Analyze the Challenges of Criminal Justice in a Multicultural African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities are subjected to the criminal justice system at much higher rates than the white majority. African Americans represent 13 percent of the general population; however, they account for 1 million of the 2.3 million of the prison population. African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months) (NAACP, n. d.).
Based on the readings and your own research, include responses to the following in a paper:
Determine if there is a racial and ethnic disparity in the criminal justice system, and explain why. Support your answer with a recent case from the news, newspaper, or your community.
Identify reasons for such disparities.
Police have the discretion to make vehicle stops and can later make justification for the stop explaining they saw evidence in plain view in the vehicle. Explain whether or not this type of behavior is a form of racial profiling.
Support your assignment with at least three scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources, including older articles, may be included.
Length: 5-7 pages, not including title and reference pages
Additional resources:
-https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/ucr
-NAACP. (n.d.). Criminal justice fact sheet.
Analyze the Challenges of Criminal Justice in a Multicultural Society
African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities are subjected to the criminal justice system at much higher rates than the white majority. African Americans represent 13 percent of the general population; however, they account for 1 million of the 2.3 million of the prison population. African Americans serve virtually as much time in prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months) (NAACP, n. d.). The multicultural communities in the United States continue to grow, especially in cities where they tend to find more opportunities. The phenomenal growth of multicultural communities in the United States has increased the challenges for criminal justice. This paper examines the existence of the racial and ethnic disparity in the criminal justice system and the reasons for the existence of oof such disparities. The paper also examines racial profiling in relation to the police having discretion in stopping vehicles and later make justification for stopping the vehicle by explaining that they saw evidence in plain view on the vehicle.
The racial and ethnic disparity in the criminal justice system refers to the differences that may be related or not related to discrimination. The existence of racial and ethnic disparity in the criminal justice system can be explained in various ways. One way that indicates racial and ethnic disparity is the encounter between the citizens and the police arrest. The racial and ethnic origin has been highlighted by various researches on how they play a role in influencing the decision of law enforcement officers with regard to making an arrest. Research has indicated that in the case of suspected juvenile offenses, the law enforcement officers have been reported to take into account the demeanor of the juvenile pin making the decision of arresting (“Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System,” n.d.). The juveniles suspect that to show the police some level of disrespect is likely to be arrested based on their racial origin or minority rather than the level of disrespect they show the law enforcement officer.
The other evidence of racial and ethnic in the criminal justice system based on the citizens’ encounters with the police is the proportion of blacks involved in the shootings of criminal suspects. The research conducted in New York indicated that blacks were more likely to engage in the police shooting than whites. However, another research conducted in Memphis indicated that whites were more likely to be involved in armed incidents than blacks, but still, blacks were shot by law enforcement officers more than whites. According to the AP News, Richer Alanna investigates the racial disparities across the court system in the United States. Richer (2020) established that the Black and Latino defendants in Massachusetts were more likely to be locked up for weapons and drug offenses than white individuals. The AP News report also concluded that the Black and Latino defendants were likely to receive longer sentences than their white counterparts.
The other indication of the presence of racial and ethnic disparity in the criminal justice system is the presence of bias. Bias can be determined based on most offenses that the people of color and minority tend to be charged associated with a wide variety if discretion from boot7h the judges and the prospectors on whether the defendant should be released on bail. The prosecutors and judges tend to consider factors such as the individuals being a danger to the community and that they might decide to escape when given bail. Since most minority communities, blacks, and Latinos operate within a lower economic strength, the prosecutors and judges tend to use it as a way of denying bail. For instance, the prosecutors will consider the employment status, the marital status, and the length of one as a residence in a particular location as a means of relating the accused with the community.
The evidence in the jury selection and its entire process has revealed the racial and ethnic disparity. The racial and ethnic disparity issue in jury selection was a major factor until in Strauder v. West Virginia (1880) when the court removed a statute that limited the jury service to be only for white men. The court provided the statute violated the Fourteenth Amendment. The ruling and other laws have not entirely eliminated the ethnic and racial issue in jury selection. States have gone to set requirements under which one can be selected to a jury, which has been argued as a way of targeting the minority and certain races. For instance, in Delaware, the selection of the jury was drawn from a list that consisted of taxpayers that ae sober and judicious. Although various Supreme Court rulings have made it more difficult for the racial and ethnic disparity to be practiced in court, various prosecutors and defense lawyers have been determined to use peremptory challenges used to excuse potential jurors. The defense lawyers and prosecutors, in most circumstances, do not provide any cause or explanation or have to offer the court accountability. The use of peremptory challenges is used in the practice of racial and ethnic disparity, with the target being to eliminate individuals from a certain race or ethnicity from the jury.
Another challenge in the criminal justice system concerning multicultural society is racial profiling. Racial profiling is commonly associated with law enforcement officers. In police racial profiling, the race has been considered one of the major factors that the police use in making decisions on whether to conduct a street or traffic stop and interrogated a person. Racial profiling is not a new phenomenon as it has long existed in the United States law enforcement agencies. Several reports have indicated that discrimination based on race, gender, or ethnicity has been a challenge in the criminal justice system, with law enforcement officers being the most affected (Harris, 1999). The increased challenge of racial profiling among law enforcement officers can be traced back to the 1980s when the legislation and court decisions were delivered that enabled law enforcement officers to gain more latitude regarding the ability to make a judgment on whom to stop, search, and arrest (American Sociological Association. (, 2007).
Such latitude that had since increased among police officers has created a norm that the law enforcement officers think that they have the discretion of stopping a vehicle and later making a justification for the stop by explaining that they saw evidence in plain view of the vehicle. Any law enforcement officer that does not provide a clear explanation regarding the decision to stop the car is in violation of the police code of traffic and other further laws and policies that govern the traffic law enforcement (American Sociological Association, 2007). However, in the situation that the police officer stops a vehicle and provides an explanation that tends to indicate racism, then the behavior is considered to be in the form of racial profiling. For instance, an officer that stops a vehicle obeying driven by a black or Latino, and the explanation for the stop that the law enforcement officer provides is that he saw the evidence in plain view. Such a kind of explanation clearly indicates that the law enforcement officer used the car occupant’s skin color to decide to stop the car. Law enforcement officers with the racial profiling behavior have created a serious challenge in the criminal justice system, whereby resources are being wasted for conducting justice process o that could have been avoided.
References
American Sociological Association. (2007). Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved from https://www.asanet.org/sites/default/files/savvy/images/press/docs/pdf/ASARaceCrime.pdf
NAACP. (n.d.). Criminal justice fact sheet.
Harris, D. (1999). Driving While Black: Racial Profiling on Our Nation’s Highways. ACLU. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/report/driving-while-black-racial-profiling-our-nations-highways
“Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System.” (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/46946_CH_3.pdf
Richer, A. (2020). Researchers find racial disparities across court system. AP News. Retrieved from https://apnews.com/article/race-and-ethnicity-crime-massachusetts-courts-gun-politics-6349ecf90445bca896b33ae77f841538
