Racism: Inequality In The Criminal Justice System

What is racism? Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially to categorize it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Racism has changed a lot over the last century.

With so many news stories and incidents surrounding the topic of race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that racism may exist within the criminal justice system. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants may play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts. The issues surrounding the topic of race is like the two faces of the same coin as there are usually two sides that we have to consider: reality and media portrayals. The reality side of situations is always there at the time, but it is so subtly hidden from society that nobody understands it unless they witness it firsthand and with the media spreading filtered information, it becomes even harder for us to identify the key issue; this is especially the case when dealing with the police and racial profiling. If you turn on the news and flip to a channel where it is reporting on the police and their arrests, you will most likely see more arrests pertaining to minorities than other ethnicities. In the news, we can often see a misrepresentation of ethnic minorities, usually African-Americans, being arrested when compared to others and this has caused problems around societies countless times. For this essay topic, I will be discussing the different issues surrounding race within the parameters of criminal justice and inequality; furthermore I will be

There are many different types of unlawful racism in the criminal justice system. It goes from back in the early part of our great nation’s birth to the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. to Ferguson, Missouri. The path that racism takes is from old time’s point of view. The way to clear up racism in our criminal justice system is simple and easy. Americans need to fully understand the idea of equality. Second, police need to stop doing racial profiling. Finally, the criminal justice system needs to be kinder to different races. Americans need to abolish the idea that racism needs to be alive. The criminal

The belief that one race by nature stands superior to another defines racism. Racism can be traced back to the beginning of civilization and has always existed as a horrible issue in our society. Many attempts and reforms have occurred in hopes of eliminating racism and much progress has been achieved. Yet, even after the emancipation proclamation, equality laws placed within the constitution, small

There are large racial disparities in incarceration and related detainments for African Americans. They are more likely to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections than any other racial or ethnic group (H.West, Sabol, & Greenman, 2010). Institutional racism is believed to be the reason why African Americans, especially males, are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. On balance, the public believes that discrimination against black people is based on the prejudice of the individual person, correlates to the discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions (Pew’s Research Center, 2017). This belief is actually supported through several experimental studies that provide evidence that African Americans are to be seen as more criminal and threatening than others thus more likely to be arrested or even shot (Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003). Racism within the criminal justice system very much exists and is still relevant.

What is racism? The word racism is defined as “the belief that a particular race is inferior to another race or races.” The Anti-Defamation League defined the word racism as “the hatred of one person by another, or belief that another person is less, because of skin color, language, customs, place of birth or any factor that supposedly reveals the basic nature of that person. It has influenced wars, slavery, the formation of nation and legal codes”

“The United States is home to 5% of the world’s population and is also home to 25% of the world’s prisoners. A little country with 5% of the world’s population having 25% of the world’s prisoners? One out four human beings with their hands on bars, shackled in the world are locked up here in the land of the free. In 2016 the United States had 2.3 million prisoners. The United States has now the highest the rate of incarceration in the world” (Averick, Spence & Barish, Howard & DuVernay, Ava, 2016). “The nation’s criminal justice system is indeed broken. People of color, particularly African Americans and Latinos, are targeted by the police and face harsher prison sentences than whites” (Coker, D., 2003). The money our government spends on mass

Racism is an umbrella term and denotes discrimination based on not only race but the facts behind culture, ethnicity and economy. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about minorities is criminal history. When a crime is committed nearly every time it’s a black male that came from the streets. About 52 percent of crimes committed in America are by african american males. Racism is authentic because ever since the January 1, 1863, when president Abraham Lincoln ended slavery. Martin Luther King led thousands of people demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, from Selma, Alabama.

While systemic racism is observable in many institutions today, its presence in the criminal justice system is increasingly becoming a large concern. Various sources of statistical data indicate a strong correlation between race and a negative treatment in the criminal justice system, as outlined in Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehsisi Coates and Paul Butler in Chokehold. Although some continue to disregard the existence of systemic racism in the criminal justice system, those who have acknowledged its presence debate the best mechanism to dissolve this issue. Among the various theories which discusses the concept of group rights, Iris Marion Young’s politics of positional difference, which advocates for the implementation of policies that

Today, African Americans and other minorities are over-represented in the criminal justice system, but under-represented politically in the United States of America. Since well before its inception in 1776, the United States of America has been a nation characterized by white supremacy. In fact, modern day America may not exist if not for the taking of land from the Indigenous Peoples on this very premise. Today, many Americans believe they live in a post-racial nation, citing the abolition of slavery in the 1860s. While racism has certainly been reduced in modern America, it is still ever-present in society, and more alarmingly, the criminal justice system.

Have you ever witnessed racism in your life? Racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race, based on the belief that one's own race is superior. You are not born with the characteristic to discriminate against other races, it is something that you acquire over time, by the influence of others. Today and back in the 1930’s, racism is something that affects society on a daily basis. Racism affects many aspects of life, such as the judicial system, the hiring process, education, and public acceptance in general.

In this essay, I will be discussing whether there is a race or a racism problem within the criminal justice system. Crime is a feature in all societies and criminal justice is the response to a crime and can include protecting the citizens from everyday threats to their safety such as ensuring dangerous and persistent offenders are monitored effectively when in the community and imprisoned when necessary. Racism is the unequal treatment of a population group purely because of its’ possession of physical or other characteristics socially defined as denoting a particular race (Scott and Marshall, 2005). There are strong beliefs that there is a correlation between race and crime also, race and how the criminal justice system deals with this problem and it is also believed that racism may play a part in this. This interest has largely been fuelled by one of the very few facts consistently recorded in crime statistics: ethnic minorities tend to be overrepresented in every stage of criminal justice systems.

Racism is a social dilemma that has been dealt a frequent occurrence in the history of mankind. People have experienced different forms of racism and depending on what part of the world you lived in, many wars have been fought different ethnic and racial group. The term racism has been over used so much so that it does no longer have a significant definition. The meaning varies depending on who is being asked what racism is. According to the book, "Institutional Racism in America," however, racism is a broad term.

Racism is the belief of all members of a specific race to have the same specific characteristics or abilities to that ethnicity group. Racism is directed towards a specific person’s race based on the belief that one’s race is superior to the other. Racism has been a big issue ever since history could recall. Wherever there are different racial kinds of people, there would be racism. How does history, global issues, and societal up bringing affect racism in our current society.

I like how Best brings up the past chapters to make things easier to understand. Best brings up the claimsmaking, media coverage, public reaction, and policymaking chapters on the first page of this chapter (Best 231). I also liked how best talked about how social problem workers need to somehow find a place between reality and the unreal expectations put onto them as I feel like many people do not think about that (Best 233). I noticed that chapter three of The New Jim Crow and chapter eight of Social Problems connect. Social Problems talks about how cases are constructed but The New Jim Crow talks about some social cases, like racism in the criminal justice field. So, after reading both chapters, you can see how the cases are made and how these cases can go.