Are minorities continually being arrested for no reason, punished and tried because of a racial discrimination or do minorities just happen to commit more crimes? There are many theories on how and why race discrimination plays such a significant role in explaining the current arrest and imprisonment rates of minorities in the United States. The term race has traditionally referred to the biological differences of mankind. The only differences that distinguish us humans are by the color of our skin, hair texture and physical features determine what race we are. Many experts argue that race is just a social construct and people are labeled by the culturally dominant group in that society.
The Uniform Crime Report statistics states that black are more frequently arrested than whites. While this may mean that blacks commit more crime. Violent crimes they are usually associated with are: murder, legacy rape, revised rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. As for property crimes, they include: burglary, larceny- theft, and motor vehicle theft. Out of all races, blacks have over 800 offences in each crime committed.
Blacks receive differential treatment in the criminal justice system such as minorities serving longer sentences, having higher arrest and conviction rates, facing higher bail amounts, and often victims of
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Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436
According to Heather Donald’s article Is the Criminal Justice System Racist? “About one in 33 black men was in prison, compared with one in 205 white men”. The number of black men in jail is appalling enough on its own, but when it is compared to the number of white men in jail it is beyond outrageous. Why are there more Black Americans in jail than White Americans? As stated in What It’s Like to Be Black in the Criminal Justice System “Social science research shows striking racial disparities at nearly every level .”
Yes, the Criminal Justice System is used for individuals of All races and cultural backgrounds. However, prisons within the United States are filled with mostly African Americans. Alexander believes that there is no coincidence between the amount of African Americans within the system and the racial issues that are constantly taking place in the U.S. The Author supports her beliefs by providing the reader with background information on when the increase in African American incarceration rates took place. In Addition, she uses real life examples to support the facts that she mentions throughout the
Statistics show that Blacks are convicted and sent to prison at a much higher rate than whites although they commit crimes at virtually the same rate. Prisons tdehumanize inmates, disconnecting and isolating them from society (Herzing).
In every country, criminals are punished differently such that some are sentenced to prison, others the public becomes the judge and the jury while for the case of the United States we usually have a trial to prove that they are not guilty and if they are indeed guilty then they will be just sentenced them to jail. In the article “How to Dismantle the “New Jim Crow”? it states how the number of inmates have increased since the late 1960’s. In some cases, the prisons are filled with minority race within the community for example; the African American, Latinos, and many more that’s why they call it the new Jim Crow. With this kind of treatment of the minority, some people have different reasons as to why the minority race is the one that is mostly
Discrimination and racial disparities exist at every phase of the U.S. criminal justice system, especially when it comes to sentencing. The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world, as there are over 2 million people imprisoned today. The drawing is a visual representation of my annotated bibliography. In it, I stated that the criminal justice system is broken, as it discriminates against people of color. The left side of the illustration depicts the scene of the courtroom during the trial of a white defendant.
Alexander uses the term “racial caste” to characterize a branded ethnic group confined into an inferior position by law and order. Jim Crow and slavery were caste systems and so is our current system of mass incarceration. Alexander describes how differently the criminal justice is portrayed in TV then how it actually functions. The criminal justice system has weakened Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure and augmented police authority have all expedited the development of a lawful caste system, by disregarding basic civil rights. Americans of all races sell and use illegal drugs at outstandingly similar rates.
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
Statistically, Black persons in the U.S. are three times more likely than whites to be charged with a felony, and five times more likely to be locked up. One of the main problems
We live in a society where ethnic minorities are target for every minimal action and/or crimes, which is a cause to be sentenced up to 50 years in jail. African Americans and Latinos are the ethnic minorities with highest policing crimes. In chapter two of Michelle Alexander’s book, The Lockdown, we are exposed to the different “crimes” that affects African American and Latino minorities. The criminal justice system is a topic discussed in this chapter that argues the inequality that people of color as well as other Americans are exposed to not knowing their rights. Incarceration rates, unreasonable suspicions, and pre-texts used by officers are things that play a huge role in encountering the criminal justice system, which affects the way
The social issue I have chosen to focus on is the problem of violent crime and the inequalities and disparities in sentencing. This issue is rooted in systemic racial inequalities, which can result in harsher sentences for individuals from marginalized communities who are convicted of violent crimes such as murder. There is a growing body of research that highlights the need for reform within the criminal justice system to address these disparities and ensure that all individuals are treated fairly and justly. The history of racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the U.S. has been longstanding.
In her book, The Color of Crime, author Katheryn Russell-Brown analyzes the roles that race, gender, and ethnicity play on crime in the United States, particularly how African Americans are viewed and effected by the views held by law and policymakers, law enforcement officers, and judges. The second edition of Russell-Brown’s book is a revision of her first edition, originally published in 1998, which was updated to address modernity issues, topics, and cases. Throughout, Russell-Brown focused on the balancing of heavy in-depth statistical information with specific cases to exemplify her views. The first chapter addressed the historical and current inaccurate portrayal of race in the mass media, while the second chapter discussed the conversation
To explain, 41 percent of black female felony drug offenders on average are sentenced to prison, as compared to 24 percent of white females. Similar to drug offenses, violent crimes typically boast a 74 percentile of black male convicted felons serve prison time, whereas approximately 60 percent of white male convicted felons do time. And finally, with respect to all
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.
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.
American Journal of Political Science. Hurwitz and Peffley write on how stereotypes about African Americans have an effect on people’s attitudes towards crime and policy. The authors discuss the link on race and crime and how the media has a lot to do with it. This work will be helpful to my research because of the stereotype linking blacks to crime. It will support my thesis on how race is spread throughout