Essay On Carnival Mirror

In this paper, I will discuss how the criminal justice system acts like a carnival mirror. However, first, I will define Jeffrey Reiman’s interpretation on carnival mirror and make a connection to our criminal justice system. Then, I will illustrate a couple of examples of how the carnival mirror plays in our society. My goal in this paper is to bring a new perspective on the criminal justice using the carnival mirror reflection.
Jeffrey Reiman argues, “the criminal justice system is a carnival mirror that presents a distorted image of what threatens us” (Reiman;2016, Pg.106). Reiman claims that our criminal justice system acts like a carnival mirror. In other words, a misleading picture of people who are considered dangerous. Like a carnival mirror, you can see your reflection in the mirror, however, in the mirror, they are certain areas that mislead your physical figure. For example, if you’re standing in front of a carnival mirror, you may notice a misrepresentation of yourself, because of the curve mirror it carries. The mirror makes objects grow either vertically, and or horizontally, leading to the results of a funny body. Again, we can see the distortion, when we look at our

criminal justice system.
In addition, Reiman goes into depth on how our system currently works. Mr. Reiman reminds us that criminals are not created, instead, they are images of our system. For instance, “The face in the criminal justice carnival mirror is also, as we have already noted, very frequently a black face (Reiman;2016, Pg.119). This quote illustrates the notion that we have on our criminal justice system. The text also reminds us that we tend to mislead the system itself, and most importantly, we have labeled the Blacks as criminals. This is such an important issue, specifically when we discuss the Blacks shootings that have been going on in our society. The many incidents that left young black people lifeless resulted in a social movement called #blacklivesmatter. But there’s more to that. The movement #blacklivesmatter represents the injustice that our society has against the blacks, who again as I said earlier, is the face our criminal justice system. Edwin Sutherland, a sociologist did a study on how unjust our system may be.
Edwin Sutherland wrote, “numerous studies have shown that African-American are more likely to be arrested, indicted, convicted, and committed to an institution than are whites who commit the same offenses, and many other studies have shown that blacks have a poorer chance than whites to receive probation, parole, or pardon” (Reiman;2016, Pg.

120). The quote represents the unjust aspect of our criminal justice system. As we all know, if you are a minority in this country, you are looked as a dangerous person. Consequently, if you are black, the odds are against you and you are more prone to being put into the system. With that being said, Reiman also argues that our system has been failing on protecting us. Instead of acting like an actual mirror, the system has it’s own

bias.
So how exactly is our criminal justice system like a carnival mirror? Well, the system reflects based on the people who we think is a threat to our society. Further, we tend to throw the people of color in the system in order to protect us. But, who’s us? The Whites, the elites, the Whites who are wealthy and whose able to control the system.
Overall, Jeffrey’s carnival mirror on our criminal justice system is quite outstanding, because the system does fail to reflect exactly what’s going on. But then again, the system itself is quite substantial because of the officials who are able to control it. Many authorities and politicians target the minorities because of their color. In other words, our system may reflect on what’s really happening but it fails to achieve its purpose.