Preconceptions against Black Males in the Criminal Justice System

935 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racial disparity in criminal justice

“In every instance, the administration will use the tool that is most effective… and will make those bad decisions based on pragmatism, not ideology” (Criminal Justice System). In the following story, an African American man named Donte Booker was arrested for the sexual assault of a white female. Booker was arrested because he generally matched the vague description of the assailant, and was in the possession of a toy gun. A toy gun was stolen from the victim at the scene of the crime. Booker served fifteen years in prison. Once Booker was released on parole, he had the DNA of the assailant compared to his own, and it was not a match. An innocent man spent fifteen years of his life in prison for being misidentified because of his race.
“The Criminal Justice system has been associated with implicit bias” (Seattle University Law Review). The issue of African American males being arrested and convicted of crimes is a much greater issue than most might think. African American males are being arrested and convicted at a higher rate than the average White American male. African American males are prosecuted by the Criminal Justice system at a much higher rate than White American males.
Although not everyone agrees that African Americans are treated unfairly in the Criminal Justice system, there is proof. African American males are unfairly targeted by Law Enforcement. African American males also serve on average more time than the average White American male for the same types of crimes. African Americans are more commonly misidentified from eye witness accounts than white Americans. Race should not be taken into account when dealing with a crime inside of the criminal justice system.
African Americans are mor...

... middle of paper ...

...v. 2013 .
Fisanick, Christina. Crime and criminals: Opposing viewpoints. Detroit: Greenhaven P, 2010.
Smith, Robert J., and Justin D. Levinson. "Seattle University Law Review." "The Impact of Implicit Racial Bias on the Exercise of Prosecutorial Discretion" by Robert J. Smith and Justin D. Levinson. 2012. Seattle University School of Law. 13 Nov. 2013 .
"USDOJ: Criminal Justice System." USDOJ: Criminal Justice System. 13 Nov. 2013. United States Deepartnment of Justice. 13 Nov. 2013 . This website is updated daily.
Whisner, Mary. "Race in the Criminal Justice System." Law.washington.edu. 10 Oct. 2013. University of Washington School of Law. 13 Nov. 2013 .

Show More
Related

  • Unmasking America: A Deeper Look at Social and Economic Injustices

    1261 Words  | 3 Pages

    Just Mercy’s Bryan Stevenson exposes some of these disparities woven around his presentation of the Walter McMillian case, and the overrepresentation of African-American men in our criminal justice system. His accounts of actors in the criminal justice system such as Judge Robert E. Lee and the D.A. Tom Chapman who refused to open up the case or provide support regardless of the overwhelmingly amount of inconsistencies found in the case. The fact that there were instances where policemen paid people off to testify falsely against McMillian others on death row significantly supports this perpetuation of racism. For many of the people of color featured in Stevenson’s book, the justice system was unfair to them wrongfully or excessively punishing them for crimes both violent and nonviolent compared to their white counterparts. Racism towards those of color has caused a “lack of concern and responsiveness by police, prosecutors, and victims’ services providers” and ultimately leads to the mass incarceration of this population (Stevenson, 2014, p. 141). Moreover the lack of diversity within the jury system and those in power plays into the already existing racism. African-American men are quickly becoming disenfranchised in our country through such racist biases leading to over 1/3 of this population “missing” from the overall American population because they are within the criminal justice

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Bryan Stevenson's Close To Death: Reflections On Race And Capital Punishment

    1861 Words  | 4 Pages

    “A report by the United States General Accounting Office in 1990 concluded that 82 percent of the empirically valid studies on the subject show that the race of the victim has an impact on capital charging decisions or sentencing verdicts or both” (86).

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Rich Get Richer And The Poor Get Prison

    1347 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Racial Disparities In Sentencing

    1536 Words  | 4 Pages

    This research essay discusses racial disparities in the sentencing policies and process, which is one of the major factors contributing to the current overrepresentation of minorities in the judicial system, further threatening the African American and Latino communities. This is also evident from the fact that Blacks are almost 7 times more likely to be incarcerated than are Whites (Kartz, 2000). The argument presented in the essay is that how the laws that have been established for sentencing tend to target the people of color more and therefore their chances of ending up on prison are higher than the whites. The essay further goes on to talk about the judges and the prosecutors who due to different factors, tend to make their decisions

    Read More

  • An Argument Against Racial Profiling by Police

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    Policing, Race, and Criminal Injustice." Human Rights. Spring 2009: 6. SIRS Issues Researcher. Pritchard, Justin.

    Read More

  • Disparities in Sentencing: The Role of Race and Gender

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hessick, C. (2010). Race and Gender as Explicit Sentencing Factors. Journal Of Gender, Race &

    Read More

  • The New Asylums

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sellin, Thorsten. "Race Prejudice in the Administration of Justice." American Journal of Sociology 41.2 (1935): 212. Print.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes And Stereotypes Of Black Males

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    In today’s society there are many stereotypes surrounding the black community, specifically young black males. Stereotypes are not always blatantly expressed; it tends to happen subconsciously. Being born as a black male puts a target on your back before you can even make an impact on the world. Majority of these negative stereotypes come from the media, which does not always portray black males in the best light. Around the country black males are stereotyped to be violent, mischievous, disrespectful, lazy and more. Black males are seen as a threat to people of different ethnicities whether it is in the business world, interactions with law enforcement or even being in the general public. The misperceptions of black males the make it extremely difficult for us to thrive and live in modern society. Ultimately, giving us an unfair advantage simply due to the color of our skin; something of which we have no control.

    Read More

  • Racial Disparities In The Criminal Justice System Essay

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though racism has always been a problem since the beginning of time, recently in the United States, there has been a rise in discrimination and violence has been directed towards the African American minority primarily from those in the white majority who believe they are more superior, especially in our criminal justice system. There are many different reasons for the ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system between the majority and the minority, but some key reasons are differential involvement, individual racism, and institutional racism to why racial disparities exist in

    Read More

  • Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Justice System

    4767 Words  | 10 Pages

    U.S. Department of Justice. 2002. “What is the Sequence of Events in the Criminal Justice System?”

    Read More

  • Racial Inequalities in the Justice System

    1738 Words  | 4 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Racialized Mass Incarceration in America

    622 Words  | 2 Pages

    These statistics demonstrate that racialized mass incarceration exists in the U.S. There are a few reasons why African Americans are discriminated against by the legal system. The primary cause is inequitable protection by the law and unequal enforcement of it. Unequal protection is when the legal system offers less protection to African Americans that are victimized by whites. It is unequal enforcement because discriminatory treatment of African Americans that are labeled as criminal suspects is more accepted.

    Read More

  • Diversity within the Criminal Justice System

    2181 Words  | 5 Pages

    This paper proposes that three major factors play a role in the high rate of convictions of black men versus whites and Hispanics. These factors are the lack of diversity among legal professionals in positions of power for decision-making, specifically those in the criminal justice system; secondly, the racial disparities that exist in arrest conviction and sentencing and thirdly, the incidence of discriminatory actions within the justice system. The paper seeks to examine litera...

    Read More

  • Racism In The Justice System Essay

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    When a person of color is being sentenced the unjustness of sentencing is blatantly shown such as in the article Race Sentencing and Testimony which stated, “ These scholars conclude that black male arrestees “face significantly more severe charges conditional on arrest offense and other observed characteristics” and attribute this primarily to prosecution charging decisions” (Mauer 4). This piece of writing explains that for no other reason than race do these people get convicted far more significantly than others who have the same charge but are white, which continues as far as giving a person of color the max sentence that they can have on a certain charge just for the color of their skin. The justice system has turned into the opposite of what it claims to be and continues to grow as a racist overseer, bashing down on those that they believe should be punished as harshly as possible simply for the color of their skin. The system has gone as deep as to making it so that even if a person has not committed a crime, but are being charged for it they can agree to a plea bargain, which makes it so even though the person did not do it the system is going to have them convicted of it anyway (Quigley 1). “As one young man told me ‘who wouldn’t rather do three years for a crime they didn’t commit than risk twenty-five years

    Read More

  • Why the Death Penalty Should Be Abolished

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ogawa, Brian K. Color of Justice: Culturally Sensitive Treatment of Minority Crime Victims. Allen and Bacon: Needham Heights, MA, 1999.

    Read More

More about Preconceptions against Black Males in the Criminal Justice System

Open Document