Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System
In this assignment students will select a current social issue impacting criminal justice agencies and recommend specific strategies that criminal justice administrators can implement to effectively addressing the issue. In selecting the topic, the student must prepare a research paper and demonstrate at least one of the listed course learning outcomes. The research paper should be approximately 8-10 pages long with a minimum of 6 scholarly references, not counting the title and references pages. Scholarly sources should be cited and used to support the recommended strategies.
Introduction
The United States is the most racially diversified and democratic country in the world. While the diversity has brought in gains in the forms of economic prosperity, they are not shared uniformly across the society due to various communities within the organization being marginalized (Schrantz, & McElroy, 2000). The marginalization of people of color due to their race has fostered public mistrust of the affected communities towards the criminal justice systems, impeding the latter’s capacity to achieve public safety (Schrantz, & McElroy, 2000). The stakeholders within the criminal justice system understand this challenge of racial disparities and implemented various measures to counteract it. This is because they know the importance of having strong relationships of mutual trust between the agencies and the served communities. For instance, law enforcement officers depend on cooperation with the district. They help get information on crime happening within the neighborhoods and devise several solutions (Community Relations Services, 2016). The community’s willingness to trust the criminal justice systems relies on how the latter’s actions are reflective of the former’s values and whether they have incorporated the tenets of procedural justice and legitimacy.
Since the minority groups in American society play a significant role in achieving the objectives of criminal justice systems. It is only evident that racial disparities in how the justice systems treat them hinder better community relations. To this effect, this research paper intends to understand the racial disparity social challenge within the criminal justice system. The paper will further look into current measures that have been implemented to counteract the problem. Finally, the article will recommend strategies that criminal justice systems may apply to mitigate social challenges entirely.
Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice Systems
The existence of racial disparity within the criminal justice system encompasses having a proportion of racial or ethnic groups within a system’s control being greater than other group proportions in the entire population. There are various reasons for the disparities, such as the distinct levels of criminal activities, the great emphasis of the police force on specific communities, legislative policies, and the decisions formulated by the system’s practitioners, especially those with a broader discretion on the justice system in its different stages. The illegitimate or unwarranted racial disparity will have individuals within a situated place receiving disparate treatment due to their race. Some instances have involved overt racial bias, while others have been a reflection of influential factors that have an indirect affiliation with race. Furthermore, some cases will entail having disparity outcomes from racially-based decisions by individuals or institutions. Structural racism has proven to cause or increase racial disparity too.
One of the issues of racial discrimination is racial profiling done during the policing of citizens. One reason for focussing on racial profiling by law enforcement despite it6 being less dramatic that than the racially discriminatory police violence is because it influences more individuals (Kennedy, 2001). Racial profiling is also very controversial when it comes to policy matters. Racial profiling will have law enforcement officers using an individual’s race to determine the extent to which one will e surveyed, questioned, searched, or the level of investigation he or she is subjected to. Racial profiling has also been noted in the judiciary, as evident in the United States v Weaver, 1992 (Kennedy, 2001). The court in the case indicated that the large groups of their citizens should not be considered any law enforcement to be criminal, depending on the race. However, it further states that one cannot ignore the facts happening on the ground, which could include the agents knowing their own experience and intelligence resorts that young black male members are engaged in crime such as illegal drug use. To an extent, race, in conjunction with other factors such as the agent’s knowledge, is essential in deciding the approach and detaining the suspect.
The dissenting judge indicated that the government had not presented any evidence to prove a correlation of a young black person to drugs and was relying on the general impressions as a basis to decide (Kennedy, 2001). When the system begins to consider large citizen groups as presumptively criminal, then the state will be in a dangerous situation of reinforcing the stereotype of race being a factor in determining suspiciousness. The use of race by public officials must be discouraged as it enhances risk while countering the strong trends achieved by the country’s anti-discrimination regulations. The judiciary has not done enough to curb racial discrimination, especially in police harassing persons of color (Kennedy, 2001). This demonstrates a judiciary that could be in support of racial discrimination.
Racial disparities have also been evident within the court system, similar to the arrest and police contacts (Rocque, 2011). African Americans tend to be sanctioned by the criminal justice systems compared to the white counterparts in both adult and juvenile systems. The disparities within these systems could be suggestive of the act that one system does have a discrepancy with the other. Blacks have a higher propensity towards being incarcerated and longer sentences. For instance, the country’s Sentencing Commission indicates that 23.3% of sentences granted to black individuals were longer than the white counterparts (Rocque, 2011). If the trend continues, the risk is that one in every three black men born on the present-day expects to be jailed at least once in their lifetime. The race is also predominant in capital punishment as any black perpetrators have killed where victims are more likely to get a death sentence. Scholars have indicated that the Hispanic defendants will often receive similar treatment as the Blacks.
A theoretical framework focussing on neighborhoods and communities specifically on the utilization of informal social controls in promoting pro-social or antisocial behaviors demonstrates differential distribution in these social controls causing differences such as crime (Taxman & Byrne, 2005). It is difficult to build cohesion in a community characterized by poverty, legal cynicism, structural inequities in resources, social isolation, and residential instability, among others (Community Relations Services, 2016). Despite the importance of establishing strong, pro-social community ties, some communities are still lagging in terms of having the right strategies to build conventional norms and improve social outcomes. It has been noted that police will exhibit misconduct in the structurally disadvantaged communities. Most of these communities constitute the minority groups who have been disadvantaged in terms of resources to build themselves and the community. These communities will tend to have higher violent crime rates than the region that does not deal with compromised police practices. Individuals’ behavior is considered a function of one’s environment (Taxman & Bryne, 2005). A community where violence is utilized as social currency to earn, maintain respect, and conflict resolution. The survival of a young man will surely encompass them adapting to this reality. The justice system fails these communities by not providing the right resources to educate and equip the members with the proper knowledge and skills to change their lives for the better.
Impact of Racial Disparities within the Criminal Justice System
Research on community and national levels has demonstrated a cumulative effect of racial disparity in every decision made by the system. This is because the decisions formulated and implemented in one stage cause an increase in inequalities in the subsequent steps. For instance, if the bail practices will have minority group members being detained at higher rates compared to white individuals with similar cases, the risk of them being disadvantaged in the trial and sentencing stages increases as there is a reduced chance to access proper defense counsel, community resources and the treatment alternatives. Racial disparities within the criminal justice systems have propagated a mistrust and suspicion from the minority members towards the latter’s stakeholders (Schrantz, & McElroy, 2000). For instance, law enforcement officers have destroyed any form of partnership that existed between them and the community.
Research has indicated that the differential treatment received by the minority groups from the criminal justice systems is having a toll on the health, economic well-being, housing, and liberties of the members. These challenges will reinforce social inequalities since these communities will seldom have enough resources to deal with future problems. When black male individuals are arrested without following the due process and given longer sentences than their counterparts, it means that their families to which they were breadwinners end up dealing with financial burdens that could cause bankruptcy and foreclosure. It is possible that the detaining of the individuals before trial is because of the financial limitations indicative of the economic challenges they face.
There are some policies and practices that are considered to be race-neutral but have predictable racial impacts. For instance, differential treatment in drug cases, enhancing the penalties for offenses done in restricted areas, and previous criminal records will affect the communities, especially for the people of color (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). While the effects may be involuntary, there is a need for future policies to be more proactive to prevent the negative effects. For instance, in California, system reforms were implemented, leading to a dramatic reduction in incarceration and reduced racial disparities. For a long time, the state’s prison population was 200% of the rated capacities, resulting in litigation cases calling for reforms to reduce overcrowding. The states were forced to act quickly and enforced the Correction Realignment in 2011 and Proposition 47 in 2014 (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). The first strategy entailed eliminating the sending of individuals that have done technical violations during parole back to prison.
In contrast, the second strategy entailed the reclassification of property and drug offenses into straight misdemeanors with no consecutive prison sentences. These strategies reduced incarceration rates by 25% by 2009, which was in conjunction with the incarceration rates that affected black individuals. Proposition 47 reduced the racial disparities happening in arrests, booking, and subsequently, the pretrial detention.
Measures to Combat Racial Discrimination Within the Criminal Justice System
In handling the racial disparities within the criminal justice system, the stakeholders must acknowledge four aspects. These aspects include recognizing the cumulative nature of this social challenge (Schrantz & McElroy, 2000). The problem with racial disparity is that it builds in each stage of the criminal justice continuum, which leads to greater challenges. The second aspect is encouraging streamlined communication among all players within the system’s decision points. There is a need for a systematic approach to handle this challenge as any gains from one stage may be offset by problems in another phase. Therefore, there is a need to have strategies implemented all through the system to mitigate the unwarranted disparities, which could be achieved through proper communication. The third aspect is knowing that a plan working in one decision point could fail in another (Schrantz, & McElroy, 2000). Every decision point is unique in terms of its components, and thus its strategies will be different depending on the level of disparity and the affected racial groups. The final aspect is that each stakeholder needs to work to achieve systemic change. Criminal justice leaders need to be informed, be willing, and can dedicate both personal and institutional resources to dealing with racial disparities in all stages. To this effect, the system will have undergone a system-wide change (Schrantz, & McElroy, 2000).
One strategy that could work for the criminal justice system in handling racial disparity is having it benchmark other systems such as public health and other countries on their successful approach to racial inequality, conflict resolution, and transformation (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). The system needs to bring key stakeholders such as researchers, philanthropists, law enforcement officers, the community members, and other groups to handle the issue in a meaningful manner (Community Relations Services, 2016). For instance, this collaboration could analyze two significant trends within the system: the reduced number of young individuals in the juvenile residential placements by half and the dramatic reduction in the number of incarcerated African American women. This analysis should be able to bring forth important information to determine the reasons behind the declines and respective strategies that could work on different stages to achieve the desired outcome (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018).
These stakeholders need to envision the criminal justice system they want and start building it from the “first square.” In each of the stages, new approaches are generated and implemented with workable timelines to determine their impact on reducing racial disparities. For instance, the judiciary could consider capping the sentences for grievous and violent offenders, which has commonly been implemented ion other developed countries. To reduce recidivism, the correctional facilities need to provide workable strategies for each of the inmates since they are all different. For instance, for the black male individuals, coming out of prison and assimilating themselves into society is a challenge that many find themselves in crime. Therefore, these facilities need to work with technical institutions to equip them with the proper skill to earn a legitimate living without having to depend on others. The correctional facilities could collaborate with different companies to see the employment of the individuals immediately they leave prison and have exhibited good conduct. This encourages others to have a better mentality of doing good due to the surety of a better future. There should e no disparities in the resources offered of racial discrimination is to be mitigated.
This proposed regulation is expected to work together with the existing measures implemented to deal with racial disparities. The rules that have been effective include community policing policies, implementation of stringent regulations to deter any conduct illustrating racial disparities, and promotion of internal diversity within the justice systems in all stages (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Considering the fact that the justice system comprises many steps with different functions, it is evident that the strategies applicable to dealing with racial disparities are different. To this effect, the fundamental principle in the effectiveness of these strategies lies in their ability to cooperate, share important information, and any other support that will see each stage achieve the desired objective.
Conclusion
For a long time, racial disparities within the American criminal justice system has been a never-ending social challenge. The affected minorities, especially the African Americans, followed by the Hispanics, have always felt left out by the justice system as the latter’s conduct fails to grant equal treatment as the white counterparts. To this efficacy, the affected individuals end up suffering in the long run economically, health-wise on different dimensions, and even the growth propensities of their respective communities. The fact that the justice system has acknowledged the challenge’s existence is the first proper step towards dealing with racial disparity. In this case, it is essential that different stakeholders are involved in research, collaborate, and ensure the implementation of better strategies to deal with racial disparity. The main objective is a system-wide change in the criminal justice systems when dealing with racial inequality.
References
Community Relations Services. (2016). Importance of Police-Community Relationships and Resources for Further Reading. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/crs/file/836486/download
Kennedy, R. (2001). Racial trends in the administration of criminal justice. America becoming: Racial trends and their consequences, 2, 1-20.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). The Criminal Justice System and Social Exclusion: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief.
Rocque, M. (2011). Racial disparities in the criminal justice system and perceptions of legitimacy: A theoretical linkage. Race and justice, 1(3), 292-315.
Schrantz, D., & McElroy, J. (2000). Reducing racial disparity in the criminal justice system: A manual for practitioners and policymakers. Washington, DC: Sentencing Project.
Taxman, F. S., & Byrne, J. M. (2005). Racial disparity and the legitimacy of the criminal justice system: exploring consequences for deterrence. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 16(4), 57-77.
