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Social Norms In The Criminal Justice System

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Introduction In the criminal justice system workers strive to treat everyone equally regardless of their race, religion, cultural background and gender, however sometimes the equal treatment regardless of gender does not occur. These unequal treatments occur; when an officer feels sorry for a woman who cries at a traffic stop in which they would have issued a ticket had this person been male, a woman receives the do not do this again rather than citation or summons, or the courts sentence a woman to a lesser sentence that would have garnered a male a much harsher sentence for an identical crime. As Robert Livingston (2001), proposed this bias may be unintentional and the individuals practicing this behavior may be unaware they are behaving …show more content…

We are held to social norms some of these norms can interfere with law enforcement work. Instances of these norms can be witnessed at any academy I remember while I was at the Security Forces Academy at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas, the first day of the academy the instructor came up to my group using profanity and everyone recoiled at the language, some avoided eye contact or sought to leave the formation. The social norm of not using profanity in front of others as a standard of being a good person is a social norm we all expect to follow. There are social norms of expected behavior when men are interacting with women examples are: that men are to be the protectors of women, that women are subservient to men, and that women are not capable of being criminal minded. These norms lead to officers unintentionally acting in a typical social norm towards someone of the opposite gender. Officers may feel the need to protect a women from greater consequences such as excusing poor driving behaviors because the women acts in the social norm way of crying which makes a male officer feel the social obligation to protect the women because she is displaying proper social behavior in exchange for protection from a ticket. Livingston (2001), emphasized that individuals are most likely unaware that they are conducting this type of transaction in behaviors; between the law enforcement officer and the individual they are conducting the social norms exchange between both parties. When a woman refuses to engage in the bartering of expected social norms in exchange for better treatment from officers then tend to treat the women harsher according to Visher (1983). The decision to treat a female harsher because she chooses to not conform to social norms is discriminating behavior and should be

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