Racism in the Criminal Justice System Over the years, several people have studied the subject of racism. Moreover, several people have argued about numerous topics they assert to be racist. One side of the story claims that one’s action establish his retribution, while the other side of the story says that racism is still a tremendous botheration today, especially in the Criminal Justice System.The Criminal Justice System accumulates tremendous criticism for being assumed to be racist and incriminating too many blacks. The quantity of blacks entangled in crime has nothing to do with racism, but everything to do with one’s actions, history, and life choices. First of all, if one’s actions are not suitable for the law, understandably, they will face the consequences. In the article by Heather MacDonald, it states that 1 in every 33 black men were in prison against only 1 in every 205 white men were in prison. The actions of a fraction of the black prisoners may have not …show more content…
If one decides to go out and do drugs or murder someone, consequently, they will probably get caught accordingly. Also in the article by Heather MacDonald, she stated that blacks are given an increasingly lenient punishment, so if more blacks are in prison than whites, maybe the blacks did something horrendous enough to deserve it. If one chose better choices, they wouldn’t be in the predicament that they are in. So one shouldn’t go out and believe that it is affirmative to commit a heinous crime and being held accountable for their choice is not going to affect them. Therefore, the choices in one’s life could have a negative or positive impact on you. If someone is facing incarceration, whether it is someone who is black or white, they must have done something to have been sent there. The Criminal Justice System is not racist, but everyone sees it differently. One’s fate depends upon their actions, history, or life
Introduction In the article “Black Judges are Tougher on Black and White Offenders”, Dr. Darrell Steffensmeier did exclusive research on prison sentencing and treatment given to both black and white offenders by black and white judges. Steffensmeier provides details that support his finding of how black judges and white judges sentence their defendants differently. Through his study at Penn State University, Steffensmeier gives information that describes the harsher treatment that black defendants may face more than white defendants when it comes to having black judges instead of white judges. In the end, Steffensmeier gives a synopsis of how black judges' emotional state can be an issue while sentencing their defendants and whether the race factor matters in the justice system and the courtroom.
“The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984” The article, “The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984” (2015), written by Eric Girault, persuades the audience that the enactment of the law did not reduce crime in societies, but was misappropriated, which caused a negative impact on families and their communities. Girault describes this by sharing his personal anecdote on receiving a harsh prison sentence for a non-violent crime as a first time offender. He uses trustworthy resources in order to substantiate his claim. Girault’s intended audience for this piece of writing is the general public, specifically those that lack knowledge of the law and its due process.
This novel highlights the fact of the injustices people of color are faced with in everyday life. In the introduction of this book, Michelle Alexander highlights the criminal justice system and how rather than identifying people by their race, people of color are labeled as criminals. I believe the criminal justice system, racial caste, ideology, and global examples of racial caste are all connected to racial inequality. I feel that the race and criminal justice system are connected on the basis that people of color are seen as unequal when compared to Caucasians. In the reading the author provides good examples of how officers are well trained at defending against claims of racial bias in policing.
America’s criminal justice system is racially biased and influenced due to the fact that the punishment a person gets is not related to the crime that 's done, funds that help African
Knowing these facts, she also mentions how society disregards these men in prison because they’re focused on successful black celebrities, like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama, as well as media promoting stereotypes on the War on Drugs. Acknowledging that mass incarceration is now the new “normal,” Alexander argues that it has become normalized due to individuals “knowing and not knowing (p. 182). To elaborate, individuals know and choose to ignore (not know) the fact that black men being incarcerated is unjust knowing, or not knowing, that white people are more likely to commit the same crimes and not being criminalized for it. (p. 182).
Member of diverse ethnic and racial groups, particularly African Americans, believe that they are not treated with respect and believe that there is institutional racism in law enforcement. Institutionalized racism can be harmful to those impacted. For example, the use of pre-employment standardized tests claim that this kind of assessment could be biased toward people of a certain culture, so minorities tend to score lower (p. 48). Racism within law enforcement agencies has been documented for decades.
The author found that more people of color, especially black males are under the control our criminal justice system than were enslaved in 1850. The author supports the pervious idea by using specific examples such as the “War on Drugs” to show people of color are targeted more by law enforcement officers and scrutinize harsher by our courts for drug laws but the drug usage is used at the same rate by blacks and whites. With the help of mass-media, the “crack” epidemic in inner cities, the War on Drugs policies, the “Get tough on crime” policies, and the propaganda about people of color all have influenced the way mainstream society thinks about blacks. The author found that mainstream society believes that black people commits more crime and uses more drugs than white people, so therefore blacks deserved to incarcerated. However, Michelle Alexander disproves in “The New Jim Crow” that blacks commit more crimes than whites, the drug usage rates are the same between both races, propaganda has influenced the way mainstream society views blacks and that the “War on Drugs” and the “Get Tough on Crime” was policies targeted towards inner cities and people of color with the intent to enslave them in the criminal justice system by giving them felonies in which people of color are disenfranchise by society.
Michelle Alexander, similarly, points out the same truth that African American men are targeted substantially by the criminal justice system due to the long history leading to racial bias and mass incarceration within her text “The New Jim Crow”. Both Martin Luther King Jr.’s and Michelle Alexander’s text exhibit the brutality and social injustice that the African American community experiences, which ultimately expedites the mass incarceration of African American men, reflecting the current flawed prison system in the U.S. The American prison system is flawed in numerous ways as both King and Alexander points out. A significant flaw that was identified is the injustice of specifically targeting African American men for crimes due to the racial stereotypes formed as a result of racial formation. Racial formation is the accumulation of racial identities and categories that are formed, reconstructed, and abrogated throughout history.
“African Americans now constitute nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population.” The majority group of this statistic are people who come from african american backgrounds. The fact that black people are to make up nearly half of the prison population alone, really conveys the rate at which they are being arrested. Black men are often victims of racial profiling by police. They are targeted by police officers, and security guards, and are accused of crimes unrelated to them, simply on the basis of their skin color.
While this may not be entirely true i believe he means that blacks are getting sent to prison more than any other
People of all different races and ethnicities are locked behind bars because they have been convicted of committing a crime and they are paying for the consequences. When looking at the racial composition of a prison in the United States, it does not mimic the population. This is because some races and ethnicities are over represented in the correctional system in the U.S. (Walker, Spohn, & DeLone, 2018). According Walker et al. (2018), African-Americans/Blacks make up less than fifteen percent of the U.S. population, while this race has around thirty-seven percent of the population in the correctional system today.
Alexander focuses on how African American communities have become more vulnerable to the arrests. Authorities will target these communities even though this is not where the crime is happening. Lastly, many people are labeled ‘felons’ for life, even though they have only committed one victimless crime. Michelle Alexander summarizes her opinion by saying, “We have not ended racial caste in America: we have simply redesigned it.” Even though America has taken many small steps to move forward from segregation, black individuals are locked up behind bars and will struggle for the rest of their lives to escape from the ‘felon’ title.
The Huffington Post says, “The U.S. incarcerates nearly seven times as many people, measured as a share of population, as Canada does. People of color are disproportionately represented in the American prison population and are typically punished more severely than white peers for the same crimes” (Daniel Marans). Racism against people of color has caused them to be represented poorly in society as potential criminals, especially black. MIT informs its viewers that “according to the United States census Bureau, blacks are twice as likely to be poor compared to other races, and eight times as likely to be imprisoned. Blacks are also three times more likely to be convicted of drug violations than whites.
Coker gives great evidence that supports racial injustice in the criminal justice system. She discusses on the Supreme Court’s rulings and accusations of racial preference in the system. This article is helpful because it supports my thesis on race playing a role on the system of criminal justice. Hurwitz, J., & Peffley, M. (1997). Public perceptions of race and crime: The role of racial stereotypes.
According to the article Racism and Police Brutality in America, “Whites believe that Blacks are disproportionately inclined to engage in criminal behavior and are the deserving on harsh treatment by the criminal justice system” (Chaney 484). The justice system has unfortunately followed this idea. The African American race has been a minority in the legal system in the past; however, it has been much worse as of 2015. Some individuals assume it is acceptable to refrain from acknowledging this fact. Racism is an issue in the midst of police brutality, and it should be resolved.