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Racial Disparities In The Criminal Justice System

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American society is a great nation made up of rich racial diversity, a situation that brings sensitivity on the way different races are treated, especially in the justice system. Statistics on the field of criminal justice shows unequal racial proportions of people arrested and charged in courts of law. The statistics trigger unfounded theories that some races, especially the African American race, are mistreated may be due to their skin color. The assumptions regarding unfairness in the justice system on lines of racial alignment may or may not be true, hence the need for more scrutiny. According to Justice On trial (n.d), in regard to the allegations on justice system, it is imperative that the stake holders in the justice system consider …show more content…

Joan Petersilia (2000), in her report “Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System” to the US department of Justice shows the statistics on black arrests and incarcerations in USA. According to Joan, of the 12 percent of black population in US, almost 50 percent of the African Americans in major cities face an arrest for index offense in their lifetime as compared to only 14 percent of whites. Over 18 percent of black people in US serve a jail term as compared to a low number of whites, about 3 percent. A computerized information system known as Offender Based Transaction Statistics (OBTS) that analyses information of criminal processing from arrest to the sentencing stage shows a summary of male incarcerations in three states, Michigan, Texas and California. The data reveals that out of the crime committed through violence, 44 percent proportion of blacks are arrested out of which 53 percent of blacks are imprisoned. In the property crime, out of 29 percent proportion of blacks arrested, over 41 percent of blacks are imprisoned. Considering all the felonies, the proportion of African Americans arrested forms about 32 percent where the number imprisoned for the felonies is 48 percent (Joan, …show more content…

The prosecutors have a big role to play in giving justice to the defendants in the court of law. The prosecutor should ensure that a defendant gets enough time allocation for plea bargaining. Brownlie (2001) has outlined various programs given by different conventions on human rights. According to Brownlie, both the witnesses and the defendants have the right to present their ideas without any form of discrimination, degradation or torture (pp 109). However, unfair witness treatment in the process of criminal justice proceedings making the minority groups (Blacks) to lose confidence with the system. When the African Americans lose confidence with the justice system, they tend to protest against it more and usually commit more crime. The interview conducted by Gates (2004) with African American in USA shows that if racial equality is enhanced in all sectors, the issues of racial alignment can cease in the

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