Racial Discrimination and Disparity in the United States Justice System

The criminal justice system is a set of organizations and procedures set up by governments to control wrongdoing and force punishments on the individuals who disregard the laws. The main frameworks are state and federal. The state criminal justice systems handle wrongdoings perpetrated inside their state limits and government, the federal criminal system handles violations carried out on federal property or in more than one state. This system is supposed to be equal yet the nature of offenses, differential policing policies and practices, sentencing laws and biases are possible contributors to disparities in the system. The severity of the offense, prior record, age and education level are also taking into account when a decision is being made. Our prison system today varies immensely with ascending numbers of minority groups jailed within the system. Racial and ethnic imbalances continue in the United States and no disparity is more evident than that found in the criminal justice system. Disparity usually refers to a difference that is unfair, disparity in the criminal justice system stems from racial disparity which concludes that the proportion of a racial ethnic group within the control of the system is greater than the population of that group outside that control.

Racial inequality in the American criminal justice system has a strong effect of many realms of society such as the family life, and employment. Education and race seem to be the most decisive factors when deciding who goes to jail and what age cohort has the greatest percentage chance of incarceration. Going to prison no longer affects just the individual who committed the crime. Instead, the family and community left behind gain a new burden by one individual's actions. The United States still has a large disparity between Whites and Blacks and now a growing Hispanic population. This racial disparity in the educational

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

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.

In this paper I will illustrate racial disparity in sentencing in the criminal justice system. The causes of racial disparity and the reasons it is on the rise, the research statistics, and the proposed solutions are discussed.

In order to understand the nature of the statistical disparity, the first aspect that must be examined is necessarily the statistics themselves. Recent data (1998) shows that more than two out of every three arrested persons are white (67.6%) and that African Americans account for only 30% of all arrests. More striking is the data adjusted per capita: African Americans are two and a half times as likely to be arrested as whites, and are even more over-represented in violent crimes, for which they are over three times as likely to be arrested. African Americans are five times as likely to be arrested in cases of robbery or murder (Walker et al., 39).

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).

In criminal law, illegitimate or unwarranted racial disparity is resulted when there is dissimilar treatment of people who are under similar situation where the dissimilar treatment is based on race. Such treatment is in most cases caused by biasness though can in some be influenced by factors that are sparsely related to race. Another cause is unguarded, individual or institution level decisions that are race-based. Structural racism has also been adduced mostly where there is evidence of longstanding difference in the treatment of individuals who are deemed to a highly correlated race characteristic.

Discrimination is a known concept that happens everywhere, yet police and prosecutors are blind to it. Their ways of preventing crime are discriminatory in every sense of the word and they categorize people based on their skin color and where they reside. The disproportionate minority contact with the stop and frisk method is one of the ways that discrimination can be seen. “Code of the Street” and “Law and Disorder in Philadelphia” help dissect why discrimination is not seen by police and their agencies and also how police officers and their administration go about ways of preventing crime. The pressure within the police, community, and courts create inequalities for the individuals going through the Criminal Justice System.

Criminal Justice Biasness basing on Race Although equality in the United States is regarded as one of the most important human standard to be upheld by all government agencies and departments, discrimination against specific races by the criminal justice system is not something new to any of us. This discrimination is obvious because of unfair treatment, use of excessive force or other prejudices against certain races and predominantly based on socially constructed stereotypes. The common stereotypes categorize certain races to be physically dangerous, very aggressive and uncooperative when dealing with the agents of criminal justice system. This potential system of racism is the target of minorities, especially the Black race, ultimately leaving

Despite changes in leadership and growing attention to issues of racial and ethnic disparity in recent years, these disparities in the criminal justice decision making still persist at every level within the system. This does not necessarily suggest that these outcomes represent conscious efforts to discriminate, but nonetheless, they contribute to excessive rates of imprisonment for some

Police shootings has been catching the eye of the people, especially when they come to find out that an innocent individual was killed by a man in blue. The purpose of this paper is to explain what racial profiling is and how it has been a problem in the Criminal Justice System. Also, it will provide insight of how police officers are allowing racial profiling to affect guilt perceptions on an individual by providing examples of how it has been happening around the nation. Media likes to stir up more problems and instead of being informative they become more of a problem. Citizens are not aware that police officers are afraid of what is going on. The intent of Police Officers is to not harm someone but to protect the citizens from harm. This study will show that although there are some police officers who do use racial profiling as a method, most do not. They hypothesis of this study is to show that police officers do have racial biases, just like non-police officers.

Racial discrimination in the US judicial system has been a much studied subject. Within the past 15 years there have been several cases in our country that undisputedly point to law enforcement making decisions based solely on race. It is difficult to determine if these isolated incidents are a mirror of the system as a whole or products of individual free will. The fact that there are many different points in the court process where discrimination can happen is a main issue with trying to determine if any single group is favored in the judicial system. Statistically, 44% of the US prison population is black as of the 2000 US Census. The remainder population is made up of whites, Hispanics, and others. (1) But is this disproportional

In examining race and ethnicity, the argument as to if discrimination exists within the criminal justice system has been going on for several years. The debate concerning racial discrimination in the justice system stems from the confusion over the definition of discrimination. The terms definition and disparity