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Importance of laws in our society essay
Law and its impact on society
Law and its impact on society
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Discuss how laws in society affect those in minority and disadvantaged groups
Barker (2014, p.1) suggests that the law may be defined as a rule of human conduct, imposed upon and enforced among the members of society in which laws are inaugurated to ensure that social order continues. As a result, laws ensure that members of society may live and work together in an orderly manner by following the same rules. However, laws have different affects on individual members in society and from this point of view, this essay will focus on how laws in society affect individuals in minority and disadvantaged groups.
Within society, minority groups have historically been most affected by laws enforced upon them, such as heightened policing powers which
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Spalek and Imtoual (2007) state that in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and the following of subsequent terrorist attacks in the UK and Europe, there has been a shift of focus on black minorities to Asian minorities and as a result there has been an increased surveillance amongst Asian and Muslim minority groups. Since the year 2000, numerous contemporary anti-terror laws have been instated the law affecting minority groups the most being most influential the Terrorism Act 2000. The Terrorism Act 2000 affected minority groups by enhancing police powers to investigate terrorism, including wider stop and search powers, and the power to detain suspects after arrest for up to 14 days. (Spalek and Imtoual, 2007). As a result, statistics in Britain in 2002-2003, sugested that under counter-terrorism legislation, stop and searches carried out amongst Asian minorities increased by 302% in a year, in which Hare and Weinstein (2010, p.483) in their literary research on democracy, state that the Muslim Council of Britain claimed that the police are misusing their new enhanced powers and …show more content…
Choudhury and Fenwick (2011) argue that as a result of increased policing and stop and searches, more members of minorities are subjected to prejudice and discriminatory views from law enforcement which has heightend distrust amonst minorities with the police force as laws are seen as being unlawfully implicated amongst members of their minority group as a result of their race of religious
There are always certain social problems that take part in our communities. Some of us may not experience it first hand, but all of us should acknowledge the fact that our greatest social problem is still looming till this day. In Michelle Alexander 's work, Drug War Nightmare: How We Created a Massive Racial Caste System in America, she talks about the social problem of inequality and discrimination in America. From being an African American to being a law professor and experience as a clerk for a Supreme Court justice, so it can give a reader a sense of comfort knowing that she knows what she is talking about. Alexander uses several methods of using logical and emotional appeals to the readers so they can get a glimpse of this national issue. She points out that there is a "New Jim Crow system" in the country that discriminates minorities in the legal system today and how it is a real problem that has a huge impact on American citizen 's lives.
Racism had an impact on black men, from various sectors and individuals of being a racist that creates inequality. Black men are targeted by the police, the use of stop and search because of the suspicion of carrying dangerous weapons and illegal drugs. There is a corroboration that the police actions towards racism and race equality are seen with the over representation of black crimes. They are being labelled with different names such as Black on Black crime. These inequalities affect their lives because they find it difficult to fit in the society, suffer from poverty and being jobless. Despite of New labour’s new strategies to improve the criminal justice system and persecute racist offenders, the signs of increasing statistic rate of stop and search by police remains frequent based on Ministry of Justice 2013/14
Do the institution and also those officers serve it act discriminately to different race group? On the one hand, it has to be admitted that some actions taken by the police are leading to the greater involvement of young black people in the criminal justice system but they cannot be recognised as discriminative behaviours. For example, the police tend to give priority and more effort into certain crime categories and some deprived areas, depending on local and central first concern. As a consequence, some criminals of ethnic groups and ethnic minority residences living in certain areas are inevitably more likely to come into contact with the
The judicial system in America has always endured much skepticism as to whether or not there is racial profiling amongst arrests. The stop and frisk policy of the NYPD has caused much controversy and publicity since being applied because of the clear racial disparity in stops. Now the question remains; Are cops being racially biased when choosing whom to stop or are they just targeting “high crime” neighborhoods, thus choosing minorities by default? This paper will examine the history behind stop and frisk policies. Along with referenced facts about the Stop and Frisk Policy, this paper will include and discuss methods and findings of my own personal field research.
law enforcement agencies. The underrepresentation of Asian-American officers will affect how the Asian community view law enforcement in terms of building credibility and improving community relations (Dempsey & Frost, 2015). As previously stated, the cause of such underrepresentation is due to the fact that law enforcement agencies do not understand the cultural and historical distrust, which Asian immigrants have with law enforcement back in their native countries and here in the United States (Zhao et al., 2013). Underrepresentation of Asian police officers will create conflicts between police and Asian communities (White et al., 2010). The lack of diversity in police departments will also show Asian communities that a police organization does not reflect its community racial
Some policy supporters argued that the strategy reduce crime rate even though there are no empirical data to support their claim. This policy shed a light on the negative perception that community has regarding community policing. I chose the second article “An analysis of the new york city police department 's 'stop-and-frisk ' policy in the context of claims of racial bias” by Gelman Fagan & Kiss (2007) would assist me because it dealt with racial bias in community policing and its shows how certain minorities groups are racially profiled through the process of ‘stop-and frisk.’ My topic focuses on community policing and this policy will give an argued to know the route of the distrust communities has towards law enforcement
Alexis de Tocqueville discussed how he believed that majority rules in the United States. He writes about how the majority in America has control over the opinions of the masses and how people do not think for themselves. The latter part of that is true. The masses do not form many of their own opinions but these opinions are not given to them, like Tocqueville says, by the majority. These "ready made opinions" (Tocqueville 11) are given to American people by a powerful few. Tocquville's writing does not apply to the US today because several kinds of minorities wield inordinate amounts of power in modern American society.
There is considerable evidence that minorities and police are not in agreement on many issues, and the blame is being shifted from all parties involved. The police feel that they are fair in their treatment of minorities, but the evidence in many instance prove otherwise. When we view articles on the arrests of minorities versus whites, you will notice a variation in how various nationalities are treated. When reading the newspaper, you will see the photograph of a minority with previous criminal history and other issues outlined. This to me is done to paint a picture that shows the accused is already known for violating the law.
In the United States of America today, racial profiling is a deeply troubling national problem. Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. The idea that people stay silent because they live in fear of being judged based on their race, allows racial profiling to live on.
Policing, Race, and Criminal Injustice." Human Rights. Spring 2009: 6. SIRS Issues Researcher. Pritchard, Justin.
It is hard to believe that after electing a minority president, the United States of America can still be seen as a vastly discriminatory society. A question was posed recently after a viewing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream…” speech of whether his dream has become a reality. After consideration, a majority of the viewers said no. Although many steps have been taken to improve racial equality in America, there is still no way to legislate tolerance. Dr. King’s message of equality for all has been lost in a black and white struggle over the taken meaning of his context. Until our society can allow all people to live in peace we will never truly achieve King’s dream. Case in point, referring to President Obama as our "our First Black President" should not be considered a statement of pride over how far we have come. Placing this racial qualifier, even in a positive light, only serves to point out his minority status, not the fact that he is the President of the United States. According to Dr. King's dream, a man or woman, black or white, would be viewed as President without qualifying their differences from mainstream America.
The law plays a substantial role in constructing race. By serving, as a system of coercion and control as well as an ideological system, the law is able to create laws that maintain racism and change the way people understand racism. The legal and non-legal actors that carry out or abide with the law can also be characterized as individuals who maintain the growth of our race today. All of these processes create, declare and enforce the legal construction of race, according to Haney Lopez.
Authors of this document had written an evidence that proves the tensions between the minorities and the police. In their article, there were unanswered questions of the behavior of the police. Statistics were involved explaining how characteristics of police and communities affect the incidence of filed complaints on police violence. There were two hypotheses on threatening minorities made relatively to complaints. These authors had made analytical theories behind
Holmes, M. D. (2000). MINORITY THREAT AND POLICE BRUTALITY: DETERMINANTS OF CIVIL RIGHTS CRIMINAL COMPLAINTS IN U.S. MUNICIPALITIES. Criminology, 38(2), 343-367.
...r the minority according to Mill (Falikowski 79, 80). Thus, the interests or moral principles of a minority could be ignored, since they are a minority, even if they are important. For example, the AIDS patients were a minority in society, so their interests were not considered in laws about drugs (Dallas Buyers Club). Hence, if the laws do not evolve fast enough, they could interfere with people’s natural rights; they could become unjust, will be out-dated, and not consider the interests of the minorities.