...There is no hiding the fact that both disparity and discrimination are alive and well in the criminal justice field. When reading the words disparity and discrimination, at first glance one might think of them being the same. When we take a closer look at the two the definitions when it pertains to the criminal justice system, they become quite different. It is an important task to identify the two definitions in the criminal justice system, and have an open mind to the cause of disparity rather than to assume discrimination. The first thing we must do is define both disparity and discrimination. Disparity is defined as lack of similarity or equality toward a group of people. For example if someone was to make the statement, a prison population that holds 100 inmates, out of those 100 inmates 75% of them where black inmates. One would quickly come to the conclusion that the justice system in this area is creating disparity of treatment towards the black population. But in actuality this is not the case. The area that the population was pulled from was an area that was predominantly black. This example would be the case of disparity not discrimination. Disparity is not necessarily a choice; it’s what is in the focus area. One area in south may be harsher on burglaries and more lenient on drug related crimes. But on the surface in that area, more black people may be committing more drug related crimes. So it would appear that the courts are sentencing more time toward...
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