Racial discrimination as social evil | Assignment

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Information booklet for general public on
Discrimination in criminal justice in the USA

Racial discrimination as social evil
Social discrimination in the USA
identifies the social disparities and
disadvantages affecting the different races
and ethnic groups within the US. This social
discrimination is largely reflected when it
comes to criminal justice of the country.
Right from the individual behaviour of the
White Americans, people from different
ethnic groups and races have been facing
racial discrimination at various instances
which are easily evident even through
various governmental data of crimes. This
information booklet for general public is a
platform to upgrade the knowledge of recent
circumstances with respect to discrimination
in the criminal justice system in the US. This
booklet would help to provide an overview
of the laws and regulations meant for the
different racial groups and how exactly the
government is making interventions to bring
social equality. The claims will be supported
with the data found in the criminal justice
system of the USA.
Fig: Population of people based on their
race
Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2013)
There have been differences in the outcomes
with respect to different racial groups when
people are convicted or sentenced to
imprisonment in the US criminal justice
system. There are many laws which trigger
the black Americans and Hispanic group and
show a data where laws are made only for
such groups of people. It has been found that
in 2004, 40% of the sentenced people were
African-American. The African-American
males were seven times more than those of
the white men in the US. This differential in
the rate of sentence as a result of this
discrimination is evident and thus, “Equal
Protection” clause was formed which is still
in its 14th amendment.
This discrimination has been evident in early
years as well. For example, the war on
drugs that restricted the distribution of
certain drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Tax
Act, 1914 (Callard et al. 2010). This gave
cheap access of drugs to white people but the
black people remained devoid of it. Other
policies including “Broken Windows” and
“Stop, Question, and Frisk” consent to
higher levels of police contact with African
Americans.

Fig: Percentage of people in prison
If the present situation is considered,
statistics shows that 6.7 million in USA were
under some correctional control where 2.2
million were incarcerated in the local, federal
or the state prisons. This huge difference in
the statistics clearly shows the discrimination
level. African-American are more likely to
be arrested than the white American living in
the state and also they are given prolonged
conviction in the prison. In the view point of,
Callard et al. (2010) a Black American is
expected to be 5.9 times more likely to get
arrested than a white one. Moreover, as per
the data of 2015, every seventh Hispanic
adult male has been arrested in the USA.
With the advent of the new President,
Donald Trump, it has been commonly
observed that the immigrants and non-
Americans are treated poorly (Domhoff,
2017). In various new articles, Trump has
been accused of targeting refugees and
immigrants as criminals that directly
triggered a security threat for these people.
Analysis of how laws are applied
resulting in discrimination:
The different factors resulting in the
discrimination are acquiring of land and
property, involvement of non-white people
and more employment to them. Also, it has
been also evident that there are more non-
white people involved in major areas like
music, movies or other places where they are
getting more attention and success in their
respective fields. The criminal justice system
focuses on the ways of eliminating the
discrimination among the population based
on race, ethnicity or color. According to the
VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law
prohibits the discrimination in employment
relationship which specifies that there can be
no discrimination based on the race, gender
or color of a person. However, the instances
related to discrimination among the
employees are clearly evident from time to
time. With the advent of social media and
articles published on regular basis, it is found
that people are discriminated based on their
race or religion. Other such laws are Fair
Housing Act, Voting Rights Act of 1965.