Analysis of Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice System - Essay

This essay provides an overview of cultural diversity in criminal justice, drawing from Samuel Walker's "The Color of Justice." It examines race categories as defined by the United States Census Bureau and addresses the concepts of race, minority, and inclusion. The essay differentiates between disparity and discrimination, exploring the five types of discrimination within the criminal justice setting: systematic, institutionalized, contextual, individual, and pure justice. It further clarifies the differences between bias, discrimination, stereotyping, and cultural competency, providing definitions for each. The author references relevant literature to support the analysis of these complex issues within the criminal justice system.

Running head: CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Name of Student
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Author Note

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Introduction
In the book “The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity and Crime in America” the author
Samuel Walker is seen to be discussing about the current researches and theories of ethnic and
racial discrimination that is present within the Criminal Justice System (Walker, Spohn, &
DeLone, 2012). Research has been done in the book on different criminal behavior and
victimization pattern, police practices, court sentence and processes, death penalty and
correctional programs. In this assignment a brief analysis has been done about the race
categories, racial disparities and discrimination in relation to the chapter one of the book.
Race Categories
People are categorized by the United States Census Bureau based on the self
identification of the people, that is, based on the ethnic or racial identities (Feagin, 2017). Many
protests have been done by the people against the requirement for having to choose between only
two racial categories. With the success of the protest the Association of Multi-Ethnic Americans
(AMEA) had been established for fighting for the acknowledgement of the rights of the mixed
heritage people. In 1997 the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was seen to be adopting
federal guidelines to allow the identification of the people based on more than just one race. The
racial categories by OMB are- (1) American Indian or Alaska Native, (2) Asian, (3) Black or
African American, (4) Hispanic or Latino, (5) Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander and (6)
White.

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Race, Minority and Inclusion
Race
In the United States of America the human races are viewed by both the general public
and the scholars as natural and separate divisions within the species on the basis of physical
differences that can be visible. However in this century with the expansion of the scientific
knowledge it has become clear to everyone that the human populations are not unambiguous,
demarcated or biologically distinct group (Stone, 2018).
Minority
In the United States the term ‘minority’ is seen widely to be used as a label for the people
of color. According to the United Nations the minority group can be defined as the non-dominant
groups present in the population possessing and wishing to preserve stable ethnic, religious or
linguistic traditions that can be seen to be markedly different from the rest of the population
(Feldmeyer, & Cochran, 2018).
Inclusion
Inclusion can be defined as the right of all people to be respected and appreciated to be a
valuable member of the society irrespective of abilities, disabilities, class, religion, race,
ethnicity, age, sex or any other contributing factor (Habermas, 2018).
Difference between Disparity and Discrimination
Disparity can be referring to a difference however it is not necessarily including discrimination.
Disparity unlike discrimination can be explained by way of legitimate factors. Discrimination

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however can be defined as the difference between the people on the basis of differential
treatments of the groups without referring to any behavior or qualification of any individual.
Discrimination in Criminal Justice Setting
In the ‘Discrimination-Disparity Continuum’ five different types of discriminations have
been mentioned. These five types of discrimination are- systematic discrimination,
institutionalized discrimination, contextual discrimination, individual discriminations and pure
justice. These five types of discrimination have been defined as follows:
Systematic discrimination- Discrimination in the criminal justice at all time and places.
Institutionalized Discrimination- Racial and ethnic disparities in the racially neutral factors like
prior criminal records.
Contextual discrimination- Discrimination found in certain contexts like certain regions or
particular crimes.
Individual acts of discriminations- discriminations arising from individual acts.
Pure Justice- No ethnic or racial discrimination present.
Differences in Bias, Discrimination, Stereotyping and Cultural Competency
Bias can be defined as the tendency of the human nature for making systematic errors in the
judgments at the time of making error in judgments or at the time of making decisions on the
basis of particular thinkings or preconceived notions.

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Discrimination can be seen to be occurring when people are treated in a different way. When
prohibited by law, discrimination can be seen as illegal.
Stereotyping can be defined as a popular belief about any specific social group or any particular
types of individuals. Stereotypes can be seen as simplified and standardized conceptions of any
particular group on the basis of prior assumptions.
Cultural competency can be defined as the ability of any person to be able to be understanding
and communicating in a effective manner and to be effectively interacting with the people of
different cultures. Cultural competence can be encompassing being aware of the view of the
world around one’s self, development of positive attitudes to differences in cultures and for
gaining knowledge about different cultural practices.

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Reference
Feagin, J. (2017). Systemic racism and “race” categorization in US medical research and
practice. The American Journal of Bioethics, 17(9), 54-56.
Feldmeyer, B., & Cochran, J. C. (2018). Racial Threat and Social Control: A Review and
Conceptual Framework for Advancing Racial Threat Theory. In Building a Black
Criminology, Volume 24 (pp. 283-316). Routledge.
Stone, J. (2018). Race and ethnicity. Core Concepts in Sociology, 242.
Walker, S., Spohn, C., & DeLone, M. (2012). The color of justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in
America. Cengage Learning.
Habermas, J. (2018). Inclusion of the other: Studies in political theory. John Wiley & Sons.