Essay Example on U.S. Blacks: Racial Discrimination & Criminal Justice System

In the United States, the blacks are normally arrested prosecuted and convicted in the numbers which are disproportionate to their population percentage. The main explanation relating to this is that the kind of racial discrimination against the people of the black race pervades the American criminal justice system (Hipp, 2007). The underlying relationship which exists between the street or conventional crime, race as well as the criminal justice system has been studied for several years. Most of the economists commonly assume that the differences in earnings between the whites and the blacks after the regulation for the factors of the human capital for instance education, job tenure as well as the work experience brings about discrimination whereby the pay the whites who are equally qualified as the blacks performing similar job differently or the existence of the segmented or dual labour market whereby the blacks unequally occupy low paying jobs which are less desirable.

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The ratios of arrest by the race, i.e. blacks/white are particularly significant, especially for some of the violent murder crimes, rape, robbery as well as the aggravated assault. In the United States, there is a high chance of a black male going to prison as compared to the white counterparts, and also there had been a lower chance of a white male for being incarcerated. The ratio of the black/white women who had been serving within the prisons was approximately the same. Therefore, black women had a higher likelihood of being incarcerated at some point. The involvement of the blacks disproportionately in the criminal justice system, especially the young males, may constitute a national crisis. In some cases, on racial discrimination, the criminologists often blame disparities while on the other hand, others assert that the biases on the social class accounted for the resulting differences (Hipp, 2007). The increased blacks’ involvement within the streets came due to their abject poverty. In every educational level, the whites used to earn much more as compared to the blacks and also a greater proportion of the whites attained a high school diploma, degrees for colleges as well as the advanced degrees.

A common perception is that the police generally discriminate against the blacks. Many of the criminologists have an assumption that racial disparities within the criminal justice system were the product that was as a result of racism, but there is three variable alternative explanation. In the first case, the involvement of the blacks in the system reflected the actual offending patterns and not the systematic racial bias. DeLis, (1999) revealed that the black involvement in the conventional crime was mainly a function of poverty and class position while at the same time most of the criminologists refused to acknowledge that the blacks were committing various crimes. Through this, they trusted that a criminal justice system which is racially biased was unscrupulously and also systematically forcing the blacks into prisons and jail. In the second case is that racial involvement within the conventional crime was not regarded as an excuse of essentialism. Crime neither a problem of the whites nor the problem of the blacks. It is regarded as a young male problem.

In most of the cases, the discrimination of any form may end up, resulting in disparities. The aspect of discrimination incorporates sorting individuals more accurately basing on specific characteristics. In such a case, the decisions are made based on some of the qualifications for work history or education. In some of the economic outcome scenarios, the racial disparities are driven by the racial disparities, particularly in the observable features. The discrimination involves sorting of the individuals based on the group averages and is usually referred to by the economist as statistical discrimination. In such kind of discrimination, enough information is gathered on an individual’s relevant characteristics.

At a given n of the continuum is systematic discrimination according to Walker, whereby the discrimination takes place at all the places of the criminal justice system at all times and also at all places. On the other side of the continuum, there is a true justice which suggests that there is no discrimination in the system of the criminal justice as well as the overrepresentation of the minorities in the system which is more likely to be a product of the offending patterns. Between the poles, there is contextual discrimination, institutionalized discrimination, contextual discrimination, as well as the individual acts of discrimination. According to Walker, institutional discrimination incorporates racial as well as the ethnic disparities in the outcomes which are the result of the application of the factors which are racially neutral for instance employment, prior criminal record and demeanour. On the other hand, there is contextual discrimination which involves discrimination aspect that occurs only in some contexts. The instance which has been presented by Walker include discrimination found within some of the regions, especially crime or even the relationship of the special-victim and the offender. For the individual discrimination acts, he depicted that this is where there are individuals within the juvenile as well as the criminal justice systems and not the engagement of the whole agencies in the discrimination.

Therefore, it is clear from the analysis above that there is a big difference between disparities and discrimination. Discrimination often entails any bias which may lead to a contradiction of the opportunity or any unfair treatment in promotion, selection and transfer. In many cases, discrimination has been happening in ethnicity, sex, political belief, religion, and race and finally, age CITE. In particular, disparities entails differences which could seem to be unfair. It refers to the difference, which is as a result of some of the factors like legal factors. On the side of discrimination, the most crucial question with respect to race and ethnicity is whether there is discrimination in the criminal justice system. In this case, it is a difference based on the differential treatment of groups with no reference with personal qualification. Disparity, therefore, is a difference in two things where one would expect to be similar or have an equal aspect. The discrimination would seemingly mean the ability to see the difference between two things that are somehow similar but not same, i.e. imposing disparity where there should not be one.

Focusing on the entire criminal justice system, the police, courts and even court corrections portrays some aspects of discrimination. In some of the situations, the police use a policy which allows them to stop citizens for any reason. The police, through such a case, may end up discriminating on who they stop. The black residents in the US, for instance, were more likely to be stopped by the police officers as compared to the white residents both in the street stops and also in the traffic stops (Horton, 2012). Besides, the police would have multiple contacts with the blacks than the whites, particularly within the contexts of the street or traffic stops. About 0ne in every six black residents who could be pulled over in the various stops had a series of interactions with the police, and they could be arraigned more easily for the minor mistakes they commit. The racial disparities among the policing are full of some of the following predictable effects on the police public trust. It results in racial differences in the perceptions of the behaviour of the police as well as the police stop legitimacy (Horton, 2012). Less than half of the black people who had been stopped in the streets by the police, saw the stops as if it was legitimate while the whit residents, i.e. about two-thirds did.

In his book, Walker does not comment on the fact that random distribution of the prerequisites does not lead to the outcomes which are correlated with the traits such as the race (Walker, 2012). The aspect that the US black residents suffer far worse outcomes as compared to the white residents reveals that the probabilities that such various prerequisites face the appropriate satisfaction will vary by race. This is because of the variation in the genetic composition; Walker seeks to provide an option to the alternative explanation (Walker, 2012). The random discrimination, therefore, is due to the random chance which is in partly odd since it seemingly neglects on the realities of the society and also because it may not be necessary for the arguments followed. Despite that the whites underwent execution more quickly than the blacks, it could be possible that some of the crimes they committed are more heinous hence leading to the reduction of the amount of time desired for the appeals. “In this sense, racial bias has continuous, qualitatively different levels of measurement. In earlier historical periods, racial bias in all social institutions, including the criminal justice system, was quite pronounced, however, this has changed” (Johnstone, 2008).

In this scenario, the thing is that most of the people of colour have the same story or even have a knowledge of someone who does. Despite that, there had been a deeper skeptism on any assertion’s right that the system of criminal justice is racially biased. In the criminal justice system, the treatment of the suspects is usually based on the discrimination where the blacks are normally looked down upon without prevailing justice to them (Johnstone, 2008). Besides, the courts also discriminate on who they give a plea to. Many of the black residents in America reveal how they have been pulled over by the police officers who had seemed to be suspicious of the blacks, especially when driving in the traffic roads. The country’s courts normally charge the blacks with many of them imposing harsh judgments on the blacks. In terms of sentencing, there are a lot of sentencing disparities since the courts always favour more of the whites. This is due to the discrimination by the parole boards in a bid of correcting the blacks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, from the above information, I oppose the idea that discrimination is a myth. This is because of the greater extends of discrimination to the blacks, especially in the United States, and also there exists a lot of disparities between them and the whites. The involvement of the blacks disproportionately in the criminal justice system, especially the young males, may constitute a national crisis. In some cases, on racial discrimination, the criminologists often blame disparities while on the other hand, others assert that the biases on the social class accounted for the resulting differences. The increased blacks’ involvement within the streets came due to their abject poverty. In every educational level, the whites used to earn much more as compared to the blacks and also a greater proportion of the whites attained a high school diploma, degrees for colleges as well as the advanced degrees. This shows that the aspect of discrimination based on race is rampant in the United States, where a lot of disparities are placed on the blacks as opposed to the whites.

References

DeLisi, M., & Regoli, B. (1999). Race, conventional crime, and criminal justice: The declining importance of skin color. Journal of Criminal Justice, 27(6), 549-557. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/222467710_Race_conventional_crime_and_criminal_justice_The_declining_importance_of_skin_color