The Criminal Justice System

When and how officers use discretion is not always seen in a positive light by some members of the community; for example some officers feel that an assault between two blacks is an acceptable way for them to handle disputes, therefore there would be no need to invoke the criminal process (Goldstein, 1960). An officer’s negative appraisal of minorities is one of the reasons they are so over-represented in the criminal justice system. If officers are making the decision not to invoke the criminal process when dealing with white upper class males, but in most cases invoking the criminal process when dealing with members of the minority community, that is a violation of due process. In that case, the net affect of police discretion is negative.

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

Law enforcement and minorities have long been the focus of the criminal justice injustice within the United States. African Americans, Arab Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic and Latino Americans are a number of communities in the United States along with Caucasian or non-minorities as a whole, which make up a large portion of the United States. Racial discrimination has been a large factor the criminal justice system has been plagued with for many years. In the book Just Mercy, authored by Bryan Stevenson, Stevenson details his life’s work to help those who were wrongfully convicted and biased towards in sentencing. A big part of the book is related to racial discrimination among officers. Analytically I will be looking at the question of whether the relations between the police and minority and non-minority communities differ. I will look at number of factors related to traffic enforcement practices, use of force and arrest of minorities and non-minorities in determining if there is any differences among police community relations.

Recently, there has been much in the media about clashes between African Americans and the police. Two such cases, being the shootings of Michael Brown and Laquan McDonald - both incidents resulting in public outrage. These cases result in questions about racial profiling by police. Through research, it is clear that African Americans are the target of racial bias by many police departments in the United States; in order to remedy this situation, law enforcement agencies need to (and are beginning to) undergo scrutiny on their interactions with the public and, additionally must receive training on diversity.

The role of police in their communities and society as a whole, is an interesting and unique position. They are citizens that are responsible for policing fellow, equal citizens and are the extensive arm of the government. Police are required to enforce laws set by the state, regardless of the effectiveness or rationality of the laws and any negative consequences they cause. These consequences often result in racial disparities in the criminal justice system between blacks and whites or an unequal concentration of poor Americans in police interactions. With such apparent injustices, it

With the recent rise in discussions about prejudice in the police force, this issue remains at the forefront of my mind as of late. Starting in 2014 with the tragic death of Michael Brown, an eighteen year old African American boy who was gunned down by the white police officer Darren Wilson, the vast injustices hidden within the justice system have been continuously exposed and thus an entire movement began. Since then, the nature of law enforcement and prejudices within the police force have been the subject of an ongoing national debate, and civil unrest has characterized the political climate of the last few years.

Multicultural understanding is critical, as currently members of racial and ethnic minorities account for more than one in three Americans, and projections indicate that members of minorities will constitute a majority of the nation’s population by 2050. One of the most significant problems facing the police during the past three decades has been the tension, and often upright hostility, between the police and minority group citizens. Over the last few decades, minority representation has increased significantly in U.S. police departments. However, African America, Hispanic American, and other minorities are still seriously underrepresented in U.S. police departments.

Criminal justice is defined as a social institution that has the mission of controlling crime by detecting, detaining, adjudicating, and punishing and/or rehabilitating people who break the law. There are three major institutions in the criminal justice system. There is law enforcement, courts system, and corrections. With these three institutions they work together to prevent and punish deviant behavior. When a person or group of people violate the rules of society to the point that someone is harmed or the interests of that society are harmed is called a crime.

The people of the minority community have been affected by or possibly for countless of years, have been abused by police forces across the United States. The misconduct of law enforcement towards minorities has been accountable for many of untruthful arrests, inaccurate convictions, and even deaths of the African American. Police discrimination and racial profiling have been serious concerns over the years and is still a considerable important subject to the minority people in today’s society. Today, law enforcement officials are using life-threating and excessive force that contributes to outrageous beatings, horrendous attacks, and unreasonable shootings. This is a terrible and terrifying factor the minority face just because of the color of their skin.

In his view, the subculture itself, characterizes the public as hostile, potentially violent, and not to be trusted; which requires mutual support, secrecy and unity from the police (Scaramella et al , 2010, 99). The same subculture of police will deteriorate the sense of community from officers in favor for views and beliefs within the police services. Soon after minority police officers are hired into the police services, they begin to shape around police culture. Minority police officers can adopt an attitude that complies with existing police culture in order to succeed in the job and detach themselves from the community in favor of "professionalism." (Ben-Porat, 2008, 16). Police efforts to recruit minorities to stop under-policing and over-policing are in fact diminished by police culture. Although the police services may seem like they are creating a better image for themselves, the police culture itself is hindering minorities from relating to and changing their minority groups. Police culture is the main reason behind police acting and viewing minorities the way they do. Furthermore, the changing of police culture doesn’t come from the hiring of minorities but rather the changing of police services themselves. Training the police to be

From several past experiences, it is clear that police had estranged relations with the minority communities. Therefore, this is the major reason behind attention on minority communities’ program. It is also true that policing is mostly required by minority communities owing to several reasons such as discrimination, poverty, and harassment by other communities. In essence, crimes always tend to occur in places and regions of these communities.

A previous study examines minority police officer’s contribution to police-ethnic minority conflict management. This study talks about communications between police and citizens with migration background are prone to conflict. Police services are staffed with officers that have a family migration background so that way it will be easier to reach out to those types of families to let them know that they are not alone and that there are police officers willing to help them through anything. “Minority police officer’s conflict intensification can be framed as being a point of friction. We conclude that minority police officers are beneficial to police-ethnic minority conflict management and suggest continuous monitoring of minority police officers ' roles by police authorities.” This study has shown that police officers with an ethnic minority background significantly contribute to intercultural conflict resolution (Decker, C., & Kersten, J. 2014). These results from this study will show me the true significance of having minorities on the police force and what they will contribute to law enforcement and society.

The criminal justice system is a set of agencies and process that have been established to control crime and impose punishment on those who violate them. They aide in apprehending, prosecuting, defending, sentencing, and punishing individuals who have been convicted of a crim. There is no one criminal justice system in the United States but many individual systems. The way they work depends on the jurisdiction in which they exist. The laws are different in different types of jurisdiction. The different types of jurisdictions are state, county, state, federal and tribal government, and military installations. The main systems are state and federal. State systems handle offenses that occur within state boundaries and federal systems handle offense that occur in more than one state or on federal property (land owned by the federal government). Most criminal justice systems consist of 5 components. These components include law enforcement, prosecution, defense attorneys, courts, and corrections. Each play a major role in the criminal justice system. Understanding the criminal justice system is essential in ensuring that you know and understand your rights. This paper will discuss the history, each of the components, problems within the system (corruption), and its overall function.

Constable Police officers are the first responders in the Criminal Justice system. They are sworn to preserve the peace and maintain public order. They work on the front counters in their office to take a day to day complaints from the public and they do active patrols as well as directed patrols. They help to provide information to the public regarding safety and awareness in communities. They are to prepare and present reports both written and verbal in a timely and complete manner.

The Criminal Court system is made up of four main components, each with its distinct aim. Each part works independently to achieve its goals. The four components are: law enforcement, prosecution, the judiciary, and the corrections. Law enforcement is the most visible element of the criminal court system. It is the part that has the first contact with crime offenders and victims. The functions of this component are: receive and document crime reports, carry investigations on reported crimes, collect evidence, and arrest offenders. The prosecution ensures criminals are brought to justice. This element represents state interests. The defense part of this component represents the interest of the accused (Neubauer and Fradella 66). The judiciary has the duty of overseeing the proceedings of the court and ensures that the law is not broken at any stage of the criminal justice system. The final say on law matters comes from this element. The final component is the corrections stage and its duty is to imprison