An Analysis of Stereotypes and Injustice in Penal Systems

This essay explores the pervasive impact of stereotypes on the penal system, arguing that they frequently lead to wrongful accusations and unjust convictions. The author begins by defining stereotypes as generalizations that can lead to biased judgments, particularly when individuals lack comprehensive information. The paper then examines how stereotypes, often perpetuated by media and societal perceptions, contribute to the disproportionate conviction rates of African Americans, who are often stereotyped as dangerous criminals. The essay references statistical data, scholarly arguments, and media portrayals to illustrate how racial profiling and biased judgments impact legal proceedings. It also considers how stereotypes about men can lead to unjust convictions. The author concludes that while stereotypes may sometimes lead to accurate judgments, they frequently result in injustice. The essay draws upon various studies, including reports from the American Bar Association, to support its claims and emphasizes the need for a more equitable application of justice.

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Stereotype Often Lead To Injustice in a Penal System
Introduction
Stereotype and perception of people often lead to false accusation of people and injustice
in a penal system. The term stereotype generally means a generalization of a group of people or
an individual in a negative or positive manner. The stereotype is developed by an individual
when he is unwilling or unable to obtain all the required information to make the judgment about
people. The content of the paper discusses whether stereotype often results in the false
accusation of people in a penal system.
The above statement that stereotype often leads to wrongful accusation and injustice in a
penal system is true. Stereotypes in many cases allow people to feel in the blank spaces in
absence of the real picture. The current society often develops and innocently disseminates
stereotypes. These developed stereotypes at all times lead to unjust discrimination and injustice
in the penal system when the stereotype is negative (Macrae, Charles and Miles 33). Stereotype
and perception about people have been indicated in movies, books or even magazines.
Perception and stereotypes according to various sources have their background in day to day
activities or experience an individual has gone through.
In most of the cases, judges or juries often assume that a group of people or an individual
have some specific characters. In most cases, people develop stereotypes about people based on

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the lack of firsthand contact with the individual or the group undergoing proceedings
(Dirkzwager and Candace 404). The statement moreover can be judged as true based on the
stereotype of African Americans in the United States. According to various books, movies,
books, magazines newspapers, research and individual experience confessions show that most
African Americans particularly the male ones are treated as dangerous delinquents. The current
data of convicts in the United States indicate a larger number of male African Americans as
convicts compared to the white (Welch 279). The higher figure, of African-American convicts
can, is associated with the consequence of injustice and wrongful conviction based on the
stereotypes that African Americans are generally dangerous criminals. Stereotypes and
perception are also linked with harsh judgments as well as racial profiling in cases of African
Americans trials in a penal system.
Statistical analysis of the crime rate in America from 1993 to 2008 shows that African
Americans are likely to commit robbery with violence, murder and assault six times more
compared to other races in the US. However, various scholars such as Michelle Alexander claim
that such statics are high as a result of mass incarcerations and stereotypes about male African
Americans (Alexander 35). Alexander further states that the majority of African Americans are
wrongfully convicted base on the stereotype arising from the media. According to him, the US
media has been saturated with imageries of black lawbreakers. Basing an argument on the
reasoning of various scholars from various parts of the world and studies, it evident that in most
cases stereotype and perception results into injustice US penal system in particular.
The studies conducted in the United States regarding news reports from The New York
Times, The Worthington Post, The USA Today as well as the wall street journal shows that 80%
of Africans Americans are mentioned and portrayed as criminals. The researcher, Hurricane

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Katrina in her studies claims that media over presents Americans as perpetrators while
underrepresenting the whites (Fricker 50). Judges and juries, therefore, use such pictures in their
rulings where they are unable or unwilling to acquire and scrutinize evidence in penal trials with
African Americans as defendants and this stereotype in most cases results into the false
accusation of defendants.
Stereotype and perception about an individual in most cases lead to the wrongful
accusation. According to the report released by the American Bar Association, show that in most
cases African Americans get convicted for offences they never commit. The reports point out
that in most cases only 3-5% per cent of criminal cases involving blacks would go for trial based
on the stereotype that blacks are dangerous criminals. The reports further indicate that since
most of African Americans would be harshly convicted whether they commit criminal offences
or not, members of the bar always advice blacks to plead guilty even when innocent (Steele,
Claude and Joshua Aronson 797). According to the report, the members of the bar will also
advise Latinos and poor whites to plead guilty even when they are innocent as they as also
perceived as criminals and would most of the time go out of the line given in the law. Most
lawyers advise blacks, Latinos and poor whites to plead guilty as they would be judged cruelly
whether guilty or not, they claim that it is better to plead guilty get convicted for three years
when innocent than being convicted for 25 years for crime one never committed after a trial.
Similarly, the stereotype that men are more likely to commit offences also results in
wrongful judgment and conviction. The history of criminology indicates that men are likely to
commit offences compared to females. Such history has resulted in the innocent male being
convicted for offences they never commit. In most cases, males have been arrested and convicted
in death cases involving their partners simply because men are likely to commit criminal

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offences. On the other hand, in as much as stereotypes often lead to injustice in the penal system,
stereotypes results into a reasonably accurate conviction (Skop 560). Judges and juries of the
court have on some occasions convicted the right law offenders on specific characters associated
with the individual or a group of individuals such as violence and aggression.
In conclusion, generalization and prejudice by chalking up individual’s or a group of
people based on stereotype without the knowledge of the existing facts often lead to injustice in a
penal system. As discussed in the content, the American culture that perceives African
Americans, Latinos and poor whites as criminals have resulted in an unjust conviction. In as
much as in some cases stereotypes and perception may be reasonably accurate, the report by the
American Bar Association confirms that majority of African Americans are convicted harshly
based on stereotype thus the term plead guilty even when innocent. Based on the given facts
from various studies outlined within the content, the statement that a stereotype often leads to
unjust charges remains true.
Works cited
Alexander, Michelle. The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. The
New Press, 2012. 1-45
Jewkes, Yvonne. "Punishment in black and white: Penal “hell-holes,” popular media, and mass
incarceration." Atlantic Journal of Communication 22.1 (2014): 42-60.
Dirkzwager, Anja JE, and Candace Kruttschnitt. "Prisoners’ perceptions of correctional officers’
behavior in English and Dutch prisons." Journal of Criminal Justice 40.5 (2012): 404-
412.
Welch, Kelly. "Black criminal stereotypes and racial profiling." Journal of Contemporary
Criminal Justice 23.3 (2007): 276-288.

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Fricker, Miranda. Epistemic injustice: Power and the ethics of knowing. Oxford University Press,
2007.35-65
Skop, Emily. "The model minority stereotype in Arizona’s anti-immigrant climate: SB 1070 and
discordant reactions from Asian Indian migrant organizations." GeoJournal 82.3 (2017):
553-566.
Steele, Claude M., and Joshua Aronson. "Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance
of African Americans." Journal of personality and social psychology 69.5 (2015): 797.
Macrae, C. Neil, Charles Stangor, and Miles Hewstone, eds. Stereotypes and stereotyping.
Guilford Press, 2016. 25-40