...Introduction With practices aimed at reducing discrimination such as affirmative action, the argument has been made that racial discrimination is no longer a pressing issue in American society.[1] It has further been argued that the Constitution protects all citizens, and race has no weight in the American criminal justice system.[2] While the United States Constitution guarantees equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of race, racism still exists in the American law enforcement and criminal justice systems. In this era with the end of official institutional racism, there has been a corresponding shift from de jure racism to a de facto racism where members of minority groups, especially African Americans, are subject to unequal protection of the laws and excessive in the American criminal justice system, particularly in drug law enforcement.[3] Drug law enforcement is far more discretionary than for other offenses. It is for the police to decide when and where they will seek to make drug arrests, and what priority they will place on enforcing drug laws.[4] Since the war on drugs began in the 1980s, two general trends have been identified. First, there has been a substantial increasing in the number of drug arrests overall; and second, black males have constituted an increasing proportion of these arrests.[5] Based on this evidence, it would be natural to assume that the number of arrests is proportional to the crime rate – that blacks began using drugs in...
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...Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name Customer Inserts Grade Course (06, 07, 2012) Racism in criminal justice system Introduction Justice is a term that we hear a lot in our everyday life and also accept it although many of us might have a doubt as to what it truly means. Justice is the phenomenon through which we could achieve righteousness and equality. But unfortunately racism has been a common practice in the criminal justice system. Racism is actually discrimination against a group or individual based on color, social and financial status. It is something that occurs more than we notice. Many scholars believe that racism play a more important role in targeting and sentencing process in the criminal justice system and this is something which should not happen in any country no matter what. In order to understand the role that racism plays in the criminal justice system we must, first, look at the role that it plays before the criminal reaches the day of sentencing in the court. There are various publications that speak on profiling and actuarial methods which unwillingly get people into the system. Though these are two major components of the discriminatory acts that exist within the criminal justice system, it does not actually begin with these institutionalized methods. It is the laws and crime control policies that create discrimination in the system. It has been witnessed that in some instances these laws and policies are set in favor...
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...Society has shown racial diversity among communities. Racial disparity can be found in the criminal justice system. A system designed to be fair and equal to individuals is not existent. Racial diversity can be found at the time of arrest to the time of sentencing. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the diversity in sentencing. Case studies will be discussed throughout this paper. Leaders of criminal justice are not exempt of racial diversity. Racial diversity has changed over the years, but racial diversity remains strong in sentencing minorities. Diversity is not biased of offenses. Racial diversity can be seen in the smallest of charges, such as a traffic stop to the most serious sentence of the death penalty. Most of the sentences are because profiling an individual of minority. African Americans are likely to be the targeted racial group. Hispanic individuals are likely to be another racial group profiled for harsher sentencing. Racial disparity in the criminal justice system should always be considered a violation of ideas of the forefather’s of this nation as equal treatment under the laws of the United States Constitution. Many reasons for racial disparity can be identified in the sentencing process. The sentencing process is a difficult process, and adding racial bias may create a simpler way for criminal justice leaders to sentence an offender or make the sentence more difficult to decide. Racial discrimination is a large part of the United States history. Citizens...
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...Minority Inmates in Today’s Prisons Sherry Atkinson Eng. 122 Instructor: Susan Turner-Conlon November 25, 2013 (1) Our American prisons have an enormous amount of African American inmates. With crime not being racist you have to wonder, is this due to higher rate of minority crimes or the manner in which our judicial system works as far the sentencing of, black men and women. Even though sentencing guidelines were established over a decade ago, and, it brought about uniformity to punishments the statistics prove that the sentencing of African Americans is unfairly done. From being a part of our corrections system at one time in my life, I know that just having any type of criminal record is a green light for the authorities to look at you differently. So I can’t imagine also having the stigma of being a minority also. Does that sound raciest? I am sure it probably does but stating from various sources racism is more evident than ever in the correctional system today. According to Marc Mauer, executive director of The Sentencing Project and David Cole, a Georgetown Law Professor, although white and African Americans use and sell drugs at about the same rate, black men in 2003 were almost 12 times as likely to go to prison as white men. (Washington Post, June, 2011) Another point to make is the way our communities are policed. I being a white female and up until I was 42 had never really driven in the projects of the city. I on the other hand lived in a country...
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...RACISM IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM By Nichole Griffith Advised by Professor Chris Bickel SOC 461, 462 Senior Project Social Sciences Department College of Liberal Arts CALIFORNIA POLYTECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY June, 2012 © 2012 Nichole Griffith Table of Contents Research Proposal ............................................................................................................................1 Annotated Bibliography ...................................................................................................................2 Outline..............................................................................................................................................6 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................7 Research ..........................................................................................................................................8 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................29 Bibliography .................................................................................................................................31 Research Proposal The goal of my research is to expose the racism in the criminal justice system that is so hidden. I want to show how racism contributes to the huge number...
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...Minority Inmates in American Prisons Noreen Harman ENG122: English Composition II Instructor January Pearson July 7, 2014 There is a disparate rate of minorities in the American prison system currently. I will present evidence from scholarly resources proving that the reason why the minority population is so high is due to racial profiling. The judicial system imposes stricter and longer prison terms on minorities because of their culture. Blacks are about eight times more likely to go to prison than whites, which dwarfs black-white disparities in, for example, unemployment rates (2-to -1 disparity), infant mortality (2-to -1 disparity), and out of wedlock births (3-to-1 disparity). L.J. Geo (2010). African American and Hispanic offenders were more likely than whites to be sentenced to prison, especially if they were male, young and unemployed, S. Spohn (2000). Even though there may be a high rate of minority crimes being committed, I believe the reason for having so many minorities in prison is due to the current judicial system stereo typing. In the article Rethinking Drug Courts: Restorative Justice as a Response to Racial Injustice, it talks about the rate of drug crimes committed by minority and longer sentences imposed to blacks and Hispanics. Drug court offers offenders the opportunity to not do time in prison and get court supervised treatment instead. This is beneficial to the families of minorities so they can keep working and providing...
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...Analysis of Racial Profiling In the Criminal Justice System Police officers today face many challenges. Some concerns include dangers or safety concerns related to being a police officer, questions of the use of force and the public’s perception of officers being corrupt. Additionally, with cases of deaths and accusations that have come to the forefront about police throughout the United Stated, questions about police racial profiling have also come to light. Today’s police are considered to be corrupt and prejudice against minorities. Their image has been tarnished and police are now seen as the enemy. Many compare today’s law enforcement officers to the police officers that were prejudice and brutalized blacks during the civil rights movement. If police are to change the public’s perception of them so they can get back to the business of protecting and serving, they must address issues of racial profiling, police brutality and the criminal just system must partner with the community to reduce crime rates and recidivism rates among minorities. First, racial profiling is defined as “any police action initiated on the basis of race, ethnicity, or national origin of a suspect; rather than on the behavior of the individual or on information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity (Ramirez, 2008, p.3). Originally, racial profiling was used to combat the issue of drugs and assist with...
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...by Michelle Alexander, Alexander puts into perspective that racism still exists in society today. She explains that our criminal justice system is unfairly targeting African American men through mass incarceration with harsh punishment. When released from prison most of these men have less rights then when they entered. This is where Alexander’s idea of the new Jim Crow comes from. She argues that the rights being taken away from African American men are the same rights that they’ve had to fight for, for the past 100 years, and that they are constantly being denied their citizenship. The criminal justice system is using their crimes as an excuse to give harsh punishments and take away rights mirroring the old Jim Crow laws. There are a prominent number of African American men in prison. This is because the police are prejudice against people of color. They may not be doing it consciously but with the stigma that comes with being African American everyone watches them more closely than white men. With the blacks being watched more closely they are going to be getting caught more for their crimes and the whites will get off the hook more. This helps explain why there are so many black men in prison. Also with the stigma that African Americans are more violent and defiant they are more harshly punished for their crimes. If a black man and a white man commit the same crime the black man usually gets a harsher sentencing, this is the reality of our society today. On page 130 of The...
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...well as local correctional facilities. Such incarceration rates dwarf the rates of all other countries globally. However, its magnitude is not void of challenges. The criminal Justice System is ailing form a vast array of challenges. Of importance to us with regard to this context is racial disproportionality within the criminal Justice system. By definition, racism is the perception that inherent differences between various racial groups consequently lead to the superiority of certain races and discrimination of other groups. This is the perception that great men such as Booker. T. Washington, as well as Martin Luther King, fought against during the 1960’s in a bid to end racism. For years these men under the African- American Civil Rights movement advocated for equality for all leading to the ‘end’ of racist perceptions. Today, the belief that their efforts halted racism stands to be questioned, on further examination of this subject it is eminent that racism is still existent in the twenty- first century. Racism has simply found ways of adapting to our daily activities thus dodging the common eye. To achieve this, racism has gradually encroached into fields such as education where coloured students experience disproportionality in disciplinary measures and in the criminal justice system where African Americans are inevitably the victims of the criminal justice system. This paper thus seeks to succinctly discuss the...
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...Sentencing Paper Sentencing is really important in the criminal justice system. There are many reasons for sentencing in the United States. Sentencing is the result of punishment from the court. The major reasons for punishment is retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, compensation, and reform. The type of punishment for crimes has been debated by different leaders and law makers for centuries. The punishment for reform is intended to help the offender and society to change the wrongdoer a chance to contribute to society. The punishment for deterrence is intended to benefit society by preventing offenders that would-be from committing a crime. Punishment to extract compensation is intended to benefit the victim of the offender. Finally, retribution is the only object for punishment that is primarily intended to harm the offender. Individuals are sentenced to prison because they broke the rules and would have to serve their time. There are different sentencing guidelines for state and federal prisons. When a person has either pleaded guilty or has been found guilty of a crime, a judge has to decide a sentence that the offender must receive. Sentencing is imposing a criminal sanction by a judicial authority. Each year there are thousands of criminals that appear before a judge or judges to be sentenced for their crimes committed. Sentencing descriptions are primarily for felony offenses, or those that are punishable by less than one year of...
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...03-Banks.qxd 1/30/04 4:52 PM Page 57 3 Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System ETHICAL BACKGROUND It is generally agreed that discrimination based on ethnic origin is morally wrong and a violation of the principle of equality. The equality principle requires that those who are equal be treated equally based on similarities, and that race is not a relevant consideration in that assessment (May and Sharratt 1994: 317). In other words, it is only possible to justify treating people differently if there exists some factual difference between them that justifies such difference in treatment (Rachels 1999: 94). Equality is a nonspecific term that means nothing until applied to a particular context. Thus, in a political context, equality means equal access to public office and equal treatment under the law, and equal treatment extends to equality in terms of job hiring, promotion, and pay. Race refers to groups of persons who are relatively alike in their biological inheritance and are distinct from other groups (American Anthropological Association 1997: 2). Ethnicity is a cultural phenomenon referring to a person’s identification with a particular cultural group (Hinman 1998: 403). Race is socially constructed, and the notion that persons “belong” to a particular race was developed in the last century based on the belief that there was a biological basis for categorizing groups of people. Biologically, however, the term race has no meaning, yet society...
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...Sentencing Paper Tushar Vincent Botlero 12 March 2012 CJ/A-234 Melissa Andrewjeski Sentencing Paper Punishment has been a subject of deliberate among philosophers, political leaders, and lawyers for centuries. Various theories of punishment have been developed, each of which attempts to justify the practice in some form and to state its proper objectives. The quantity and severity of punishments were reduced, the prison system have been improved. According to the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, Maryland, some of the major reasons for punishment are to reform, deterrence, rehabilitation, compensation, and retribution. Punishment for reform is intended to benefit the offender and society by changing the offender into a contributor to society. Punishment as deterrence is intended to benefit society by discouraging would-be offenders. Punishment to extract compensation is intended to benefit the victim of the offender. Finally, retribution is the only object for punishment that is primarily intended to harm the offender. Individuals are in prison because they broke the rules and would have to serve their time. Some go to federal prison and some go to state prisons. It depends on the type of crime that a person commits because these prisons harbor different types of criminals they also have different guidelines to follow in terms to punishing the inmates. Criminal offenders who benefit from prevention services and are at risk of committing...
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...every country in the world, America has the highest incarceration rate, and the War on Drugs is to blame. In 1971, President Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” following a rise in popularity of recreational use of illicit substances. He largely increased the size of federal drug control agencies, in addition to putting in place mandatory minimum sentences. The amount of people in prison for nonviolent drug offenses increased from 50,000 in 1980 to over 400,000 by 1997 (A Brief History of the Drug War). Moreover, when we look at the demographics of our prisons, there is a large discrepancy. Thus, we are begged with the question: Why are our prisons disproportionately filled with brown-skinned people? The institutionalized racism that...
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...Racism started from the ancient slave trade. Majority of the Africans brought to the united states as at the 17th century, were brought as slaves who were aleggedly taken away from their homeland in several areas of Africa. African Families were separated through buying and seling of Africans by whites (slaves). Upon arrival to the united states, Africans wrere made to suffer, they were beaten, tortured, whipped, lynched by the hands of their white masters. For few of the Africans who were allowed to be free, they were deprived of so many rights. Although slavery was abolished by the 13th amendment, the result of it which is racism is still a major issue in the united states today. Some may argue that the abolishment of slavery also took away racism. The four outlined proof and evidence stated in this research paper proves that racism still exists in the united states. The issue is whether racism and discrimination still exists in the United States. Claim: Yes, Racism and discrimination still exists in the united states. Although slavery was ultimately outlawed and laws prohibiting discrimination against African-Americans passed, racism against this community remains and is manifested in more subtle ways today....
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...Alexander’s studies, she argues that the War on Drugs strategy was designed to remove people of color from political processes. For example, black people make up 90 percent of drug felons; however, whites are known to associate themselves with more drugs. (21) This indicates that black people are more discriminated by police, than whites. The author explains that police can detect a “suspicious person” by the way the walk, dress, or talk. As a result, colored people are stopped by police and put into prison more often than white people due to their appearance. The more disturbing part that Alexander discovered was that black people are charged and sentenced to prison more often than whites. Due to worse criminal records and longer prison sentencing, these colored people are changed forever, because now they are judged and discriminated against for their ability to have access to insurance—Medicaid—education, and housing. Also, these colored people lose access to voting and getting their voice heard because felons are not allowed to vote. For example, the author states, “an extraordinary percentage of black men in the United States are legally barred from voting today, just as they have been throughout most of American history.” (1) This specific example explains how color people are being racially discriminated by and are not allowed to get their voice heard during voting processes. Furthermore, the author state that “rather than rely on race, we use our criminal justice system...
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