Analyzing Racial Discrimination within the US Criminal Justice System

This information booklet, created for a sociology assignment, examines racial discrimination within the US criminal justice system. It presents data from governmental sources and academic research to illustrate disparities in arrest rates, sentencing, and incarceration based on race and ethnicity....Read More

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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.

Fig: RRI of National Arrests, 2006
Apart from the above mentioned acts, The
Dawes Act gives benefits to the Native
Americans in land ownership that helps in
building a conception that non-white people
can also own land and property. According
to the race-based conflict theory, there is a
substantial and institutionalised
discrimination against the minorities in the
country in the criminal justice system.
According to this theory, men are inevitably
involved in certain things those can be
socially and psychologically not acceptable.
However, the minority section gets
highlighted whenever there is any criminal
activity. This similar thing is evident in the
criminal records of USA.
Effect of social policies in USA:
Inequality in the USA is not only
based on the economic disparities between
two persons but racial discrimination has
been a topic of concern for the minority
people. If we talk about Sociological
inferences, US have seen one of the highest
incarceration rates. By the end of 2015, 6.7
million were found under the supervision of
US adult correctional system. The
disproportionate target of poor and non-
white population creates a kind of social
stratification which is easily visible (Boegel,
2018). The societal double standards are
clearly evident in the eyes of law as well.
According to the rhetoric criminal justice,
the society protects the rights of every
individual in the society but the prerogatives
are prevailing over the minorities in the state.
It is for the same reason, under Article 2 and
Article 26 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights states that to
ensure that all its residents, regardless of race
are treated equally under the law.But, this is
not evident in the criminal justice records,
within the various groups, the white are the
ones who are more privileged and are the
dominating group of people. The homeless
African Americans count more than 750,000

and the top earners of the society are also the
white people.
Fig: African-American population in the
United States, 2010
Implications of law which are created
based on race and religion, ethnicity,
gender, age, and social class:
The gap in the achievements among
the children as well has grown ups is well
documented and can be easily seen as
economic inequality as a result of racial
discrimination in the society. The reports
published at various intervals clearly show
how the White people are advantaged than
the black Americans. Promoting reforms in
the sentencing policies, the US criminal
Justice System has been aimed at addressing
the unjust criminal justice system in order to
prevent the disparities among the various
racial groups. As per the data, 27% of the
individuals arrested, were Black Americans
and 35% of the juvenile were arrested. The
reports have overestimated the percentage of
crime committed by the black Latinos.
Fig: Educational level statistics as per race
Involvement of public policies within the
criminal justice system
If various statistics are seen, it has
been found that the government data is
shown in a much biased way just to portray
that the black people are the criminals and

they are behind all kinds of illegal activities.
It is important to rely on the statistics as
shown in the various government websites.
There are various ways in which public
policies are linked to racial and ethnic
disparities within the criminal justice system.
For instance, it has been seen that the
statistics shows that more black people are
involved in smuggling and use of illegal
drugs like cocaine and heroin. It is a
common sight that the non-white people are
more involved in the nursing activities or
those professions which are not of high
designations or profiles and the white people
are usually given the right to work on high
profiles and oppress the non-white people.
Fig: Data showing the percentage of people
from different racial groups involved in
illegal activities
Source: U.S. Department of Justice (2015)
From the above data, it is clear more
and more people from the African American
communities are reported whereas, it is also
a clear situation that the white Americans are
also involved in taking drugs and involving
in illegal acts but still there is a huge
difference in the data that is portrayed on the
governmental websites. Profit driven private
prisons are also very popular in the recent
forum.
The impact that institutional
discrimination within the justice system
has had on minorities and minority
communities
There is a huge difference between
the wealthy community when it comes to the
White households and those of the
minorities. According to the Pew Research
Centre, this difference is around 20 times
where the White Americans are always
leading. Talking about the criminal justice
discrimination, it can be said that the
Africans were brought to America as slaves
and they did not own any land of their own.
This population on people had to depend
completely on the land and agriculture
produce of the white Americans. At a result
of their dependencies, the black people
became dependent on the white Americans
and it is when the domination of these
groups of people started. Women and
children have been found to be terrified and
have showed symptoms of depression,
behavioral problems and poor achievements
in academics.

There are few protection laws too
which are means to fight against regular
discriminations taking place in the country.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866, 1871, till the
last revised one of 1991, the law gives equal
opportunities to the Americans irrespective
of their individual race or religion (Callard et
al. 2010). According to this law, any person
should not be devoid of any employment
right or medical and transport facilities
because of his gender, race or ethnicity.
Moreover, the African Americans were also
given the rights to select their own President
and Barak Obama was the first African-
American president elected for the county.
Policy strategy to reduce discrimination
It has to be understood that the
criminal justice in any state is responsible for
keeping a balance in the society and make
the minority devoid of any kind of
discrimination, but in USA such thing is not
visible. People should be aware that the most
prominent impact of discrimination basis the
racial origin of a person would result in
inferiority, fear and anger. People should no
longer be immune to racial discrimination
either being a victim or a victimizer.
Discriminating people basis their race,
religion, skin color or gender should not be a
social norm. People from disadvantaged
populations are often given harsh
punishments and even they are denied of any
jobs after they are freed from the prisons,
even if the person has the potential. There
has to be certain policy strategies to
overcome the current social issues. Taking
help of the NGOs and the bodies like
Universal Declaration on Human Rights
should be informed about any instances as
and when reported (Healey & O'Brien,
2015). The role of criminal justice has been
questioned. The difference in the culture,
race and religion should be taken in a
positive note for development and
improvement and should not be treated as a
means of discrimination. More laws are to be
introduced and the punishment for racial
discrimination should be increased so that
any person committing any discriminating
act will have to suffer from harsh
punishment. Any person who feel humiliated
or discriminated basis their race, should have
the facility to report the abuse and the
government has to take stringent action
against such cases.
References:
Quick tables available on internet:
8-10 Inter-University Consortium for Political and
Social Research (2014). Quick tables. Retrieved from
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/quicktables/quickconfig.d
o?35509-0001_all
Federal Bureau of Investigation. (2013). Persons
arrested. Retrieved from https://www.fbi.gov/about-
us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-
2013/persons-arrested/persons-arrested
Links available on Capella University:
Demographic Characteristics by Race | Transcript.
Economic Inequality | Transcript
Example of a movie:
Nightline. (Producer). (2002). Race on trial [Video].
Films on Demand

Other academic sources:
Alexander, M. (2011). The new Jim Crow. Ohio State
Journal of Criminal Law, 9, 7.
Boegel. E., (2018) Racism makes a criminal justice
system reform impossible Available at:
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/20
18/05/17/racism-makes-criminal-justice-system-
reform-impossible
Callard, F., Sartorius, N., Arboleda-Flórez, J., Bartlett,
P., Helmchen, H., Stuart, H., . . . Thornicroft, G.
(2012). Mental illness, discrimination and the law:
Fighting for social justice. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
& Sons.
Childress, S. (2014). Why states are changing course
on juvenile crime. Retrieved from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/criminal-
justice/stickup-kid/why-states-are-changing-course-
on-juvenile-crime/
Davis, A. J. (2007). Racial fairness in the criminal
justice system: The role of the prosecutor. Columbia
Human Rights Law Review, 39(1), 202–232.
Domhoff, G. W. (2017). The power elite and the state.
Routledge.
Healey, J. F., & O'Brien, E. (2015). Race, ethnicity,
gender, & class: The sociology of group conflict and
change (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public
Affairs Research. (2014). Crime and law enforcement
in America: Racial and ethnic differences in attitudes
toward the criminal justice system. Retrieved from
http://www.apnorc.org/projects/Pages/HTML
%20Reports/crime-and-law-enforcement-in-america-
racial-and-ethnic-differences-in-attitudes-toward-the-
criminal-justice-system0402-7262.aspx
Internet resources:
U.S. Department of Justice. (2015). Investigation of
the Ferguson Police Department. Retrieved from
http://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-
releases/attachments/2015/03/04/
ferguson_police_department_report.pdf