Crime, punishment and poverty is a complex issue and has become a central part of the social system. Pauvre a French word meaning poor is where the word poverty derived from (………………..). Moreover, having little means and materials to support self-defines poverty. According to Abraham Maslow hierarchy a person basic needs must be fulfilled if not criminal behavior may be motivated. An individual basic needs consist of food, water, shelter, and psychological necessities. Research reports an individual that lives in the United States who grosses less than $1.25-1.50 is called a poor, a person experiencing poverty. Therefore, the majority of the United States social problem is poverty that stimulates crime and punishment.
Many crimes originate
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Poverty misfortune implements its self it two forms. One form of poverty is when an individual circumstance is beyond their control such as medical and mental health. The second form of poverty is death of loves ones who contributed to income, personal failing, and inadequacy. Additional sociological explanations of poverty may exist for individuals who beliefs, values, and behavior effect their ability to increase economically.
Thus this essay will discuss race, poverty, crime, and punishment impact on citizens in the United States. The criminal sanctions and victimization employment in order to continue a social system has created massive disadvantages that perpetuates stratification and poverty.
Punishment is widespread sentences families, peer groups, neighborhoods, and racial groups are impacted from punishment of individuals convicted of felonies. Statistics show a huge population differences. African Americans are incarcerated approximately seven times as often as whites. The economic deprivation in the United States is linked to the variation in criminal punishment. Consequently, collateral sanctions play an ever-larger role in racial and ethnic stratification, operating as an interconnected system of disadvantage as the number of felons and former felons
However, a number of African Americans, who were convicted of a felony, are disproportionately high nowadays. Michelle Alexander considers that It has led to the creation of “a new racial undercaste” (2010). Actually, in our time, discrimination affects every aspect of political, economic, and social life of the people who was charged with a serious criminal offence. In this regard, she mentions the law “banning drug felons from public housing …and denying them basic public benefits for life” (2010). We live in a “colorblind society” that pretends the racial disparity and discrimination do not exist.
Although, the justice system impacts many lives, especially within the African American community many individuals are unaware of the effects that the Criminal Justice system can have on offender while incarcerated and even after incarceration. The reading is intended for anyone willing to learn about how are society uses Mass Incarceration as a method to hinder individuals of the African American community from being successful in our society. The author’s writing style is very informative. Michelle Alexander uses clarity and factual information to explain to the reader the many issues that are within our Criminal Justice system. Further, Michelle Alexander is very detailed with the information that she shares within the text.
Yet the fact is that African Americans are incarcerated, on probation, or parole in numbers unacceptably disproportionate to the population. The official explanation for the inequality is: higher crime rates among African Americans, which is consistent with dominant racial accounts going back to slavery. African Americans, are exposed to tactics and practices that would result in public outrage and scandal if committed in middle-class white neighborhoods, resulting in jaw-dropping figures of African Americans and Latinos filling the nation’s prisons and jails every
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.
A racial disparity in sentencing has been analyzed to play a huge role in the sentencing of individuals for over 20 years. In most
To begin with, the most common inequality in modern society is the corrupted criminal justice system. Racial bias and profiling persuades judgments when sentencing minorities; especially African Americans. " African Americans make up 6.5% of the American population but 40.2% of the prison
In her book, The New Jim Crow Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander who was a civil rights lawyer and legal scholar, reveals many of America’s harsh truths regarding race within the criminal justice system. Though the Jim Crow laws have long been abolished, a new form has surfaced, a contemporary system of racial control through mass incarceration. In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars
A study conducted by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services undertaking claims of sentencing disparities studies the felony sentencing outcomes particularly in New York courts between the years 1990 and 1992. Astonishingly, the study concluded that approximately one-third of minorities sentenced to prison would have received a shorter sentence with the possibility of a non-incarcerative penalty if they had been treated similarly to their white counterparts. Consequently, other sentencing data is consistent with the results of this study’s findings. On a national scale, black males specifically, who were convicted of drug felonies in state courts 52 percent of the time, while white males typically receive prison sentencing approximately 34 percent of the time. In addition, these figures are not constrained to gender given the similar ratio among black and white women as well.
Analysis: Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" aims to bring attention to the racial caste system that exists within the American justice system, particularly in the context of mass incarceration of African Americans. Alexander argues that although America has moved past Jim Crow segregation laws, it has not moved past the racist system of oppression that existed during that era. Instead, a new caste system has emerged, with the American justice system serving as its primary mechanism for the maintenance of racial hierarchy. To support this thesis, Alexander details how the War on Drugs, initiated during the Reagan era, has resulted in an explosion of the prison population in America, particularly among people of color. She argues that the
In America, criminal justice has been an issue for generations. People are convicted of crimes and their convictions are oftentimes based on their race and/or social status. Unfortunately, it is a reality that the criminal justice system privileges those who are “rich and guilty rather than if they are poor and innocent. Many African American men and women have suffered due to this. In the book Just Mercy and the movie 13th, both sources give great examples of how the criminal justice system continues to overlook the truth to keep black Americans incarcerated.
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.
Annotated Bibliography Alexander, M. (2010). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York: The New Press. Alexander opens up on the history of the criminal justice system, disciplinary crime policy and race in the U.S. detailing the ways in which crime policy and mass incarceration have worked together to continue the reduction and defeat of black Americans.
The United States has a larger percent of its population incarcerated than any other country. America is responsible for a quarter of the world’s inmates, and its incarceration rate is growing exponentially. The expense generated by these overcrowded prisons cost the country a substantial amount of money every year. While people are incarcerated for several reasons, the country’s prisons are focused on punishment rather than reform, and the result is a misguided system that fails to rehabilitate criminals or discourage crime. This literature review will discuss the ineffectiveness of the United States’ criminal justice system and how mass incarceration of non-violent offenders, racial profiling, and a high rate of recidivism has become a problem.
Poverty is one of the most horrific epidemics in our society today. Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. It is a very serious problem that many people suffer from today. Many issues such as illness, hunger, and bad sanitation are all causes of poverty. Statistics show that there are over 35 million Americans that live in poverty.
Poverty is defined as the state of being unable to fulfill basic needs of human beings. Poverty is the lack of resources leading to physical deprivation. Poor people are unable to fulfill basic survival needs such as food, clothing, shelter. These are the needs of lowest order and assume top priority. Poor people are unknown of their lack of voice, power, and rights, which leads them to exploitation.