Prejudice And Discrimination In The Criminal Justice System

According to New Jersey v. T.L.O Supreme Court Case (1999), a teacher at Piscataway High School in Middlesex County, New Jersey discovered two 14-year-old freshmen smoking in a lavatory on March 7, 1980. Since smoking in the lavatory was a violation of a school rule, the teacher took the two girls to the Principal’s office, where they met with Theodore Choplick, the Assistant Vice Principal. During questioning, one girl admitted that has had violated the school rule, while the other girl, T.L.O, denied she smoked at all, much less that she had been smoking in the lavatory. Becoming suspicious, Mr. Choplick asked T.L.O to come into his office and to see her purse. Upon opening the purse, Mr. Choplick found a pack of cigarettes. When he went to grab for the cigarettes he noticed a package of cigarette rolling papers. Suspecting evidence of drug use could be found in the purse, Mr. Choplick proceeded to look through the purse. The searched discovered a small amount of marijuana, a pipe, a number of empty

. This play takes place in 1963, the year in which the Civil Rights movement was being fought for. The main topic of this play is to understand how race and stereotype can affect justice being served, and the only way around this would be to view facts and override race and stereotype with evidence.

It is obvious that there are several race disparities within the criminal justice system. For decades minorities (black Americans to be specific) have been subject to higher drug related arrest rates than whites, even though there is no evidence to show that black American use or sell drugs more than whites (Spohn & Belenko, 2015, p. 143) . You made a great point about the prison race population versus the overall race population of the United States. I too agree that since a majority of the population is white, majority of the prison population should be white. However, as we all know, that is not the case. According to research, black Americans constitute for roughly twelve percent of the American population, however practically

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.

“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.

There has been an ongoing debate as to whether or not race and ethnicity have a bearing on an individual’s treatment in the criminal justice system for many years. I will be arguing that race and ethnicity do in fact, have a bearing on one’s treatment in the criminal justice system. I will be backing up my position on this topic by providing evidence from five scholarly articles.

This overall inability to predict crime is due to many discrepancies found in the risk assessment. First white defendants were predicted to be less risky than they actually were with white defendants mislabeled low risk almost twice as often as black defendants. Black defendants were 45% more likely to be assigned higher risk scores than white defendants when controlling for prior crimes, future recidivism, age and gender. Black defendants were also twice as likely to be misclassified as being higher risk for violent crimes than white defendants while white defendants that do reoffend with violent crime were 63% more likely to have been misclassified as low risk for violent crime. Finally, black defendants were 77% more likely to be

There are large racial disparities in incarceration and related detainments for African Americans. They are more likely to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections than any other racial or ethnic group (H.West, Sabol, & Greenman, 2010). Institutional racism is believed to be the reason why African Americans, especially males, are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system. On balance, the public believes that discrimination against black people is based on the prejudice of the individual person, correlates to the discrimination built into the nation’s laws and institutions (Pew’s Research Center, 2017). This belief is actually supported through several experimental studies that provide evidence that African Americans are to be seen as more criminal and threatening than others thus more likely to be arrested or even shot (Greenwald, Oakes, & Hoffman, 2003). Racism within the criminal justice system very much exists and is still relevant.

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.

The District of Columbia and 46 states deny those who are incarcerated from the privilege of voting in any election (Fagin, 2014). There are two states, Maine and Vermont, that allow any felon regardless of their state of imprisonment, parole or probation to vote. Only four states, Florida, Kentucky, Iowa and Virginia, do not allow anyone convicted of a felony to vote (Fuchs, 2012). The other states allow felons to vote depending on their classification in the system.

Today Anthony, a 23-year-old man and an avid pot smoker, sold marijuana to David, 25. Anthony later would drive by many cops while in possession of marijuana, and not be stopped. David, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He was unnecessarily stop and frisked by a police officer for “suspicious behavior.” David was charged with possession of marijuana. He happened to be in a state that would have charged him with a felony for possession. He was strongly encouraged by his state appointed attorney that he should take a plea deal to avoid a harsher sentence. David would continue to be abused by the system upon his release. He was no longer allowed to vote, and had a hard time finding a job due to his felony charge. The only thing separating David and Anthony was their race. Anthony had the luck of being born a white-American. Anthony had the privilege to avoid an unnecessary stop and frisk from police. Even if he was caught and charged, he would likely be face with a light sentence. Anthony would likely be freed from prison in a shorter amount of time than David, and have an easier time finding a job.

However, in discovering highly rated various research we’ve as researches have come across an article that has fourteen possible examples of racism in the criminal justice field. First, the United States created a harder punishment system which has created an upsurge of inmates in prisons and jails due to the upholding of drug wars. According to the Human Rights Watch in 2008, Caucasians and African American are similar in offenses that drug related such as sales and possessions. Secondly, this has to do with getting pulled over and its results of various rates of Latinos and African American compared to Caucasians. This study happened to be taken place in California and New York City and it is displayed that these racial groups were three times more likely to be pulled over by an officer in the comparison to Caucasians individuals.

The first article I am going to focus on, Foreword: Addressing the Real World of Racial Injustice in the Criminal Justice System, was written by Donna Coker . Primarily, the article talks about the statistical evidence of in justice regarding racial profiling in policing and imprisonment. Official incarceration data speaks for itself when it shows that although African Americans make up twelve percent of the U.S. population, they make up of almost half of the population incarcerated for crimes (Coker, 2003). Researchers with the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimate that twenty-eight percent of African Americans will be imprisoned at one point in their life (Coker, 2003). A study conducted by the Sentencing Project reports that nearly one in three African American men between the ages of twenty and twenty-nine are under the supervision of the criminal justice system on any given day (Coker

Discrimination is a known concept that happens everywhere, yet police and prosecutors are blind to it. Their ways of preventing crime are discriminatory in every sense of the word and they categorize people based on their skin color and where they reside. The disproportionate minority contact with the stop and frisk method is one of the ways that discrimination can be seen. “Code of the Street” and “Law and Disorder in Philadelphia” help dissect why discrimination is not seen by police and their agencies and also how police officers and their administration go about ways of preventing crime. The pressure within the police, community, and courts create inequalities for the individuals going through the Criminal Justice System.

When you think of the criminal justice system, you think of justice being served to those who wish to threaten it. The criminal justice system is a very powerful system that protects our society but like society, it is not perfect. The justice system runs off of discrimination against race and gender