Racial Inequality In Criminal Justice Research Paper

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Racial inequality is nothing new and neither is racism in the justice system. Racial injustice has played a vital role in the way people interact with one another as well as their views and behaviors towards the system. A tremendous body of research has been gathered on the topic of racial discrimination when it comes to sentencing. It has been one of the longest standing research topics in all of criminology. Bias representation and sentencing due to the color of one’s skin has been proved through real life case studies. These bias treatments have led to negative views on the justice system as well as emotional stress throughout the people of the communities. For example, shootings between a white policer and a black male create tension between …show more content…

Those within the justice system create laws that are supposed to create safe environments as well as make the people feel secure. People look to the justice system for security and support. In contrast to that, there are several case studies that prove bias sentencing in the justice system. If people can not trust the motives held in the system then it creates a negative wall. According to https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/03/racism-courtroom-5-death-penalty-cases/, there was a racist representation with a man named Demetrie Mayfield. In California, 1983, he was sentenced death for killing a neighbor and her partner. Later he claimed that A. Donald Ames, his attorney, failed to properly represent him due to his race. There was evidence that Ames was racist. This is one out of many cases where someone of color has been discriminated against. In Andrew Costly’s article,“The Color of Criminal Justice”, he informs about another case that took place in Los Angeles in March of 1991, a bystander videotaped police officers beating Rodney King, a black man, after a car chase. Around this time people in the African-American community had many complaints of police brutality cases. The video was clear evidence of what happened, yet during the trial in state court the jury freed each officer by justifying that they had reason to use excessive force. Following this trial, a major riot erupted in Los Angeles due to …show more content…

According to https://BernieSanders.com/issues/racial-injustice, “African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.” This applies for then and now, and can be related back to the Rodney King case. In modern day America, African Americans and Latinos make up more than half of all prisoners. In New York, people of color make up about half of the population and the stops made by police have been made up of more than 75% blacks and Latinos. Regarding this, when whites are stopped there is about an 8% chance they are searched versus an 85% chance if it were a black or Latino person. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S Department of Justice, drug arrests have inclined from 320,000 to 1.6 million since 1970 and the drug offenses for African Americans are 2 to 11 times higher than the rates for whites. In a 1995 review of disparities in processing felony arrests done by the New York State division of criminal justice, people of color are 33% more likely to be detained awaiting felony trials than those who are not of color also facing felony trials. These statics show the different scenarios of racial injustice starting many years ago and leading up to today, This means racial injustice has been going on for quite some time, which also has an affect on how people look at the Justice

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