system. In a study by University of California Irvine, it was found that an African American man convicted of sexual assault was three and-a-half more likely to be innocent than that of their caucasian counterparts.(Gross, p.12-13). As shown in the study above, racism in the jury pool leads to a faulty system and innocent people being convicted of heinous crimes they did not

There are many ways the criminal justice system plays a huge role in the discrimination against all people of color. Mostly, there are a wide range of studies within the African American communities that expresses concern, prejudice, and even racial profiling in the criminal justice system pertaining to blacks. Judges, jurors, police officers, and even marriages are key roles of the societal disadvantages African Americans have. African Americans are even being arrested more than any other race in America. With societal disadvantages, how can African Americans be striving citizens in America?

The biased American Criminal Justice System targets African Americans through government legislation such as President Nixon’s War on Drugs and President Clinton’s Crime Bill, in addition to corrupt police departments that intentionally vilify, and a biased court system that is more likely to convict them than their white counterparts. The United States of America intentionally criminalized African Americans in efforts to compensate for the free labor lost after the passing of the 13th amendment, in order to boost the ruined economy that plagued America after the Civil War. On December 6, 1865, after 250 years of slavery, the United States Congress passed the thirteenth amendment which formally abolished slavery. The Civil War, which ended

There is a very evident problem with racism in the United States Criminal Justice System. Society chooses to ignore this problem because many do not think they are a part of it. What they do not understand is they are a part of society, therefore a part of the problem. Even if a particular person is not doing anything to cause this problem directly, they are not helping the situation either. Society has to become aware of this issue and stop pretending as though it is something that will go away on its own. Others need to become aware of this issue so they can not only make others aware, but so they can find out the exact source of the problem and how to fix it before it is too late. The United States is supposed to be a free country where people feel safe, yet there are issues still happening today that people like Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and others fought and risked their lives to change. Society likes to look back on history and say that things are different and the country has come so far and that everyone is equal. However, today’s news and statistics show that is not the case at all. If we do not take action now, we will be right back where we started. Many races are not treated fairly by citizens of this county and even the United States Criminal Justice System, especially African Americans. Nationwide, African Americans are stopped, searched, arrested, and incarcerated at rates much higher than people of other races.

I am the Vice Chair for the Duke Energy African American Advocacy program and every year we have a Black History Celebration where we educate others about the important contributions that African Americans have made throughout history. This year our celebration is based on influential African Americans in law and how the, barriers etc. we are very impressed about your accomplishment of being the first female African American Justice and would like you to come share how adding the diversity of African American judges has helped provide a different aspect on how rulings are handled and if there were any African American judges or lawyers that influenced you to venture down this career path. I spoke to Leslie today about your availability to

In this class we have learned about mass incarceration and the criminalization of black and brown bodies throughout U.S. history. An early example of the criminalization of brown bodies can be seen in Los Angeles when the Spanish Crown came and deemed Native Americans as “lawless” and “ungovernable.” Then, later in time, we see the criminalization of black bodies in the South during the Reconstruction Era. Laws and ideology that are motivated by colonialism and settler colonialism, have helped put more black and brown bodies in prison and exploit them for labor through convict lease systems. The criminalization of Native Americans, Hobos, and African Americans served a political, social and economic purpose which helped colonialism and settler

Throughout American history, racial bias has always affected the assessment of serious crime cases. In my opinion, I found jury selected only one race to be imbalance because there is still racial bias among people and it may never change that fact. The only way to eliminate the unfair judgment of imbalance, we should abandon the peremptory challenges is being used in favor of the White. Black people not only have been illegally excluded but also denigrated and insulted with reasons intended to conceal racial bias.

From its early beginnings till present day, race and race matters (Bell, 1989, 1993; West, 1994) have been and continue to be a powerful variable in this country. Interestingly, one venue where race issues have been addressed and fought over has been this country’s judicial system. In fact, for close to two hundred years, it could be argued that the courts facilitated and sustained the marginalization of non-whites in this country. Two prominent 19th century court cases that set the foundation for said marginalization were the Dred Scott v Sandford and Plessy v Ferguson cases, both highlighting this country’s de jure segregation laws. Indeed, sociologist Joe Feagin, in his influential book, Racist America, writes, “Every part of the life cycle,

In Simi Valley, of the 260 juror candidates, 12 were black, five of which refused to be jurors due to the fact that they believed themselves to be in “hostile territory”. The one black candidate to make it to the jury box was removed before the case began, The remaining jurors were 10 whites, one asian, and one Hispanic. Most of the jurors were very pro police department. Many of the jurors came from military backgrounds, and others were proud N.R.A. members. The case went from the expected conditions of a diverse, Los Angeles County court case, to conservative town with a 5 to 1 white to minority jury. Just like King George taking his officers overseas for their trials prior to the revolutionary war, the special treatment of these 4 officers would not stand. However, the fate of the officers was in the hands of those who believed that they did nothing wrong. Their ruling is what set Los Angeles

The action of the jurys of this time show how bias, and prejudice corrupted the decisions of court cases. These dogmatically driven verdicts could be the difference between life and death of a person who did not commit the crime. As well as, “ I don’t care one speck. It aint right, somehow it aint right to do’em that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin like that…” (266). This quote exemplifies how people have varied opinions, which are influenced by the choices of others. Because a white man talked impertinently towards a man of color, a boy was muddled at the thought of why he’d do that to a person. Diversity can have negative and positive effects, depending on how you turn it out to