Is The Criminal Justice System Racist By Heather Donald Summary

Is our justice system corrupted, racist or is it perfect? Did you know African Americans now constitute for nearly 1 million of the total 2.3 million incarcerated population? This is probably the case because Blacks are incarcerated six times the rate of whites. African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people. I believe race, ethnicity and gender disparities play a large role in how our system is executed. To support my claims I will be talking about incarceration, pullover rates & situations and police training in great detail.

Due to several injustices within the American justice system, society has become more divided. The criminal justice system in the United States has been criticized for being a race-based establishment Institutions where minorities are subjected to more strenuous punishments than their white counterparts. Nonetheless, it goes without any debate that racism exists in the justice system. Are these realities the errors of a moral justice system, or does it prove that the criminal bias organization is working as expected? Is the criminal justice system utilized to regulate and manage the minority population?

Racial and Ethnic Disparities actually begin before one even enters the Criminal Justice System. It all starts with Discrimination, a term that has been poisoning the world’s most ethnically diverse country for decades. And from Discrimination stems the problem of Disparity. The topic of Disparity and Discrimination go hand in hand. Robert Simpson brings an insightful point to the table when he writes, “ Race and Ethnic disparities in violent offending and victimization are pronounced and long standing. Black’s, and to a lesser extent Hispanics, suffer much higher rates of robbery and homicide victimization than do whites. Homicide is the leading cause of death among young black males and females These differences result in part from social forces that ecologically concentrate race with poverty and other social dislocations” (311). This suggests that certain races and ethnicities are predisposed to certain crimes and the reason behind this is the results of long standing social forces and bias that have been embedded in American

Racial profiling, poverty and high crime rates are the major contributors to high incarceration rates for African Americans compared to their percent of the general population. Besides social and economic isolation, African Americans have been marked as inherently criminal with the war on drugs and crime targeting them even when the statics shows they are less likely to be in possession of cocaine for example (Walker, Spohn, DeLone, 2012).

Michelle Alexander in her book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" argues that law enforcement officials routinely racially profile minorities to deny them socially, politically, and economically as was accustomed in the Jim Crow era. She first supports her claim by chronicling America 's history of institutionalized racism and systematic disenfranchisement of African Americans. Then, she discusses America 's War on Drugs that disproportionately targets minorities and finally as she examines the hardship faced by felons she compares and contrasts Jim Crow Laws to mass incarceration. Alexander surmises that mass incarceration is designed to maintain white supremacy and sustain a racial classification system. Alexander 's book is relevant to my research paper because she provides evidence that the criminal justice system is rooted in racism and directly linked to the racist agenda of the white supremacist.

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. Only 75 percent of blacks have received post-high school education, compared to 85 percent of whites. Not surprisingly, blacks on average also make less money than whites” (Philip M. Deutsch). It’s unjust that people of color are treated as inferior to white people, and it is that kind of social issue that interferes with the liberties of all Americans of

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. An occurrence observed by the population of Los Angeles, California conveys the existence of racism and police brutality. According to The Polls-Trends: Racial Differences in Attitudes Toward the Police, “…three quarters of blacks, but only 38 percent of whites, continued to view police brutality as a common occurrence” (Tuch and Weitzer

First, in 2010, “African Americans accounted for more than a third of the arrests for violent crimes.” In 2010, according to the Census Bureau, African Americans only made up 13% of the population. In contrast, in 2010, whites made up about 73% of the population, and they accounted for about 60% of violent crimes according to the FBI. There is a clear discrepancy here. How do we know this is because of racial discrimination? The source goes on to say that “[t]he percentage of victims who say their perpetrator was black closely matches the percentage of African Americans arrested” (Costly, Andrew). This means that nearly every time there is a black perpetrator, said perpetrator is arrested. Even though white people make up more of those arrested for violent crimes, there are many more whites in the U.S. than African Americans. Furthermore, African Americans are only 14% of illegal monthly drug users and are 37% of those arrested for drugs (Quigley, Bill). From the U.S. Census Bureau and the NSDUH (the National Survey on Drug Use and Health), for every African American that has used drugs there are six white people that have used drugs. Then how are 37% of drug arrests African American? The only explanation for this would be a racial discrepancy. Michelle Alexander, civil rights advocate, professor at the Union Theological Seminary, and the author of New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of

Even though most people think that the penal system is not racist some people, like congresswoman Maxine Waters, say that “the color of your skin dictates whether you will be arrested or not, prosecuted harshly or less harshly, or receive a stiff sentence or gain probation or entry into treatment (“Is the Criminal Justice System Racist”). Even at a 2008 debate ”Barack Obama charged that blacks and whites “are arrested at very different rates, are convicted at very different rates, [and] receive very different sentences ... for the same crime” (“Is the Criminal Justice System

Taking all of the studies, background knowledge, and statistics into consideration, I do believe that there is an unproportionate amount of black men serving time in the criminal justice system. It has been proven that men of color are particularly likely to be imprisoned, in comparison to their non black counterparts. “African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months). (Sentencing Project)” The sentencing of black men is commonly dealt with in a harsher manner, than with other races. There are specific laws and stereotypes that continue to be upheld by society, which specifically work against the favor of black men. The issue of predominantly black areas

There are numerous issues that deal with the American criminal justice system, but the two I found most prominant that occur on a daily basis is the abuse from police officers and clear racism shown by the American criminal justice system. To begin, racism as we know is a prejudice directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. In the criminal justice system African Americans are directly targeted and punished in a higher more aggressive way, than say someone who is caucasian and committed the same exact crime. Racism is more often than not, the motive for official misconduct. There are examples of racism from every known region in the United States, spanning across centuries from slavery to

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.

The justice system sentences black people to harsh punishments for minor offenses, where white people would walk away free for the same crime. Our color blindness prevents us from seeing the racial and structural divisions in society, such as the unequal schools, the isolated jobless ghettos, and the segregated society the justice system has built by locking up African American men for up to half their lives and missing out on their

Source A argues that disparities between blacks and whites have been appalling in court. According to Source A, “If a black person kills a white person, they are twice as likely to receive the death sentence as white person who kills a black person” (2). This reveals that a black person has a higher rate of receiving the death sentence when tried for murdering a white person. If a white person is tried for a killing of a black person they have a 50% chance of getting the death sentence, then that means that a black person would receive a 100% chance of getting the death sentence for killing a white person. Some implications that can be drawn from this evidence is that courts are not fair almost anywhere you go. It seems that either the jury could be prejudice or the judge, and this is a very serious issue involving racism. This statistic shows that even any place like a court or trial can be unfair. When a trial is supposed be blind, people shouldn’t prosecute someone based on their race, gender or looks. This is what happens when racism is a major issue in our country and many other places , and that needs to