The prison system exists as a form of formal punishment for persons of wrongdoing and serves as a secure dwelling to protect the public from persons who engage in illegal and or violent behavior. Minorities are the majority of the prison population. Because of possible ingrained stereotypes regarding racial groups and drug related criminal offenses there are an elevated number of minorities in United States prisons (Tamborini, Huang, Mastro, & Nabashi-Nakahara, 2007, p. 342). Legal authorities and juries may show bias towards minority groups resulting in a disadvantage when it comes to charging those of the African-American race. African-Americans are generally more frequently targeted than Caucasians regarding drug related crimes. Due to the nature of inexpensive forms of illegal substances more frequently used in inner-cities, African-Americans may be more easily and more often pursued (Staples, 2011, p. 34). Opposition shapes the notion that minorities make up the majority of drug related criminal offenders. There are more persons of the African-American race charged for drug related crimes but this can possibly be attributed to skewed perceptions of a particular races’ tendency to engage in illegal behavior as well as lack of financial options and socio economic status to hire an attorney to defend their case, which negatively influences sentencing outcomes and statistics. As humans we hope to be revered as thoughtful beings without outside or possibly internal factors affecting our decisions, especially when it comes to someone’s freedom. According to an article “The Influence of Race, Heuristics, and Information Load on Judgements of Guilt and Innocence,” by Tamorini, Huang, Mastro, & Nabashi-Nakahara (2007), when i... ... middle of paper ... ...ifferent outcomes could present an image of a more fair and balanced judicial system. References Bucolo, D. O., & Cohn, E. S. (2010, September). Playing the race card: Making race salient in defence opening and closing statements. Legal & Criminal Psychology, 15(2), 293-303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/135532508X400824 Conyers, Jr., J. (2013, Spring). The Incarceration Explosion. Yale Law & Policy Review, 31(), 377-387. Retrieved from http://ylpr.yale.edu/ Staples, R. (2011, ). White Power, Black Crime, and Racial Politics. The Black Scholar, 41, 31-41. http://dx.doi.org/10.5816/blackscholar.41.4.0031 Tamborini, R., Huang, R., Mastro, D., & Nabashi-Nakahara, R. (2007, December). The Influence of Race, Heuristics, and Information Load on Judgements of Guilt and Innocence. Communication Studies, 58(), 341-358. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10510970701648566
Blindspot, authors Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald reveal how people formulate decisions and judgments automatically based on their exposure to cultural attitudes regarding age, gender, race, ethnicity, social class, religion, disability status, and nationality. They claim a section of our brain, a“blind spot,” is responsible for storing the hidden biases that lead us to select choices and decisions in our life. Furthermore, the authors aim to unfold the scientific logic of their analysis of the effects of hidden biases so people will be “better able to achieve the alignment,” between their behavior and intentions (Banaji and Greenwald, 2013) preface
Land of the Unfree: Mass Incarceration and Its Unjust Effects on Those Subjected To It and American Taxpayers
In America we believe in the saying “you are innocent until proven guilty” but we the people are remarkably swift to point our fingers at someone we believe that committed the crime. This habit is frequently displayed within our criminal justice system when a crime is committed we quickly assume it has something to do with the first person we can link the crime to. We tend to naturally feel sympathy for the victim therefore; if the individual accuses one for a crime the jury has no reason not to believe the victim. Society does not bother to care if the individual did not do the crime because as long as someone was caught and accused of the wrongdoing, then we the people can proceed on with our lives knowing we punished someone for the crime
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
Mauer, Marc. 1999. The Race to Incarcerate. New York: The New Press National Research Council. 1993.
As demonstrated, tunnel vision is a prevalent factor and may affect cases resulting in judges and juries convicting wrong suspects. However, the human tendency towards tunnel vision is a distinctive feature of an individual's psychological characteristics. Psychologist views tunnel vision as the product of cognitive biases. These natural biases explain why tunnel vision is common, even amongst respected legal enforcers and honest justice systems. Although tunnel vision is a common natural tendency, it can be altered and lead to the conviction of innocent individuals.
Welch, Kelly. 2007. “Black Criminal Stereotypes and Racial Profiling.” Journal of Contemporary Justice 23(3): 276-288 also talks about the discrimination within the courtroom, in the court it has been shown that the prosecutors when fighting a case against the defendant who’s client is Black use their race as an argument to win the case. They try to show how Black people are prone to be violent due to racial factors and therefore should be sentenced harshly. Given the history, unfortunately this argument sets in well and therefore leads to sentencing and prison time for the Black
Sellin, Thorsten. "Race Prejudice in the Administration of Justice." American Journal of Sociology 41.2 (1935): 212. Print.
When the victim does not fit the ideal victim attributes which society has familiarised themselves with, it can cause complications and confusion. Experts have noticed there is already a significant presence of victim blaming, especially for cases involving both genders. The fear of being blamed and rejected by the public is prominent in all victims. Victim blaming proclaims the victim also played a role in the crime by allowing the crime to occur through their actions (Kilmartin and Allison, 2017, p.21). Agarin (2014, p.173) underlines the problem of victim blaming is due to the mass of social problems and misconceptions within society. The offender can have “an edge in court of public opinion” if victim blaming exists, resulting in the prevention of the case accomplishing an effective deduction in court (Humphries, 2009, p.27). Thus, victims will become more reluctant to report offences because of their decrease in trust in the police and criminal justice system, leading to the dark figure of
Levin, b (2002). From slavery to hate crime: the emergence of race and status based
Reducing Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice System: A Manual for Practitioners and Policymakers. Retrieved from http://www.sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/rd_reducingracialdisparity.pdf New Century Foundation. (2005). The Color of Crime: Race, Crime and Justice in America. Retrieved from http://www.colorofcrime.com/colorofcrime2005.pdf Pearson Education. (2008).
Another reason racialized mass incarceration takes place is because of the high rates of poverty and unemployment for inner city African Americans, especially those with low-education and low skill levels. Urban ghettos have been associated with the problem of social disorganization and crime. The biggest reason for this is the war on drugs. There is no substantial proof that verifies African Americans are more involved in illegal drug consumptions than other groups are. However they are arrested more than other groups. Bobo and Thompson stated that blacks are almost 34% involved in drug-related arrests though only 14% of those are among regular illegal drug users. Among drug related convictions, African Americans make up half of the cases whereas only 26% of the white population is convicted. As Bobo and Thompson stated, “Illegal drug consumption seems to know no race. Incarceration for drug-related charges, however, is something visited in a heavily biased manner on African Americans.”
Butler collects a large number of rap tracks to get their perspective of the justice system. These rappers include Outkast Jay-z and Kanye West. He delved into the lyrical world of these artistes to find out the message they were passing along. The album, “behind enemy lines” had deep lyrics which explained ways in which the government used prison as a means of controlling the black population. The song started by talking about Fred Hampton (a leader murdered in the late 60s), Fred Hampton his first born son (head of Black Movement was stopped for arson) and his daughter Khadija. The lyrics suggest that Hampton was killed by the cops and his son set up for being a great head of the African-American community.
Lyons, Christopher J. 2006. “Stigma or Sympathy? Attributions of Fault to Hate Crime Victims and Offenders.” American Sociological Association. 69:39-59
When a person is accused of being "guilty", society must assume the person is innocen...