African Americans And The Justice System - 1090 Words

â€Å"That’s one pain that will never go away until the day you die,† she said. â€Å"You have to live with that pain. There’s no closure. There’s no nothing. Especially when the person or child was so violently taken away from you.† said Juanita Young, mother of Malcom Ferguson, who s son was killed by the result of police brutality. He is not the first or last person of the black minority to be cheated by the justice system. Today it is perfectly legal to discriminate against criminals in nearly all the ways that it was once legal to discriminate against African Americans(Alexander). The justice system in America was set up to protect citizens while upholding social control and deterring crime. But the poor guidance within the system has caused racial disparities to persist at every level of the U.S. criminal justice system. All across the country, African Americans receive racial discrimination in the justice system ranging from bias drug arrests , police brutality, to incarceration. African Americans are shown to likely be arrested and punished more severely than white people. This is a result of the war on drugs, the world s most effective way to fill prisons with minorities while doing nothing to curtail drug use, has warped the priorities and practices of police departments around the country(Gwynne). The war on drugs was a campaign started by the Reagan Administration in 1982; his anti-drug rhetoric was used to shape the stereotypical target of the war-blacks. Such rhetoricShow MoreRelatedThe Justice System And African Americans990 Words   |  4 Pagesthis opinion, however; I believe that the justice system favors Whites more than African-Americans. Throughout history it shows that the criminal justice system was never in place to serve and protect every human being. When slavery was legal the criminal justice system created laws to enslave human beings. It is not a surprise that the justice system does not work in favor with African-Americans because it h as never worked in our favor. The legal system only benefits those of White people. ThereRead MoreThe Justice System Of African Americans1839 Words   |  8 PagesWithin the US justice system, there is a substantial disparity between the aggregate number of African American men living within the society, and living inside prison walls. African Americans men are frequently confronted with difficult environmental, financial and sociological disparities growing up, and also have the absence of opportunity weighing them down as well. Many of these factors have lead to outrageous numbers of African American males being incarcerated. Furthermore, the prejudicialRead MoreAfrican Americans And The Criminal Justice System Essay1688 Words   |  7 PagesThere are many ways the criminal justice system plays a huge role in the discrimination against all people of color. Mostly, there are a wide range of studies within the African American communities that expresses concern, prejudice, and even racial profiling in the criminal justice system pertaining to blacks. Judges, juror s, police officers, and even marriages are key roles of the societal disadvantages African Americans have. African Americans are even being arrested more than any other race inRead MoreAfrican Americans And The Criminal Justice System1542 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction African American males are overrepresented in the criminal justice and many times are subject to harsher sentences than their Caucasian counterparts. African American males also experience racial profiling and have more negative interactions than any other population in the United States. Ibie, Obie, and Obiyan states, â€Å"African Americans have continued to be the repository for American crime and to be treated as amalgamation of presumed group trait rather than as individuals†. ThisRead MoreAfrican Americans And The Criminal Justice System1500 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout American history, the African-American population has been in the minority, and has been persecuted for hundreds of years. What Taylor-Thompson is stating is that African-Americans usually hold the minority in court decisions as well, which poses a problem due to the majority overriding their vote. Due to the racial tensions, the judicial system ultimately changed in order to include more minoriti es in juries, however it was lopsided during the Simpson trial. During the tumultuous 1990sRead MoreAfrican Americans And The Juvenile Justice System1248 Words   |  5 PagesRace and Sentencing It has been brought up that certain race and ethic affects a person’s sentencing. Many studies have addressed the question are African Americans treated more severely than similarly situated whites? (Mitchell, 2005). Observers had indeed noted that black defendants get more severe sentencing than white defendants do (Spohn, 1981). For many years’ social scientist has examined this theory and came up with three explanations, racial discrimination, Wealth discrimination, andRead MoreAfrican Americans And The Criminal Justice System1394 Words   |  6 Pagesbiases within a myriad of institutions. One of these institutions which have policies which negatively affect minorities is the criminal justice system. There is an overrepresentation of African Americans and Latinos within prisons. Discrimination and prejudice have morphed throughout time to continue to keep individual without power. There are more African American adults in prison or jail, on probation or paroleà ¢â‚¬â€than were enslaved in 1850 (Alexander. New Jim Crow.) Through the history of this countryRead MoreThe Criminal Justice System For African Americans1874 Words   |  8 Pagesover the past decade or so is the criminal justice system being against African Americans, but to be more specific is the criminal justice system being against African American males. The incarceration rate and the number of police brutality cases have been at all time high rises and the overall treatment African Americans receive from the criminal justice system. There have been numerous amounts of cases that have come to face dealing with African Americans and law enforcement. The types of cases thatRead MoreAfrican American Culture s Justice System993 Words   |  4 PagesSince the 17th century, African Americans have been ridiculed, devalued, and oppressed. To be more exact 1616 is the year that African Americans started to become an enslaved race. Slavery was just the first chapter in the book of A frican American oppression. Ever since then society has treated the black community, as if they do not belong in America. The Jim Crow laws made it so that black people were excluded from a majority of the rights and resources that were supposed to be available for everybodyRead MoreThe African-American Male and the Criminal Justice System2725 Words   |  11 PagesAfrican American Male and Crime Justice System [Authors Name] [Institutions Name] African American Male and Crime Justice System Introduction The past quarter century has seen an enormous growth in the American incarceration rate. Importantly, some scholars have suggested that the rate of prison growth has little to do with the theme of crime itself, but it is the end result of particular U.S. policy choices. Clear (2007) posits that these policy choices have had well-defined implications