The Criminal Justice System - Research Paper Example

 «The Criminal Justice SystemTitle» Names of researchers………………………………………………………… Address of institutions involved………………………………………………. Total budget assessed………………………………………………………... Duration of research…………………………………………………...... Executive summary: This research aims at exploring ways to reduce crime among the British male black teenagers remaining within the existing Criminal Justice System of Britain. Besides, this research will determine the nature of relation that exists between age, race and the inclination towards criminality. By conducting this research, the researcher aims at adding about the issue of widespread criminality among the British male black teenagers to the body of existing knowledge. An in depth study of the ways in which the British male black teenager criminality is addressed by the British Criminal Justice System is essential in order to come up with the most rational and effective course of action to combat it in the best interest of the judiciary and hence the whole society. Besides, the researchers hold a belief that increasing the educational opportunities for the British male black teenagers and taking measures to minimize the poverty among them will play a fundamental role not only in improving their image among other British communities in general but also reducing their orientation towards crime in particular. The study will involve an appropriate sample of participants serving in various institutions under the domain of the British Criminal Justice System, parents of British male black teenagers and their teachers and the data will be collected from them through semi-structured interviews and strategically designed questionnaires to gather the optimum amount of data for analysis. Data will be analyzed with the help of statistical softwares to ensure the validity of the information collected. Introduction: British male black teenagers are widely suspected for crime in Britain. The black boys in Britain are largely stereotyped as criminals, especially when they are in their teenage. A careful analysis of the British criminal justice system suggests that it is quite harsh with the black male teenagers. There are various factors that have played an important role in tarnishing the image of black male teenagers among the teenagers of other ethnic minorities in Britain that include media and literature. This calls for a need for the teacher and parents to explore the causes of crime among these black juveniles and to verify if the widespread consensus about visualizing the black male teenagers as criminals is justified or not. Besides, there is a strong need for the teachers and parents to realize the ways to improve the image of black male teenagers in the British society. This research aims at addressing these issues and providing the nation with useful suggestions to reduce the criminality among the British male black teenagers which is deemed important for ensuring peace in the British society. Objectives of the Study: Through this study, the researcher intends: To explore the contribution of black male teenagers in the total crime cases reported in Britain. To compare the extent of criminality in the male black teenagers to their image in the British society. To devise ways to reduce the susceptibility of the black male teenagers to crime remaining within the British criminal justice system. Literature review: The criminal justice system: “A criminal justice system is a set of legal and social institutions for enforcing the criminal law in accordance with a defined set of procedural rules and limitations.” (Fraise and Weidner, n.d.). A criminal justice system comprises defined rules and regulations that are implemented by various law enforcing bodies within the judicial structure of a society. Often, a nation has distinct criminal justice systems for the federation and the military. Similarly, criminal justice systems for the juveniles are defined separately from those for the adults. Criminal justice systems are composed of various subsystems that include but are not limited to “police and other law enforcement agencies; trial and appellate courts; prosecution and public defender offices; probation and parole agencies; custodial institutions ( jails, prisons, reformatories, halfway houses, etc.).” (Frase and Weidner, n.d.). Besides, there are also various other administrative and private agencies that are involved in the law making and enforcement process that make a part of the criminal justice system. Formulation of law does not solely remain the responsibility of the government. There are other elected and publicly chosen officials that play an important role in formulating and implementing the judicial system of a country. In addition to that, media and public also assume the role of major stakeholders in the development of an appropriate criminal justice system. All of theses agencies jointly work to create a public service that is referred to as the criminal justice system. Overrepresentation of the black community in the British criminal justice system: The British criminal justice system has highlighted the black community as the main criminals for long, despite the fact that their involvement in crimes of all sorts is hardly more than other ethnicities and in some cases, is quite lesser than that of the white majority and other ethnic minorities. There are statistics from various renowned sources that speak of the British criminal justice system’s biased attitude towards the black people. People below and in their teenage involved in 84.7% of all the crime cases reported from 2004 to 2005 were found to be white and not black while the robbery which the black teenagers are particularly accused of made hardly 1.8% of the total teenage offending cases and 0.5% of the overall offences reported as per the results of a survey carried out in 2003 and 2004. (HCHAC, 2007). Considering these statistics, it can be concluded that there is little to no difference between the susceptibility of the black people to commit crime and that of white people or other ethnic minorities, yet the difference is sea-wide when it comes to accusation of crime. Black people are suspected above all whenever a crime is committed in Britain. Media and news particularly play a major role in tarnishing the image of black people among masses in general. There are a number of reasons for associating the black people with criminality that include but are not limited to racism and the social exclusion many black people are pushed into by the society at large. Besides, black people are often stereotyped as a non-considerate community and are criticized for no good reason not only in Britain but in various other countries of the world wherever they form a minority. Crime among the “mixed ethnic” minorities is quite widespread in Britain but they are often fortunate enough to escape the light of media. The Youth Justice Board conducted a research whose results suggested that there are more criminals of mixed parentage yet they are seldom made to encounter a pre-court disposal as compared to the white, black or Asian community. (HCHAC, 2007). Gender and age involvement in crime: An in-depth analysis of the crime cases reported in Britain in the past elaborates that black males have been, more of than not, involved in a vast majority of the offenses committed by the black community. Representation of black women in the crime is far less than that of black men. In addition to that, male juvenile crimes make a large portion of the total crimes committed by the black community in the Britain. Particularly, black males aged 13 to 19 are fundamentally responsible for the number of crimes committed by the British black community. In a recent survey conducted by (HCHAC, 2007), the percentage of boys from all ethnic origins who confessed having indulged in crime was 13% against a mere 7% of the girls that made the confession of the crime and this fact is also evident from the fact that male prisoners were found to be 70986 more in number than the female prisoners till February of 2007. This proves that black girls are definitely quite less in number than black boys who are suspected for crime yet their representation in the British criminal justice system is far more than that of non-black girls. Factors that make the British black male teenagers susceptible to corruption: Although there is a lot of controversy about the black male teenagers’ involvement in crime in general, yet there is no denying the fact that they do make a considerable portion of the criminals in Britain. “At the peak teen age, 19, blacks suffer firearms murder rates 17 to 20 times higher than do whites.” (Males, 2008). In order to minimize the widespread susceptibility of black male teenagers towards crime, and minimize the number of real young black male teenagers remaining within the existing form of British criminal justice system, it is imperative that the factors that increase their susceptibility towards crime are identified and evaluated against other ethnicities. The chief causes that defame black male teenagers as a non-considerate and socially irresponsible community include, but are not limited to social exclusion, poverty, and low social status, lack of discipline, lack of sufficient education, social disaffection, lack of positive leaders and role models, inappropriate family system and other parenting issues. Out of the various factors listed, lack of education and poverty count the most in tarnishing the image of the black male teenagers in general. Poverty causes the black male teenagers to be convinced to adopt unethical means for achieving the socio-economic status they crave. A lot of people in the British society are status-conscious. It is common not only among the black male teenagers but also among teenagers from all ethnic backgrounds in the Britain to form gangs in order to deal with the society and address the issues in their own way when they are pushed out of the mainstream because of low economic status. One factor that is a particular cause of the formation of gangs is social exclusion. Once a gang is formed, it emerges as an alternative to the normal social life and the gangsters face the criticism and react to it jointly. Besides, many black male teenagers merely indulge in corrupt activities because they are looked at with an eye of suspicion even if they preferred to remain out of it. This reduces their distance from crime, and they adopt it as a means of earning their dreams because it would make little difference to their image in the society. Measures to reduce the susceptibility of British black male teenagers to crime: Although real measures to reduce the criminality among the black male teenagers and their susceptibility to crime can only be identified after the research has been conducted, some of the measures that the researcher deems helpful are these. It needs to be realized at large that youth crime does exist even in the most advanced countries of the present age in addition to Britain. However, it is specifically associated with the black boys only in the British culture given the general consensus of the British people about the black male teenagers’ association with crime. The British government assumes a big responsibility to address the undue exaggerated representation of the black male teenagers in the British criminal justice system. This includes revising the policies and consent of the British media on the British black male teenagers. Overall, an element of trust and affection towards the black male teenagers needs to be cultivated in the British society in general and they should be offered equal educational and employment opportunities as offered to other ethnic minorities. Also, black male teenagers need to have role models in the political, legal and social system of the Britain. This can be achieved by allowing more black people to display their useful talent in the British media, judiciary and politics. Research methodology: Data from the respondents will be chiefly collected via semi-structured interviews to allow the conversation to be even more informative than expected and also to ensure that the respondents’ interest in the interview remains alive. Responses attained will be coded on a scale of 1 to 5. In addition to that, questionnaires will be designed in a way to gather maximum information from them with minimum inconvenience to the respondents. Questionnaires designed will be open ended in order for the researcher to ensure that the respondents are allowed enough room to respond to the questions in the way they deem appropriate. According to Black (1999), the quantitative approach yields categorical responses that allow the researcher to find the answers to the questions easily. However, the researcher will make use of the Delphi technique to eradicate the opinion bias. To achieve this, questionnaires will be repeatedly redesigned until maximum respondents come to respond commonly. Kealey & Protheroe (1996) have noted that the quantitative method of research causes the researcher to come to a defined conclusion without having to rely on his/her own judgment and the related complexities, which the researchers commonly encounter while conducting a qualitative research. Finally, the data retrieved from the respondents will be assessed with the SPSS, and conclusions will be made based on the results obtained from the SPSS. Sampling Strategy: The researcher plans to gather a total of 100 respondents, 50 from various departments under the influence of the British criminal justice system, 12 black mothers and 13 black fathers and 25 teachers. The first 50 participants will include police, judges, and members of other law formulating and enforcement agencies. The participants will be chosen irrespective of gender on the basis of their experience in the concerned department of the British criminal justice system. Members with greater experience will be preferred. This is fundamentally intended to ensure that the chosen member has enough experience to respond to the questions asked by the researcher promptly and feel comfortable in responding to the semi-structured interviews with the researcher. The research will be based on a retrospective study that would conduct a cross-sectional analysis of the crime cases reported in the last 10 years. The duration for analysis is limited to 10 years because the researcher is particularly interested to address the objectives with reference to the 21st century. Sample questions: Which factors contribute towards the orientation of blacks towards crime? What percentage of black teenagers forms gangs? Are the blacks overrepresented in the British criminal justice system? Which factors have defamed blacks in general? Does the British criminal justice system need to revise its policy about dealing blacks for good? How can the blacks be made more civilized? Does the single parent issue have to do anything with the development of child’s orientation towards crime? Does the educational system need to be revised in order to make it more favorable towards the black teenagers? How can parents and tutors bring a positive change in the attitude of black male teenagers? Will the British society accept blacks in good positions in the British political and legal structure? Limitations: The researcher might face the difficulties to retrieve data for the research especially because the topic of research is quite sensitive in that it tends to explore the causes and effects of crime within a specific community in the British society. The research needs to be quite sophisticated in nature and the researcher needs to make sure that no one is offended. The researcher also needs to be very careful and considerate in selecting the words for the questions that the black parents will be required to answer, while making sure that the statements are strong enough to retrieve the right information from the right individual, department or agency. Besides, there are various agencies that might be offended by the results of the research particularly the media and various departments involved in the British criminal justice system. They would not accept the fact that black British male teenagers are overrepresented in them negatively and would do all to defend their stance. However, the researcher intends to explore the truth and devise measures to improve the existing unfavorable conditions of the British black community in particular and the British society in general. References: Black, T 1999. “Doing quantitative research in the social sciences: An integrated approach to research design, measurement and statistics”, Sage Publications, Ltd. Frase, RS and Weidner RR. n.d. “Criminal Justice System - Structural And Theoretical Components Of Criminal Justice Systems, The Systems In Operation, The Importance Of Viewing Criminal Justice As A System.” viewed 16 September, 2010. . House of Commons Home Affairs Committee (HCHAC) 2007. “Young Black People and the Criminal Justice System: Second Report of Session 2006–07.” Vol. 1. viewed 20 September, 2010. . Kealey, DJ and Protheroe, DR 1996. “The effectiveness of cross-cultural training for expatriates: An assessment of the literature on the issue”, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 141-165. Males, MA 2008. “Do Black Teens Need More Policing?” viewed 24 September, 2010. . Read More