Racial Discrimination In Criminal Justice System Essay

In this paper, we will be looking at what the meaning of prejudice along with the definition of discrimination. We will be using social psychologist’s sources to define what these words mean along with case studies showing real situations to better define them in practice. Ultimately the goal of this paper is to separate the two words from each other clearly define and show what the differences are between them along with showing case studies that present them at work. Since both prejudice and discrimination can be such a broad topic of discussion, we will be looking at how they come into play in today’s workforce. This information is important to gain knowledge on societal issues and one the first steps to overcome something is to know the information well.

Racial inequality is growing. Our criminal laws, while facially neutral, are enforced in a manner that is massively and pervasively biased. My research will examine the U.S. criminal justice policies and how it has the most adverse effect on minorities. According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, out of a total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are

“The system is not fair. Institutional racism is alive and well in the juvenile justice system as it is in the criminal justice system, due to racial disparity and bias in the court room” (Jones, Bridgett). This is a statement that plagues many people involved in the justice systems. There are huge racial disparities throughout the world. Post-Slavery: the early development of the Race/Crime Connection, Profiling: Racializing possible cause, and differential bias involvement as well as institutional racism. We can work on having better policies and procedures driven into police practices and we need to make sure people of color are not excluded from juries to stop most of the disparity.

In today’s society, discrimination continues to affect millions of minorities from inappropriate name calling to being shot by a law enforcement officer because you were perceived to be dangerous. The underlying effects of racial discrimination are seen in all aspects of our society, especially in our social institutions. These social institutions range from the educational system to our government, yet racial discrimination is more evident in the criminal justice system. When analyzing how the criminal justice system discriminates against minorities we are able to do so through the visible disparities within the system. Unfortunately, these disparities display African Americans having the highest population rates in the criminal justice system, therefore, we can immediately conclude this disparity in population is due to the injustices conducted by the system. Thus, there is a need for urgent change not just within the criminal justice system but within all social institutions beginning with our government. This change should create greater opportunities for minorities to enter the political field in our government as well as promoting higher participating in voting. Yet, the criminal justice system within all its aspects practices discrimination due to its deeply interwoven prejudice, institutional racism, and socioeconomic status.

The intersection of racial dynamics with the criminal justice system is one of longstanding duration. In earlier times, courtrooms in many jurisdictions were comprised of all white decision-makers. Today, there is more diversity of leadership in the court system, but race still plays a critical role in many

In modern-day America the issue of racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is controversial because there is substantial evidence confirming both individual and systemic biases. While there is reason to believe that there are discriminatory elements at every step of the judicial process, this treatment will investigate and attempt to elucidate such elements in two of the most critical judicial junctures, criminal apprehension and prosecution.

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.

Racism in police treatment of minorities has created great disparities in incarceration amongst the races. Blatant cases of racist law enforcement that are covered in the news are a testament to the fact that racism within police departments exists from coast to coast. However, these are only the cases that people find out about; there are countless other cases of police racism and brutality that are not reported.

family income for whites is 38,909 and for blacks it is 21,161. This shows that

Is the Criminal Justice system racist? This question has been asked many times by people of many colors. According to Mac Donald (2008), the criminal justice system is not at all racist. The article depicts arrest rates of both whites and blacks and compares statistics on these arrests. It looks at the number of whites and the number of blacks in jails and prisons. In this critique, we will be looking into this article to see these points in which Mac Donald states proves that the criminal justice system is, in fact, not a racist one.

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.

There are many ethnic differences in each stage of the justice system. In order to be able to prove these it is important to break the system down, and evaluate it bit by bit, showing the possible signs of ethnic differences.

In a research paper titled “The Interaction of Race, Gender, and Age in Criminal Sentencing: The Punishment Cost of Being Young, Black, and Male” three university researchers ask a series of question to determine if race, gender, and age have an effect on judicial sentencing, and how “these factors might contextualize on another”. The authors look at previous research to help in aiding what questions would be appropriate to ask for this study. They cite a number of different sources to help them achieve their goal of finding an answer to their questions.

Discrimination comes in all forms. There is age discrimination, employment or job discrimination, racial discrimination, gender discrimination, reverse discrimination, sexual discrimination, and then there is also positive discrimination such as a guy letting an attractive woman out in traffic; he is then positively discriminating against her. Prejudice is a negative attitude toward a socially defined group and toward any person perceived to be a member of that group. The purpose of my research is to talk about discrimination and prejudices and how they affect our day to day lives. In addition to defining prejudice and discrimination, I will look at their relationship to stereotyping and racism. Stereotyping often leads to prejudice and discrimination, its definition almost mirroring that of prejudice. Stereotypes or characterizations are generalizations or assumptions that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an image, often wrong, about what people in that group are like. It does not allow for individuals to be different, but names them all as one group (Burgess). Within this assignment I will be talking about the different types of discrimination and prejudice, from different perspectives, along with my personal thoughts on the subject. I will also be looking at ways by which to eradicate it from our daily lives as much as possible. I would also like to take a look at the civil and criminal justice system to see why the term

Along similar lines, Cyrus (1993) and Rothenberg (1988) conceptualize three different types racial discrimination in our society: 1) individual; 2) organizational; and 3) structural. Individual discrimination refers to prejudicial attitudes and behaviors; Organizational discrimination refers to "the well-established rules, policies, and practices of institutions including, education, government; places of employment; and family institutions; and 3) structural discrimination refers to the cyclical nature of discrimination and how it reproduces itself within society. While on the surface most acts of discrimination appear to be inflicted against an individual - or groups of individuals - most are embedded in the very social fabric of society in the policies and practices and are much harder to detect. All forms of discrimination, however, serve to reproduce or maintain structural forms of discrimination. Such forms can be either conscious or unconscious (Cyrus, 1993) and subtle or obvious (Jones, 2000).