White American Bigotry

The Mass Incarceration in the United States is a major topic of discussion in our society and has raised many questions about our criminal justice system. There are few topics disputed as much in criminal justice as the relationship between race, ethnicity, and criminal outcomes. Specifically, the large disparities that minorities face regarding incarceration in our country. Minorities such as Hispanics and African Americans are sentenced at far higher rates than their white counterparts. There are multiple factors that influence this such as the judicial system, racial profiling by law enforcement, and historical biases (Kamula, Clark-Coulson, Kamula, 2010). Additionally, the defendants race was found to be highly associated with either a jail or prison sentence; with the “odds increasing 29 percent for black defendants, and 44 percent for Hispanic defendants” (King, Johnson, McGeever, 2010).

America has been built on inequality and evolving forms of racism for generations. Our criminal justice system is a reflection of the structural racism that has and is permeating our country. The criminal justice system of the United States is not explicitly racist, however there are many internal and unspoken policies that enact a structural racism through policing and the courts, however, our criminal justice system shows more racial disparities than racism. The lenses of two individuals who have in some way experienced the criminal justice system show the internal issues revolving around race, In Nicole Gonzalez Van Cleeve’s work Crook County and Wilbert Rideau’s In the Place of Justice, we see how the structural racism and more so the racial disparities play huge roles in shaping the life outcomes for people of color.

African Americans constitute 12% of the U.S. population, 13% of the drug using population and fully 74% of the people sent to prison for drug possession. Studies have shown that minorities are subject to disparate treatment at arrest, bail, charging, plea bargaining, trial, sentencing, and every other stage of the criminal process. These disparities accumulate so that African Americans are represented in prison at seven times their rate in the general population; rates of crime in African American communities is often high, but not high enough to justify the disparity. The resentment destabilizes communities and demeans the entire nation. (Justice, 2004)

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.

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 order to understand the nature of the statistical disparity, the first aspect that must be examined is necessarily the statistics themselves. Recent data (1998) shows that more than two out of every three arrested persons are white (67.6%) and that African Americans account for only 30% of all arrests. More striking is the data adjusted per capita: African Americans are two and a half times as likely to be arrested as whites, and are even more over-represented in violent crimes, for which they are over three times as likely to be arrested. African Americans are five times as likely to be arrested in cases of robbery or murder (Walker et al., 39).

Q1.The racial/ethnic differences in offending, victimization, and incarceration? Minorities, particularly African Americans, are generally overrepresented in the criminal justice system both as offenders and as victims.  According to the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) for 2003, African Americans (who were 12.7 percent of the population in 2003) were arrested for 37 percent of violent crimes (murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault) and 29 percent of property crime (102:288). African Americans are disproportionately arrested for violent crimes and whites for burglaries and property crimes. Although most crime is committed by males, black women are also disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system. The rate of black women under control of the criminal justice system is growing faster than for any other group, including black men and white men (86:136). Blacks are victims of serious violent crimes at far higher rates than whites. In 2002, blacks were 6 times more likely to be murdered than whites; and although homicide levels have declined for all groups over the past decade, during the 1976 to 2002 period, rates were disproportionately high for African Americans at 47 percent of victims (28

Certain law enforcers with racist ideals will sometimes exploit their position of power unfairly to target black Americans, or “racially profile”. In some cases, especially in conservative states, it’s been known for police departments to advise their officers to suspect race in a key element of determining criminal activity. This detrimental generalization based on race has snowballed out of control, taking to events like the War on Drugs (find an article on the war on drugs and racial discrimination within to support your assertion).

At the prosecution stage, African Americans are subject to racially biased charges and plea agreements (TLC, 2011). African Americans are less likely to have their charges dismissed or reduced or to receive any kind of alternate sentencing than their white counterparts (TLC, 2011). In the last stage, the finding of guilt and sentencing, the decisions of jurors may be affected by race (Toth et al, 2008) African Americans receive racially discriminatory sentences from judges (TLC, 2011). A New York study from 1990 to 1992 revealed one-third of minorities would have receive a lesser sentence if they were treated the same as white and there would have been a 5 percent decrease in African Americans sent to prison during that time period if they had received the same probation privileges (TLC, 2011). African Americans receive death sentences more than whites who have committed similar crimes (Toth et al, 2008). Because of the unfair treatment from the beginning to the end of the justice system there is an over represented amount of African Americans in prison (Toth et al, 2008). Some of the problems faced by African Americans in prison are gangs, racial preferences given to whites, and unfair treatment by prison guards (Toth et al, 2008).

Stephanos Bibas explained the high incarceration rates in his article, “The Truth About Mass Incarceration,” by stating that, “Over the past few decades, prosecutors have grown tougher, and more consistent.” He also explains that over half of arrests today lead to felony convictions versus twenty years ago when one-third of arrests lead to felony charges (Bibas). Bibas concludes that the increasing incarceration rates cannot be tied to racism among the judicial system, but can be explained by increase in convictions and arrests for crimes considered felonies. Even though Bibas presents fair points, race is also a factor in arrests, between June 2005 and June 2008, African Americans consisted of 85% of all stop-and-frisks by the NYPD, while only 8% of stop-and-frisks were performed on white people (Graff 129). “...The criminalization process works so well precisely because of the hidden logic of racism,” Angela Davis writes to describe how hidden racism leads to the widespread belief that African Americans are more likely to be criminals than white people (268). This societal expectation that all African Americans are criminals has lead to more stop-and-frisks and more arrests of people of

African American males are overrepresented in the criminal justice and many times are subject to harsher sentences than their Caucasian counterparts. African American males also experience racial profiling and have more negative interactions than any other population in the United States. Ibie, Obie, and Obiyan states, “African Americans have continued to be the repository for American crime and to be treated as amalgamation of presumed group trait rather than as individuals”. This topic is important because African American adolescents are less likely to be referred to rehabilitation or diversion programs and more likely to be sent to juvenile and/or prison. History has not been kind to African Americans and the injustices experienced by African Americans in the criminal justice system is extremely high. According to Weatherspoon, “The Supreme Court condoned and perpetuated many of the present day stereotypical biases concerning African Americans in the landmark decision of Dred Scott v. Sanford”. Over that past few years, with the advent of social media, the world is becoming more aware of the injustices and brutality suffered by African American males in the justice system. Many view this as a new phenomenon, but others know this abuse has always occurred, it is just now there are cameras taping the violence. Many people are waking up to what is occurring, but there are many others who are denial and who refuse to acknowledge the oppression and racism

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

Research shows that African Americans and Latinos have been the victims of racial profiling by the criminal justice system. African Americans and Latinos are at a higher risk of being arrested, prosecuted and sentenced that Whites. The main cause of racial disparities occurs because law enforcement agencies believe that African Americans and Latinos are at high risk of engaging in crime and violence. During prosecutions and court hearings, the jury and judges give harsher sentences to minority groups. As a result, minorities view the criminal justice system as unjust since it favors whites. This research paper reviews relevant literature to show white privileges and racial disparities in the criminal justice system. Additionally, the paper provides linkages between racial disparities in the United States criminal justice system and the law. In this regard, the main objective of the research paper is to give detailed insights on racial discriminations in the criminal justice system.

Racism has a huge impact on society to this day. The greatest wrong doing in the U.S criminal justice system is that it is a race based organization where African Americans are specifically focused on and rebuffed in a considerably more forceful route than white individuals. Saying the Us criminal justice system is racist might be politically disputable in different ways. In any case, the actualities are debatable. Underneath I explain many cases of these issues. Information on race is available for each step of the criminal justice system – from the use of drugs, police stops, arrests, getting off on bail, legal representation, jury selection, trial, sentencing, prison, parole, and freedom.

“Racial minorities, particularly Black Americans, have had a long and troubling history of disparate treatment by U.S criminal justice authorities.” (Birzer, 23) I am not here to give you another lesson on slavery, Jim Crow laws, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s or any other struggle we faced in our history, but I do want you to keep it in mind as you read about the current struggle we still face in 2017. You would think that America would give us a break since we’ve been fighting for equality for centuries, but they are not simply because of the color of our skin. When I say “they” I mean White America. Now, don’t get me