Policing in today’s society has been impacted through a multitude of influences including social, political, and economical to name a few. One factor that has, in more recent years, left its imprint within policing is race. Race, brings up the subtopics of ethics, corruption, accountability, and public views on policing. The following paper will discuss these subtopics to help further understand why and how race plays such a significant role in current day society and policing.
The issue of race within the police force dates back to the 1967 President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice, which considered the lack of minority officers one of the central problems in policing at that time. Almost 50 years later and
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To further these goals, implementations to new approaches that do not criminalize poverty would be an excellent place to start. Overall the police system is far from perfect and there can be many things done to improve it but all that needs to be done is to begin to build. Especially now that many of these issues have been brought to light to be repaired and to make America that much better. References
Antonovics, Kate and Brian G. Knight. 2009. “A New Look at Racial Profiling: Evidence From the Boston Police Department.” The Review of Economics and Statistics 91(1): 163-177.
Bannon, Alicia, Mitali Nagrecha, and Rebekah Diller. 2010. “Criminal Justice Debt: A Barrier to Reentry.” The Brennan Center for Justice.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2016. “Data Collection: National Judicial Reporting Program (NJRP) 1986-2006.” United States Department of Justice. .
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2012. “Survey of State Criminal History Information Systems.” United States Department of Justice.
Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2016. “Arrest Data Analysis Tool.” United States Department of Justice.
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2011. “Klugie's Correctional Corner”. https://www.correctionsone.com/corrections/articles/3115850-Top-10-correctional-issues-for-2011/
Criminal Justice Report. 2016. “ Economic Perspectives on Incarceration and the Criminal Justice System”.
“...Much of the recent crime increase threatens the vitality of America’s cities–and thousands of lives–it is not, in itself, the greatest danger in today’s war on cops. The greatest danger lies, rather, in the delegitimation of law and order itself’ (Mac Donald). In the book “The War on Cops: How the New Attack on Law and Order Makes Everyone Less Safe,” published in the year of 2016, author Heather Mac Donald provides credible evidence to expand on her viewpoint of our country’s current criminal crisis. In addition to “The War on Cops, Mac Donald has written two other books. Her works “Are Cops Racist?”
James Queally and Joe Mozingo on the article “Feds fault San Francisco police for violence against minorities and recommend 272 reforms” explains how law enforcement is racially biased towards minorities. Queally and Mozingo support their claim by mentioning the rise of police brutality against Blacks and Latinos and describing the type slurs used when law enforcement are referring to minorities amongst their fellow colleague. The authors’ purpose is to show the reader the type of way law enforcement is unfair to people of color and different cultures. The authors write in a serious tone to those seeking to end police brutality.
Argument nowadays has become fruitless-getting nowhere because people listen to argue and not to understand. However, in the speech “Hard Truths: Law Enforcements and Race” given by the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I), James B. Comey addresses that it is imperative to not only listen but understand the differences in perspectives when discussing racial profiling. Furthermore, he implores his audience to consider that the topic about law enforcement dealing with race is much more complicated than it seems. Comey’s implicit thesis does support that there is evidence of racial bias in law enforcement; moreover, his purpose is to establish sympathy for the two opposing sides: law enforcements and the people of color. Overall,
All throughout America, individuals are taught at a young age that police officers are always the “good guys.” Police officers are painted to be trustworthy, honorable, and advocates of justice. This idea is often displayed in the media through television shows, movies, and news specials. For some, this idea still holds truth, however there are many, particularly individuals of color, whom would quickly disagree. Numerous persons of color have been subjected to racial profiling by officers resulting in stops, searches, and false accusation of crimes.
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.
Introduction The topic of this paper is the South Carolina Department of Corrections. This agency was selected due to the authors’ current major of Criminal Justice. While attending classes at Tri-County Technical College I have covered many aspect of the criminal justice system as a whole along with the area of corrections. Although I am familiar with the topic, this will be in depth to the South Carolina Department of Corrections and how this agency interacts within the state government.
And recently, African American leaders such as Al Sharpton have been feeding the black community with ridiculous claims that they are being targeted by officers. This propaganda has lead to an increase in officers being shot, the day I happened to be writing this, an officer with kids was shot and killed by a black man. So I strongly agree with the author when he reveals it is a social problem not a race problem. Police Officers have a very difficult job and we should all be grateful that there are people who are willing to put their life on the line for the greater good of
The purpose of the “Black or Blue: Racial Profiling and Representative Bureaucracy” article was to examine the relationship between the passive and active representation of the race in the police department, particularly in the policy area of racial profiling. The authors, Wilkins and Williams, analyzed 168,901 data collected from the vehicle stops recorded by the San Diego Police Department in the months of 2000 to measure the racial disparity among officer’s divisions. There were eight divisions: North, Northeast, East, Southeast, Central, West, South, and Mid-City. The question lies, does organizational socialization strip the racial identity of police officers, changing them from “black and blue” to simply “blue” and limiting their provision
During the mid to late 1960’s there were many riots which lead the police to the unjust arrest and shootings of African Americans. Which "result[ed] in hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, and the destruction of predominantly black neighborhoods" (Police Brutality). Racial tension contributes a sizeable amount to the division amongst minorities and police; "minorities in the United States see things much differently. A large majority, 81 percent, of blacks say police use deadly force too quickly compared with 61 percent of Hispanics and 33 percent of whites" (Law Enforcement and Violence). For the relationship to progress there must be an open dialogue between the “public” or minority's and the police.
Regarding to racial profiling and the multiple perceptions that go along with it, the issue refers to the use of race as the answer in police decision making. More importantly, let’s look into the public’s perception of profiling through the classification of race, class, and personal experience. Weitzer and Tuch (2002) conducted this study to stretch this issue that has grown over the recent years and has touched based on the classifications mentioned earlier. Their major findings from surveying the respondents’ attitudes contributed towards the citizens’ hostility with the police. Basically, the classifications that were most affective to the citizens in their findings were race and personal experiences.
In the 1990’s the United States experienced a great drop in crime rates all across America (in cities, suburbs, exurbs, and rural areas). The decline in crime was unexpected, large, and it was widespread geographically and demographically. Many researchers attempted to explain why crime declined in the 1990’s, but it was proven to be a difficult task. According to Zimring (and most other researchers) there are three commonly cited explanations for the crime drop. These are; the criminal justice efficacy, demographics, and economic factors.
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
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, departments that serve less than 2,500 people are 84.4% white and departments that serve millions are 53.4% white (as cited in Fifield, 2016). Notably, Over the years, a lack of diversity within law enforcement has become a pertinent issue. Notably, the underrepresentation of minorities within law enforcement influences the relationship between communities and law enforcement by engendering distrust with law enforcement. To say nothing of, underrepresentation of minorities have had many people question whether departments mirror a diverse community. Nevertheless, with that being said, underrepresentation of minorities have generated tension and distrust between communities and law enforcement and many believe that police department need to mirror the race composition within their cities.
It also provides an example of how attitudes towards community policing in these types of areas differs from disadvantaged social and economic areas, which may assist in understanding how to bridge the gap in community policing as a whole. McNeeley, S., & Grothoff, G. (2016). A multilevel examination of the relationship between racial tension and attitudes toward the police. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 41(3), 383-401. doi:10.1007/s12103-015-9318-2
In suggesting this method, I incorporated a firm belief in officers creating an increased ability to understand and engage with the diverse array of people that they are paid to serve and protect when a significant amount of knowledge and comprehension of cultural diversity is provided to them. Furthermore, I articulated that this approach would have a positive impact as it would reduce inequality within the criminal justice system and aid officers in their willingness to deliver justice to people from all walks of life. While the textbook did not confirm my approach was correct, I still feel as though a more thorough educational process would help to alleviate this specific social problem. In addition, this chapter did reaffirm my assumptions about many minority groups being subjected to institutionalized racism within the criminal justice system. This facet of the system was unveiled in the discussion on “carding” and the textbook provided a few answers to this problem, including a recount of the police board passed resolutions that manifested in April 2013.