The discriminatory treatment undergone by the blacks under the criminal laws of United States - Research Paper Example

?Current social issue related to identity – Racism in A social issue is the one that has an effect on both cultural and societal aspects of human life. Often it has to do with an injustice or problematic circumstance that affects people or groups of people. Social issues related to identity often affect personal lives of people and also various interactions which affect their lives. Social identity often refers to controversial issues. However, controversial issues related to identity do not always result in wars and other violent forms in the context of handling the particular social issue. The most important impact of social issues falls on people’s lives and also their relations and interactions with others. Social issues can influence various economic and cultural aspects related to lives of people and generate discrimination which challenges the idea of equality in more than one respect. Thus it is related to identity. (Bracher, 21-22). This paper attempts to emphasize upon the discriminatory treatment undergone by the blacks under the criminal laws of United States. Social issues are those issues which create significant impacts on human lives and also affect their lifestyles and processes of interactions and building up social, economic, and cultural relations with others. Social issues often increase the intensity of people to create controversy related to any social issue and hence to create greater societal and cultural problem in the society where these people live in. There are various social issues which are creating significant impacts on human lives in modern times, such as suicide, public nudity, gun rights, drug laws, gay marriage, capital punishment etc. (Mooney, 7). These social issues are the most current issues in every life of developed countries which are affecting people’s lives to great extent. The current social issue related to the fact that there is growing discrimination against the black communities living in the country in terms of application of criminal laws on people belonging to black communities (Feagin, 136-137). Racial discrimination in criminal laws in USA is one of the most important social issues of modern times which creates one of the most significant and violent impacts on human lives in the country. In the country people belonging to black communities, such as African and African-American communities are facing discriminations from government officials and various legal systems of the country. In order to address social problems in an effective proper understanding of the causes of various behavioral patterns of human beings are very much important. This is because these causes are responsible for creation of greater social problems. Again these different human behaviors depend on various circumstances which people face in their everyday lifestyles (Kizza, 92). These circumstances create human motivations in regard to deal with those particular circumstances. The most important principle of social theory is that the all (mainly different types of) human behavior is finally motivated by the necessity to maintain the identity of the person under consideration. In this context human behaviors can be defined as the process of continuous effort which is related to the maintainace or enhancement of that particular identity (Bracher, 23-24). In simple terms identity can be defined as the sense of the person regarding who is he or she. In technical sense identity can be defined as “a sense of psychosocial well-being” (Bracher, 24). In this context the notion of social identity is related to the fact that it relates the sense of personal identity of a person with various social conditions and circumstances. Creation of this social identity is very much important in modern times, and also very much visible in American societies (Bracher, 24-25). This necessity to establish a sense of identity is the main concern to a person and this necessity drives the person to become motivated to behave in according manners. In the context of this paper is motivation and necessity to create the identity in the society plays the main driving force behind the creation of social issues and problems related to those social issues. Racial discriminations in criminal justice laws are increasing at rapid speed in the country. These discriminations are largely motivated by the motivation of American people to establish their own identity according to specific communities and/or according to specific race or ethnicity (Mooney, Knox, and Schacht, 121-123). In America the level of racial discrimination against people belonging to black communities are increasing at hasty speed. In the late 20th century and in the early 21st century the higher level of racism in criminal laws created significant protests not only from people belonging to black communities, but also from different non-government organisations like NGOs across the country and across the world. Racial discrimination is found in almost every part of the entire system of the criminal justice law of the country. But the most important from of racial discrimination is found in various traffic stops in the country and also in police custodies of the country (Diamant and McAnulty, 97). In the country the notion of Racial Profiling is highly known for creating the most hatred form of racial discrimination against the people belonging to black communities of the country. The term Racial Profiling is defined as the act where the police stop the people belonging to minority groups (mainly blacks) who are riding on motorbikes or driving in cars and interview them in search for drugs and other types of smuggled goods. The main objective of the police to do these acts is to satisfy their own curiosity or interests. In these cases police authorities use their discretionary power against those minority people and in this process of Racial Profiling these people belonging to black communities are being used as private factor of applying that discretionary power. According to MacDonald (2001) there are two types of profiling: one is the soft profiling and the other is the hard profiling. In the case of soft profiling the police authority uses race as the main criteria for judging whether the person is criminal or not and in the case of the hard profiling police authorities judge the level of criminal suspiciousness not only by racial factors. In America, hard profiling is the most common factor of judging the level of criminal suspiciousness among the people who are riding on motorbikes and/or driving their own cars. In streets of big cities of the country, such as New York, New Jersey, Manhattan, etc., many black people are facing the problem of racial discrimination in almost each and every day. Also in some extreme cases people belonging to black communities are jailed without any proper reasons. Police authorities when asked by those racially discriminated people or their friends and family about the offence that those people have done answer something which is either not satisfactory or not followed by proper rules and regulations of the country’s criminal justice law. In other cases if a policeman finds a black person with his friends who also belong to black communities allege the person for creating conspiratorial acts against the state or against some specified person or institution of the country. In these cases apart from the legal rules and regulations there occur extralegal rules and regulations which create the social problem of racial discriminations in criminal laws most serious in the country. Various data collected on African Americans or Hispanic drivers have shown the fact that these people are searched by the traffic police of the country and also by the higher police authorities more frequently compared to whites. This is because these policemen possess a self-belief regarding the fact that these minority people, mainly people who belong to black communities, are more probable to commit crimes compared to whites (Schafer, Carter, Katz-Bannister, and Wells, 188). There are various reasons have been mentioned by researchers regarding these types of racial discriminations against black people by the legal authorities of the country. Researchers like Kennedy, Taylor, and Whitney have argued that in the country people belonging to black communities are more addicted to commit crimes compared to whites. But the debate can be raised in regard to the fact that whether this comparative fact is also equally valid for the traffic crimes. A research carried out by Lamberth on drivers of Maryland has found out that people belonging to black communities are equally engaged to commit traffic crimes as number of traffic crimes committed by whites. On the contrary, Lang, Blackman, and Johnson (2001) have argued after conducting a similar type of research on various areas of New Jersey that blacks are more probable to commit traffic crimes compared to whites. In these areas of blacks are found to break rules like maintaining certain speed limit while driving cars and riding on motorbikes. According to a study conducted by Lamberth 35 percent of people belonging to black communities are booked by the police for committing traffic crimes, while only 17.5 percent of these people actually commit traffic crimes. Analysis by Cordner, Williams, and Zungia (2000) have suggested that although people belonging to black communities comprise 8 percent of the city’s population of 15 years age or above, drivers who belong to these communities comprise 11.6 percent of all vehicle stops (Novak, 69- 70). The fact that has been observed in various studies related to the social issue suggests that these minority people possess very little or no reliance on policemen and on the legal system of the country. These minority people are also getting irritated by the everyday harassment of policemen and by the legal system of the country and engaging themselves to do various criminal acts. Due to all these reasons intensity of levels of crimes committed by these black people are increasing on one hand and the level of racial discrimination against these people are also increasing on the other hand. Among black communities getting stopped by policemen is a controversial issue of recent times. Black people are either searched or arrested by the policemen at stops on grounds like possessing certain profiles as drug traffickers, gang members, or other offenders. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 1999 blacks were more prone than the whites and the Hispanics (12.3 percent, 10.44 percent, and 8.8 percent respectively) to be stopped by the police at traffic stops. It has also been found that the whites are not at all stopped by policemen at traffic stops even if they commit a serious offence like breaking the speed limit (Weitzer and Tuch, 436). Another most commonly seen social evil in the country has been the problem associated with racial discrimination against blacks in police custody and the consequence of this type of discrimination death of blacks in police custodies of the country. The rate of death in police custody is very high in the country among the blacks compared to the whites. In some of the cases of these deaths blacks either commit suicide or they are murdered by policemen. Various cases are found in the country regarding the fact that black prisoners hang themselves with socks, shoestrings, and torn bed sheets and commit suicide. In most of these cases further investigations have revealed the fact these black prisoners were forced indirectly by policemen to commit suicide. This indirect forcing comes from the fact that these policemen tortures black prisoners more than white prisoners (Vadackumchery, 55). According to various studies it has been shown that 52 percent of black prisoners have agreed regarding the fact that policemen torture them more than the whites. On the contrary, few studies (one was conducted by the Washington post in 2001) have also shown that black people are more prone to commit crimes even in the custody compared to the whites. But inspite of this fact it is evident from various research studies that prisoners who belong to black communities are tortures more than the white prisoners and they are more prone to die in police custody. Cases have also been found in regard to the fact that black prisoners are not provided proper foods and other facilities like contacting with their family members. Black prisoners are also not provided proper treatments in police custody. All these facts are creating great tension among the black communities living in the country regarding these discriminated behaviors of the legal system of the country (Dow and Dow 74). Also in courts black people are unexpectedly punished for longer periods compared to the whites even after committing the same type of crime. Again cases have also found where black people have been given any lawyer to defend the allegation raised against those black people. Even in some cases it has been found that people belonging to black communities are not provided any support by the police authorities to present the legal issue in courts and the black person has been arrested and put into custody for days or weeks without the permission of the court. In some cases it has also been found that the black people have been arrested and directly put into custody for many years without any legal procedure and without any intervention of the court or any other legal system of the country. These facts have raise the level of depression among the black communities of the country and hence, these people are getting more involved into various criminal activities which are, in most of the cases, becoming very for the legal system of the country to even rectify. Hence, these criminal activities are creating negative impacts on social and cultural aspects of the country (Whigham, 57-61). Conclusion: Thus the above discussion gives a notion of discrimination in criminal laws and legal actions in the country against people belonging to the black communities, such as the African-American communities. This social problem related to identity can create a greater volume of grievance among the black people living in the country. After getting deprived from almost every sphere of lives these black people are getting forced to engage themselves in various illegal activities, like robbery and thefts. These activities are again deteriorating their social, cultural, and economic status in the country. These social issues (discriminations) are affecting lives of those people who are getting discriminated and also of those people who are directly and/or indirectly involved in these discriminated activities against people belonging to black communities. Unless and until people belonging to both the groups (those who discriminate and those who get discriminated) change their behavior and motivation of creating a better and improved American society where all people will be given equal opportunities and chance, these social evils can never be ignored. This specifically refers to the legal scenario which is meant to render justice to the people and equality before the eyes of law is obviously a part of it. The government and policymakers can implement policies or can take appropriate strategies to increase the level of awareness among the people of the country to avoid this discrimination and promote equality amongst the races and ethnic communities and especially with respect to people belonging to black communities. In this way the American society can increase its overall social structure and also can reduce several other problems associated with these growing social issues, such as poverty and unemployment. Works Cited Bracher, Mark. Social symptoms of identity needs: why we have failed to solve our social problems, and what to do about it, USA: Karnac Books, 2009 Diamant, Louis, and McAnulty, Richard D. The Psychology of sexual orientation, behavior, and identity: a handbook, USA: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010 Dow, David and Dow, Mark. Machinery of Death. London: Routledge, 2002 Feagin, Joe R. Racist America: roots, current realities, and future reparations, USA: Taylor & Francis, 2010 Kizza, Joseph Migga. Ethical and Social Issues in the Information Age, USA: Springer, 2010 Mooney, Linda A. Understanding Social Problems, USA: Cengage Learning, 2011 Mooney, Linda A., Knox, David, and Schacht, Caroline. Understanding Social Problems, USA: Cengage Learning, 2010 Novak, Kenneth. J. “Disparity and Racial Profiling in Traffic Enforcement”, Police Quarterly, (2004), 7, 65-96 Schafer, Joseph .A., Carter, David. L., and Andra Katz-Bannister. “Studying traffic stop encounters”, Journal of Criminal Justice, 32, 159-170, 2004 Vadackumchery, James. Third Millennium Police, USA: APH Publishing, 2009 Weitzer, Ronald and Tuch, Steven A. “Perceptions Of Racial Profiling: Race, Class, And Personal Experience”, Criminology, (2002), 40, 2, 435-455 Whigham, Meredith. The machinery of death: the United States Supreme Court and the constitutionalization of capital punishment, USA: Cengage Learning, 2005 Read More