Racial and Ethnic Disparity and Criminal Justice

The criminal justice system is a set of organizations and procedures set up by governments to control wrongdoing and force punishments on the individuals who disregard the laws. The main frameworks are state and federal. The state criminal justice systems handle wrongdoings perpetrated inside their state limits and government, the federal criminal system handles violations carried out on federal property or in more than one state. This system is supposed to be equal yet the nature of offenses, differential policing policies and practices, sentencing laws and biases are possible contributors to disparities in the system. The severity of the offense, prior record, age and education level are also taking into account when a decision is being made. Our prison system today varies immensely with ascending numbers of minority groups jailed within the system. Racial and ethnic imbalances continue in the United States and no disparity is more evident than that found in the criminal justice system. Disparity usually refers to a difference that is unfair, disparity in the criminal justice system stems from racial disparity which concludes that the proportion of a racial ethnic group within the control of the system is greater than the population of that group outside that control.

Social issues are dealt with every day, everywhere in our society. Issues like immigration all the way to climate change. As our world evolves the number of social issues only continue to accumulate. Racial disparity is something that is in every aspect of our society. A repetitive social issue is minorities being targeted in the criminal justice system. Minorities, in specific African Americans receive unequal treatment and punishment in the criminal justice system this causes a split in our society, racist outburst, and million of unjustified incarcerations affecting the environment millennials grow in, and the economy as money is being spent where there should be no need for it.

There is a large racial disparity with unjust arrests in America. African Americans are discriminated and racially profiled more than any other race within the criminal justice system (Slate, 2015). The main goals of the criminal justice system are to prevent and control crime and to achieve justice (Crime&Justice International, 1997). However, according to the ‘American Progress’, “people of color, particularly African Americans and Latinos are unfairly targeted by the police and face harsher prison sentences compared to other races, particularly white Americans (American Progress, 2015). Although the criminal justice is to provide equal justice to all of its citizens, African Americans tend to not receive the same justice. Specifically, African

In this video Marc Mauer explains the racial disparities in the criminal justice system which are overlooked and continues silently in the criminal justice system. Mauer explains how two teenage boys arrested for shoplifting in different social classes receives different treatment from the criminal justice system. The first teenager has a two parents that are able to send their son to get help. They are able to send him to a social worker. They inform the prosecutor that their son is doing better. The prosecutor decided to drop the charges against the teen because he was able to seek help for his criminal behavior. It is also implied this teenager is white financial stable and not a danger to the community. He is just an average teen who fell into the wrong crowd. Therefore, he has no criminal record and is able to apply for jobs without scrutiny for being arrested as a teen. This teen would also be viewed as a youth that is having environmental problems and would get social dispute resolutions, interventions for acting out in

Less is known about the extent of discrimination at the arrest stage, in part because underlying rates of criminal activity by race cannot be easily assessed. Some evidence comes from comparing the race distribution of offenders derived from victims’ surveys with the racial composition of individuals arrested for the same crime. Two studies have found that these distributions are roughly comparable for many violent crimes.

Although saying the criminal justice system is racist is a controversial statement, there is evidence and statistics that prove it to be true. Research and evidence validate the issue of racism to be undeniable. Equality and justice are out of reach with the racism that takes place in our criminal justice system and our country. Racial discrimination is prevalent amongst the African American culture in issues regarding drug use, and incarceration which creates unfair inequality for this race. I will use peer reviewed articles to verify the racial disparity in the criminal justice system.

“The system is not fair. Institutional racism is alive and well in the juvenile justice system as it is in the criminal justice system, due to racial disparity and bias in the court room” (Jones, Bridgett). This is a statement that plagues many people involved in the justice systems. There are huge racial disparities throughout the world. Post-Slavery: the early development of the Race/Crime Connection, Profiling: Racializing possible cause, and differential bias involvement as well as institutional racism. We can work on having better policies and procedures driven into police practices and we need to make sure people of color are not excluded from juries to stop most of the disparity.

In today’s society, discrimination continues to affect millions of minorities from inappropriate name calling to being shot by a law enforcement officer because you were perceived to be dangerous. The underlying effects of racial discrimination are seen in all aspects of our society, especially in our social institutions. These social institutions range from the educational system to our government, yet racial discrimination is more evident in the criminal justice system. When analyzing how the criminal justice system discriminates against minorities we are able to do so through the visible disparities within the system. Unfortunately, these disparities display African Americans having the highest population rates in the criminal justice system, therefore, we can immediately conclude this disparity in population is due to the injustices conducted by the system. Thus, there is a need for urgent change not just within the criminal justice system but within all social institutions beginning with our government. This change should create greater opportunities for minorities to enter the political field in our government as well as promoting higher participating in voting. Yet, the criminal justice system within all its aspects practices discrimination due to its deeply interwoven prejudice, institutional racism, and socioeconomic status.

In this paper I will illustrate racial disparity in sentencing in the criminal justice system. The causes of racial disparity and the reasons it is on the rise, the research statistics, and the proposed solutions are discussed.

The existence of racial disparity and structural inequality within the criminal justice system renders the concept of true justice for all unobtainable. The statistics of convictions and prison sentences by race definitely support the concept that discrimination is a problem in the justice system as well as the insignificantly number of minority judges and lawyers. There are a multitude of circumstances that influence these statistics according to the “Central Eight” criminogenic risk factors. The need for programs and methods to effectively deter those at risk individuals has never been greater and the lack of such programs is costing society in countless ways.

Policing and punishment in America is hardly colorblind. It is not a coincidence that minorities serve longer sentences, have higher arrest and conviction rates, face higher bail amounts, and are more often the victims of police use of deadly force than white citizens. When it comes to criminals, many people have a preconception of what a criminal is. Usually when people think of a criminal they picture a Black or Latino face. The thought of an Asian criminal is often related to Asian gangs. Interestingly enough, White people as a group are rarely associated with the thought of crime, even though they account for 70% of arrests and 40% of the prison population each year (Russel xiv). This seems to be

the juvenile portion of the criminal justice system. The article found that, “black youth were

This research paper will provide an overview of the topic of race within the criminal justice system. At first glance this paper seems to be a simple task, but there is much difficulty to study such a broad subject manner. There are numerous amounts of different perspectives from which a discussion on the decision of race within the system could develop. The term race has changed significantly over the course of human history. Early theories of race allocated many social, intellectual, moral, and physical values to the evident differences between groups of people. After the civil war, The Jim Crow laws were enacted all across the South and in the North (Klarman, 2004). From the 17th through early 20th centuries, the study of race was defined

The criminal justice system is unfair because of the discrimination and racism in the United States.

Race has continually been an important issue within the United States and most predominantly the criminal justice system. Racial tension in America is often thought of as being white versus black, even though that is not in fact the case. African-Americans view the system as favoring whites while trying to keep them at the bottom. While whites claim that the criminal justice system is colorblind, blacks clearly do not feel this way; whites underestimate the racial divide in the criminal justice system (Bikel, 2005). The highly publicized OJ Simpson case is well-known for being a case more about race than murder. In the 1999 Gallup Poll, 74% of people said that OJ either “probably” or “definitely” committed murder. A black male on trial for