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Examples Of Disparities And Discrimination In The US Criminal Justice System

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Disparities and Discrimination in US Criminal Justice System The US justice system is marred with instances of high degree discrimination and disparities and these stems from unprecedented poor management of the civil law in the country. Judging by the nature of historical injustices that have defined the criminal justice system, it goes without mentioning that, the confusion’s genesis is in the law itself and racial incarceration of the minority colored groups by the majority whites. Definition of the two terms is based on differences but the deviations are based on either legal terms or social, economic and political basis for the other. The degree of difference is highly unrecognizable but then it is clear that where disparity exists discrimination …show more content…

For instance, when a police officer killed unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, it led to high degree protests in Missouri and this led to American Civil Liberties Union and other units of justice to agitate for discrimination against the black minority during arrest by the white law enforcing agents. In sentencing period, disparity was evident during the Kimbrough vs. US case of 2007 where the defendant faced five years jail term due to the statutes present in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 that, give a powder holder less jail time than a crack offender (Robinson & Williams, 2009). The statutes give a ratio of 100-1 in terms of jailing an offender found with crack than powder and it is evident that white people are the ones more likely to be found with powder than the blacks are (Robinson & Williams, …show more content…

B. (2001). Racial, ethnic, and gender disparities in sentencing: Evidence from the US. Federal Courts. Journal of Law and Economics, XLIV: 285-314. Retrieved from: http://thebattleofrightvswrong.blogspot.co.ke/2012/01/disparity-vs- discrimination.html
Olison, C. (2012). Disparity vs. Discrimination. Retrieved from: http://thebattleofrightvswrong.blogspot.co.ke/2012/01/disparity-vs- discrimination.html
Robinson, M. & Williams, M. (2009). The myth of a fair criminal justice system. Justice Policy Journal, 6(1):1-53. Retrieved from: http://www.cjcj.org/uploads/cjcj/documents/the_myth.pdf
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights (2016). Discrimination in the criminal justice system. Civilrights.org. Retrieved from: http://www.civilrights.org/publications/reports/cerd-report-falling-further- behind/discrimination-in-the.html
Walker, S., Spohn, C. & DeLone, M. (2012). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity and crime in America (5th ed.). Belmont, CA:

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