The intersection of race, class, and gender were all contributing factors in Deborah Peagler’s case and experience of physical abuse. Laws and rules were broken by the system causing extreme pain to both Deborah and her family. Race is a contributing factor especially when crime and the law are involved. Race plays a critical role in sentencing an individual and how much attention the individual will receive. Deborah Peagler was a black woman who was a victim of domestic violence and was incarcerated for the murder of her abuser. The district attorneys (DA) office nor the court or judge took into consideration that she was a battered woman looking for a way out. The DA’s office had evidence that would be instrumental in releasing and or giving Deborah a lesser sentence. They however never presented this information in court and prosecuted her with insufficient evidence. In the reading Defining Racism by Tatum (2008) I learned that the United States “system operates to the advantage of whites and to the disadvantage of people of color”(p.7). Prejudice is what the system is basing their decisions off of. White people are in advantage because of their social status and the amount of influence or power they can have over someone. On the contrary people of color become easy targets because of their limited resources. They institutionalize people of color with and by racial policies that have been a key factor in discovering how Deborah had been incarcerated for a crime
Racial bias, defined as “unreasonably hostile feelings or opinions about a social group” by Dictionary.com in which the social groups are different races, has been a problem for a long time, and it still exsts today. People cannot ignore the truth that is being shoved in our faces on the media. There are multiple examples of racial bias in the criminal justice system. If you don't believe this, here are some statistics by the Huffington Post: In a California study, the ACLU found blacks three times more likely to be stopped than whites, African Americans are arrested for drug offenses at rates 2 to 11 times higher than whites stated in a May 2009 report by Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Sentencing Commission in March 2010 stated that, in the
Racial Disparity is denoting or diminishing a human species based on race and physical characteristics. Let’s start off by just stating the obvious, “Roughly 12% of the United States population is black. Yet in 2011, black Americans constituted 30% of persons arrested for a property offense and 38% of persons arrested for a violent offense. Black youths account for 16% of all children in America yet make up 28% of juvenile arrests.” (http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/shadow-report-to-the-united-nations-human-rights-committee-regarding-racial-disparities-in-the-united-states-criminal-justice-system) I believe the biggest disparity in the United States is incarceration rates. In 2010 according to the prison policy initiative in the United States Whites make up for 64% of the population, Hispanics 16% and blacks 13% of the United States population. When it comes to the percent of United States incarnated population Whites make up for 39%, Hispanics 19% and Blacks 40%. This study shows that Blacks are incarnated more and at a more punishable rate. Not only are black people sentenced more but they are also sentenced harsher. In an article written by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph. D and research analyst says that blacks are sentenced 14 percent longer than whites. There is bias everywhere in the criminal justice system in my opinion not only with prosecutors but with officers of the law in any way, judges, etc. Another racial disparity in the
Racism in the criminal justice system is so concealed to where racism contributes to massive amounts of imprisoned Black African Americans. In the United States, the criminal justice system has created perpetuated racial harassment to African Americans throughout history. The skin color of African American are easily targeted and criminalized.
According to Sentencing Project.org “Racial disparity in the criminal justice system exists when the proportion of a racial or ethnic group within the control of the system is greater than the pro-portion of such groups in the general population.” This article says the inequality can vary upon different levels of criminal activity, law enforcement and decision making. “Law enforcement emphasis on particular communities, legislative policies, and/or decision making by criminal justice practitioners who exercise broad discretion in the justice process at one or more stages in the system.” (Sentenceproject.org) The expansion of the criminal justice system reinforces race and class inequalities in the United States thorough mass incarcerations that are constantly increasing, imperceptible to most, and affects multiple generations.
It appears that the criminal justice system is racially biased. Instead of the criminal justice system giving all of the citizens of the United States of America the same civil treatment, it treats all individuals differently based upon the color of an individual’s skin. What does it mean to be racially biased? Being racially biased is known as to judge one by his or her physical appearance. Treating people of color unfairly is still common to this day. The criminal justice system is racially biased in its law enforcement, prisons, and court systems.
The existence of racial disparity and structural inequality within the criminal justice system renders the concept of true justice for all unobtainable. The statistics of convictions and prison sentences by race definitely support the concept that discrimination is a problem in the justice system as well as the insignificantly number of minority judges and lawyers. There are a multitude of circumstances that influence these statistics according to the “Central Eight” criminogenic risk factors. The need for programs and methods to effectively deter those at risk individuals has never been greater and the lack of such programs is costing society in countless ways.
At the prosecution stage, African Americans are subject to racially biased charges and plea agreements (TLC, 2011). African Americans are less likely to have their charges dismissed or reduced or to receive any kind of alternate sentencing than their white counterparts (TLC, 2011). In the last stage, the finding of guilt and sentencing, the decisions of jurors may be affected by race (Toth et al, 2008) African Americans receive racially discriminatory sentences from judges (TLC, 2011). A New York study from 1990 to 1992 revealed one-third of minorities would have receive a lesser sentence if they were treated the same as white and there would have been a 5 percent decrease in African Americans sent to prison during that time period if they had received the same probation privileges (TLC, 2011). African Americans receive death sentences more than whites who have committed similar crimes (Toth et al, 2008). Because of the unfair treatment from the beginning to the end of the justice system there is an over represented amount of African Americans in prison (Toth et al, 2008). Some of the problems faced by African Americans in prison are gangs, racial preferences given to whites, and unfair treatment by prison guards (Toth et al, 2008).
Crimes are committed every day, and convictions are processed every week. Racism is played into account when dealing with the law; therefore, many civilians are prosecuted depending on the color of their skin. Brock Turner is your average middle-class, white male who attended Stanford University with a scholarship for being a swimmer. This teen was accused of sexual assault, and his charges were very minor. This case lead to a whole deal of controversy throughout media because any other minority man who would have committed this crime would have faced up to ten or plus years in jail. Brock Turner has only received a couple months of jail time, and he was let off with a warning. There are
Racial disparity in the criminal justice system is a product of a number of factors ?crime, offenses such drugs, social and economic disparities, legislative policies, and the use of discretion by the criminal justice system. Social and economic disparities have faces and many are of color.
The first minorities that are often discriminated against are African Americans, more specifically, African American males. As of 2009, Johnson (2014) states that 39.4 percent of blacks represented the majority of the prisons (as cited in Bowman, 2014b, p. 324). According to Hartney and Vuong (2009), African Americans are more likely to get less favorable results than whites when it comes to the death penalty, prison sentencings, recidivism, etc. They’ve also stated that blacks are more likely to be sentenced to prison, while whites are sentenced to probation. Blacks are treated quite differently than the white inmates. Some studies have found that African Americans expressed great concern over the justice system, and have distributed their fear by becoming angry and hostile when they become incarnated, thus leading to more violent conflicts. Not only that, blacks are more prone to be viewed as intimidating by white prison employees, which is why most african americans are kept under surveillance besides the white and hispanic prisoners (Hawkins and Ross, n.d.). Prisons have also showcased different ways that African Americans are discriminated. A few examples are that white inmates were given better work tasks, while blacks were left with the custodian jobs. The prison system has also denied blacks of being able to transfer over to better housing and better tasks, which has led African Americans to complain about these discriminating acts (Hawkins and Ross, n.d.).
The story of Brock Turner and Cory Batey days in trial will get you shocked once you hear it. There was no justice in the matter for Cory Batey a black college athlete who raped an unconscious woman at a party while intoxicated during his days in trial the jury and judge found him guilty of his crime and sentenced him 15 to 25 years in jail. When it comes to Brock Turner who had a similar crime; a college athlete who was intoxicated and raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster but during his trial days the judge and jury sentenced him 6 months, 3 with good behavior. This is a prime example of how your race affects your sentencing in court. During their trial waiting Batey apologizes to his victim while turner’s actions doesn't
Racism has a huge impact on society to this day. The greatest wrong doing in the U.S criminal justice system is that it is a race based organization where African Americans are specifically focused on and rebuffed in a considerably more forceful route than white individuals. Saying the Us criminal justice system is racist might be politically disputable in different ways. In any case, the actualities are debatable. Underneath I explain many cases of these issues. Information on race is available for each step of the criminal justice system – from the use of drugs, police stops, arrests, getting off on bail, legal representation, jury selection, trial, sentencing, prison, parole, and freedom.
There are so many more African-Americans than whites in our prisons that the difference cannot be explained by higher crime among African- Americans - racial discrimination is also at work, and it penalizes African- Americans at almost every juncture in the criminal justice system.1
The author of this article is Cornelia Grumman won the Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and found the organization the First Five Years Fund where she advocated for stronger federal policies. The audience she could be targeting would be the government to create stricter guidelines when imposing capital punishment. The purpose of this article is to give awareness of how race can create bias factors in the justice system. It has been commonly seen
It there a disparity within the pretrial and sentencing procedures as well? Some studies have indeed found that African Americans are treated more harshly than whites even after legally relevant factors are taken into consideration (Mitchell 2005). Despite many reforms that have taken place throughout the years racial minorities are more specifically, those suspected of crimes against white people remain victims of unequal justice (Walker 2015). An african american male was charged with robbing a chicken place in Texas where there was no physical evidence to connect him to the crime, however he was convicted by an all white jury and sentenced to life in prison (Walker 2015). Another African American man was sentenced to life in prison for an armed robbery and murder of a white man, in which he had an alibi for. The jury convinced him without any finger prints or evidence (Walker 2015). Both