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The United States The Criminal Justice System

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In the United States the criminal justice system does not always create policies that affect everyone equally. There are many policies that seem to target a specific group of people, whether this is intentional or not is beside the point. The important thing is to change the criminal justice system in order to stop race disparities. Marc Mauer in his lecture speaks of the reason for the disparity between races when it comes to the incarceration rate, as well as steps that can be taken in order to elevate, and or stop the disparity in the criminal justice system. Other topics that Mauer covers are the impact that policies can have on a specific group in the United States, and the overwhelming disproportion when it comes to drug arrest, and the people who get arrested.

Marc Mauer starts his lecture with a story about two different teenagers. One of the teenage seemed to come from a middle to upper class family, and when he was found shoplifting the family was able to obtain a social worker to help them solve the underlining issues that their child had (Marc Mauer lecture). The parents then spoke to the police, and prosecutor to let them know what they were doing in order to resolve their child’s issues, and the prosecutor decided to drop the case, do to the steps that the family was already taken (Marc Mauer lecture). In the second scenario another teenager was found shoplifting, but his family did not have the resources to get a social worker, so the teen was given

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