Inequality of Witnessed by the Minorities in the American Justice System - Term Paper Example

The inequality of witnessed by the minorities in the American criminal justice system The inequality of witnessed by the minorities in the American criminal justice system Student’s Name College Name Professor Name Subject Abstract Despite of the fact of introduction of 5th and 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, there exist racial inequalities in the American criminal justice system even today. American criminal laws while on the face of it appears to be neutral but is implemented in a style that is pervasively and massively appears to be prejudiced. The fifty years long fight against racial discrimination appears to be a mirage as the racial inequality that exists in the criminal justice system is still trying to punish blacks and forgives the white majority for criminal offences. This research essay will have a detailed analysis and discussion on the inequality of minorities in the criminal justice system in USA and how to have a balanced approach without any bias for the offenses committed despite their color and creed. Introduction United States of America can be defined as a nation of diverse culture comprising of white ethnic immigrants, native Americans, Latinos, African Americans and Asians. As per Russell—Brown (2009), slave codes are those set of laws that ruled the life of African slaves as early in 1600s. Under slavery law, majorities of the African Americans were the victims, and their ordeal came to an end due to the passage of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. More rights of the blacks were recognized due to the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865. According to Free (1996), immediately after the elimination of slavery in USA, “Black codes “were legislated in many of the US states in an endeavor to employ the legal system to be dominated by the White supremacy with Jim Crow laws, which stipulated separate facilities for blacks, particularly in cars, rail , schools ,bathrooms , etc. (Hartley, 2010, p.112). As per Browne-Marshall, in 1896, in Plessey v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court of USA sanctioned the policy of “separate but equal” all but legitimate White supremacy. The enactment of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 which banned racial discrimination in employment , in public places ,which was trailed by Voting Rights Act of 1965, which gave legal acknowledgement to the rights of Black voters.(Gabbidon ,2010,p.66). Though discrimination is banned through Civil Rights Act of 1964, many empirical evidences like Mauer (1994), Tonry (1995), Free (1996), Donziger (1996), Walker (1999), and Walker et al (2000) have shown that racial discrimination prevails virtually in every phase of USAs criminal justice system even today. (Hartley, 2010, p.112). The Main objective of this research essay is to discuss about the inequality witnessed by the minorities in the criminal justice system of the U.S.A and to discuss about the type of stereotypes, and unfair justice do minorities face by the treatment of the United States court system in an exhaustive manner. “Discrimination of Minorities in the American Criminal Justice System” As per Walker, Spohn & DeLone (2000), racial disparities in the United States criminal justice system have long been given attention by the researchers who have found that there has been evidence of discrimination shown to ethnic and racial minorities at every phase of the criminal justice system. Footed upon by the debate posed by Marxist and conflict criminologists, scholars have tried to answer the query whether the law does, in reality, operate to the advantage of a dominant upper class and to the disadvantage of an immobilized lower community. Critics also have raised the question, whether the criminal action of that community which control or own the means of economic production are comparatively impervious from criminal prosecution? (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010, p.475). As per labelling theory of criminal justice, offenders are being treated as if they were criminal, which had the effect of unwanted outcomes on alleviating their lawlessness. Thus, branding some section as criminals is likely to encourage the people to develop a criminal identity. Some argue that legal interventions like incarceration resulted in close relationship with the hard-core criminal and to remain them isolated from the society like severing them from the family relations or loss of regular income due to deprivation of jobs. Due to this, the criminals become more increasingly ensnared into criminal activities, which pushed them deeper into crime and had made them career criminals. (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010, p.xxxi). New York City Police Department incidents engrossing Amadou Diallo and Abner Louima were the best illustrations how racial bias existed in the criminal justice system. While in police detention, Louima was sodomized and assaulted whereas Diallo was killed police officials by their guns when reaching for his identification. As per Cole (1999), between 1995 and 1997, an aggregate of 70% of those stopped in New Jersey and Maryland were Hispanics and blacks despite the fact the constituted just 17.5% of the speeders. (Pollock, 2012, p.128). Racial Profiling of Minorities in U.S.A As per Maclin (1998), racial profiling is also on the increase in USA in recent days and as per him, a racial profiling is a phrase normally employed to describe scenarios in which ethnic or racial functions as a signal of criminal tendency by law enforcement officials in the background of an offense like traffic stop. Thus, racial profiling is the employment of discretionary power by police officials in dealing with minority offenders thereby resulting in disparate treatment of minorities. (Hartley, 2010, p.112). As per Holmes (1989), crime profiling connotes to initiatives to develop distinctive traits of varieties of criminals. Training to police officials on drug interdictions also helps racial profiling as minorities are more likely to be targeted during drug courier profiles. As per Robinson (2000), these stereotypes saturate police work and are evidenced through the employment of discretionary power thereby corroborating the credence that searches of minorities, and their vehicles are probable to be “ productive “ in the search of criminals and contrabands. Adding fuel to the fire, the US Supreme Courts verdicts on the legality of the pretext stops also encourage racial profiling. In Whren v United States, the Supreme Court upheld the pretext stops and the use of drug courier profiles as legally valid as long as the race is not the sole deciding element for the search or the stop. (Hartley, 2010, p.113). Walker (2001) is of the view that in case of search or stop, racial profiling is employed as one of a constellation of elements. “Harris (1999, p.291)” found that use of race in any form is challenging since police are at their liberty to use blackness as a proxy pointer or surrogate for criminal propensity. Hemmens & Levin (2000) are of the view that race turns to be a surrogate for the peril of criminal demeanor. As per Meeks (2000), the US Supreme Court’s verdict in 1976 thereby endorsing the actions of Border Patrol agents who employed ethnic legacy of drivers as an element in their assessment to stop and search vehicles in the border areas of Southern California. (Hartley, 2010, p.113). As per “Walker et al. (2007)”, white elite in USA employ the criminal law as a mechanism to safeguard their dominant status and to restrict the power of racial minority groups. Further, the available proof points out that there exist racial bias in criminal-justice outcomes like in arrest, incarceration, detention and sentencing in a contextual manner instead of methodical style. This points out that the bias happens in some and not in all criminal -justice decisions, states, jurisdiction or regions in the USA. However, in capital murder cases, it has been found beyond doubt that there exists a racial bias as Ray Patersnoster and Robert Brame finds out that the black defendants who murder or kill the white victims are more probable to be awarded with the death sentence but in case of white defendants, lesser punishments are awarded. (Cullen & Wilcox, 2010, p.475). As per Thomas and Swaine (1928) who are the fathers of the racial profiling concept, if men label scenarios as real, then, they are real in their outcomes. Some research studies of incarcerated populations demonstrate that a proportion of prisoners are black; hence, when authorities are looking or profiling for criminals and hence, they spotlight on blacks. (Hagan, 2010, p.72). Unfair justice to Minorities in the Criminal Justice System of U.S.A Racial discrimination is also evident from the fact that blacks represent in excess of one-half of the prison population in USA, whereas they make up only just 12% of the USAs population. Further, out of one out of three blacks in his early twenty’s is either in parole, in jail, in prison or on probation. It was alleged that much of this disparity is mainly due to the war on drugs. As per the U.S Public Health Service, blacks symbolize about 14% of the U.S illegal drug consumers whereas about 35% of blacks were arrested , 55% of those convicted and 74% of the hose sentenced in prison for drug trafficking and this amount to six times of their representation in the U.S population. (Griffith, 2012, p.19). In spite of constitutional warrantees of equal treatment under the law, Hispanics, Blacks and other minorities are persecuted by lopsided targeting and given unfair treatment by police department ,by making skewed charges on racial basis and plea bargaining assessments of prosecuting attorneys ; blacks are impacted by biased sentencing practices and the failure on the part of elected representatives , judges , policy makers of the criminal justice to eliminate the inequities in the criminal justice system . At the first instance , the police department target minorities unreasonably as criminal suspects and secondly , the stereotypes and subtle biases that make police officials to bank upon on racial profiling which are deepened by racial tilted decisions of other major actors. (Welch and Angulo, 2002, p.191). From the arrest of suspects to filing of criminal charges, then awarding sentences where minority and ethnic groups’ witness disparities and the worst affected are the black youngsters as they are overrepresented at each and every phase of the Juvenile justice system in USA. According to Lewis, Dana & Blevins (2011), war on drugs is having its ugly effect on community’s color. (Welch and Angulo, 2002, p.200). Many research studies have found that there exists racial inequalities in both federal and state adjudication process right from the pretrial process to the post-conviction process even though there is a constitutional prohibition of the same. If the criminal administration uses its authority with a skewed approach, then, the affected cannot file a suit against the administration as the law enforcing authority is empowered to initiate discretionary decisions, which would be very difficult to contest as the equal protection clause of 5th and 14th Amendments, are rather arduous to litigate. (Griffith, 2012, p.22). In “McCleskey v. Kemp, 481 U.S 279 (1987)”, it was observed by the court that there was no equal protection infringement despite the fact that there existed concrete evidence that the death penalty was sought after when the defendant is black, and the victim is white. In this case, the court upheld the death sentence for McCleskey as he failed to prove that the discrimination was shown by government against him in demanding death penalty. (Baldus et al, 1990, p.306). However , in “State v Robinson , No 91, CRS 23143 (2012) “ , Robinson was able to overturn his death sentence by employing a state law namely North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act , thereby demonstrating that the death penalty was levied purely on racial discrimination. . (Baldus et al, 1990, p.306). According to Alexander (2010), African Americans are the fatality of indiscrimination and are being treated as second rated citizens and found that there is a close nexus between Jim Crow segregation, slavery and the current practice of mass imprisonment of Blacks and minorities and found that blacks are being subject to lifelong inequalities even after release from the prison. (Alexander, 2010, p.10). Bickel, C (2012) found that African Americans form higher share in the prison inmates’ statistics as opposed to their drug usage rates and how Whites, who are the large drug consumers, escape from the incarceration in USA. (Bickel, 2012, p.13). The prisoners’ data of 2010 as released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (2011) demonstrate that there is vast difference in figures between White and African American prisoners for the year 2010 demonstrating a huge disparity in sentencing in USA. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2011, p.11). Mohamed and Fritsvold (2010) found that there existed more white drug users in American colleges as compared to African- American students. Further, they also demonstrated how a white drug dealer transports the drug much easily than that of Blacks due to police negative image on Blacks. They also showed that drug associated pretext stops are employed in a major way on African Americans as compared to their white offenders. (Griffith, 2012, p.4). According to Reiman J (2007), media is demonstrating bias towards minority and poor communities by giving more prominence to their crimes while at the same time covering up the crimes committed by Whites. He found that American media is more interested in showing the African Americans as criminals. (Griffith, 2012, p.4). According to Mental Health Services Administration, white occupied about 76% of the illicit drug users, while 15.9% were Hispanic and just 14% were Blacks. (“Miller, 1996, p.81”). According to Bickel (2012) , despite the fact that drug was consumed by Whites predominantly in USA , but their incarceration rate is too low as compared to 37% Black being arrested for drug offences in USA. According to Shan (2011), planting drugs on naive Blacks by police is a common affair, mainly to accomplish their arrest targets. (Griffith, 2012, p.4). According to Wollstein (1998), police is interrogating black on the streets in suburban areas and on a regular basis, they impound smaller volume of jewellery and cash from them. To defend their case and get back their confiscated articles, poor Blacks have to pay huge attorney fees, which may be lower than the value of the articles confiscated by the police. (Griffith, 2012, p.5). Stereotype Death Punishments to Blacks According to Bickel (2012), Black males are shot by American police by more than 22 times as compared to their white counterparts. Further, study carried over by Baldus indicated that defendants who were charged for murdering a white individual are likely to receive 11 times more probable to receive a death penalty than a defendant who is charged with murdering a black man. Thus, if your skin color is black, then, you are having higher probability to receive a death penalty in case of killing of a white victim. As per Bickel (2012), about 42% of those who are awarded with the death sentences are African Americans, and they are more probable to receive five times than that of whites. (Griffith, 2012, p.23). According to research study carried over by Jeffrey Pokorak, the important decision makers (jurors) in the death cases are predominantly the white people. It is to be noted that 98% of the chief District Attorneys were white where black was just 1%. As per Dieter (1998), these jurors are likely to have a cognitive racial prejudice that demonstrates the vast differences in awarding of capital punishment by skin color. (Griffith, 2012, p.23). According to Alexander (2010), majority of American Blacks are poor and they lack adequate resources for appointing a lawyer to defend them. Further, even if a lawyer is appointed, he will be paid a meager sum and has much work load and this made the black to be more disadvantageous as they have only inefficient representation, which will automatically result in a harsher punishment. (Alexander, 2010, p.13). The Supreme Court of America is also reluctant to accept that there exists racial discretion even if they submit with available statistics. It observed that racial bias may be existing while in sentencing even if it is demonstrated with convincing statistical proof, and it could not be confronted under the 14th Amendment for want of discriminatory, conscious objective. (Griffith, 2012, p.22). How racism plays a significant role in sentencing can be known from the sentencing pattern for drug offenders. About 70% of those convicted for drug offences in California were Blacks and only very few whites were sentenced for drug offenses. Further, life after release from prison is miserable for the blacks as compared to whites. Unemployment among ex-convicts results in violence, depression and felony. According to Bickel (2012), about 66 to 77% recidivism rate among blacks immediately within first three years after release from prison. (Griffith, 2012, p.23). According to Alexander (2010), those convicted felons for drug offences are not eligible for public housing, which is funded by federal government or eligible to receive food stamps or other welfare measures, which has a direct impact on black felons. As the blacks are inexplicably convicted for drug offenses, they are most vulnerable to the legalized discrimination. (Griffith, 2012, p.22). There is return of slavery system in USA as black prisoners are leased to be employed in plantations, mines, to lay roads and to build railroads. The victims of Black Codes who are African Americans were employed, and they worked till their death. According to Whyte (2000), as of date, 36 states have declared that convict labour as legal and just a paltry amount of 21 cents per hour is being paid to black prisoners as wages. (Griffith, 2012, p.23). According to Davis (2003), blacks are in a major way overrepresented in super-max prisons and in 1993, for instance, Baltimore had about 98% blacks who were housed in their super-max facilities. (Griffith, 2012, p.23). Findings and Recommendations Many research studies have found that there exists racial inequalities in both federal and state adjudication process right from the pretrial process to the post-conviction process even though there is a constitutional prohibition of the same. As per “Walker et al. (2007)”, white elite in USA employ the criminal law as a mechanism to safeguard their dominant status and to restrict the power of racial minority groups. Further, the available proof point out that there exists racial bias in criminal-justice outcomes like in the arrest, incarceration, detention and sentencing in a contextual manner instead of methodical style. Ray Patersnoster and Robert Brame finds out that the black defendants who murder or kill the white victims are more probable to be awarded with the death sentence but in case of white defendants, lesser punishments are awarded. Racial discrimination is also evident from the fact that blacks represent in excess of one-half of the prison population in USA, whereas they make up only just 12% of the USAs population. Further, out of one out of three blacks in his early twenty’s is either in parole, in jail, in prison or on probation. According to Alexander (2010), African Americans are the fatality of indiscrimination and are being treated as second rated citizens and found that there is a close nexus between Jim Crow segregation, slavery and the current practice of mass imprisonment of Blacks and minorities and found that blacks are being subject to lifelong inequalities even after release from the prison. Welch and Angulo (2002) research study make the following recommendations to address the inequalities in sentencing the minorities in USA. To create answerability into the practice of caution by prosecutors and police while dealing with minorities. The law enforcement department should be made more diverse. It is essential to gather statistical data on racial inequalities in the justice system. To call back the statutory minimum sentencing regulations. In criminal cases, it is essential to enhance the quality of impoverished defense counsel. To call back the felony disenfranchisement laws. (Louis et al, 2010, p.212). References Alexander, M. (2010). The New Jim Crow. New York: The New Press. Baldus D C, Woodworth GG & Pulaski CA. (1990). Equal Justice and the Death Penalty. New York: UPNE Bickel, C. (2012). The Drug War and Plantations to Prisons. San Louis: Cal Poly. Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2011). Prisoners in 2010. Washington D.C: USGPO. Cullen, FT & Wilcox, P. (2010). Criminology Theory, Volume 1. New York: SAGE. Gabbidon, S L. (2010). Race, Ethnicity, Crime and Justice: An International Dilemma. New York: SAGE Hagan, F.E. (2010) Introduction to Criminology. New York: SAGE Hartley, R D. (2010). Snapshots of Research: Readings in Criminology and Criminal Justice. New York: SAGE. Lewis J A, Lewis M D, Daniels J A & D’Andrea. (2010). Community Counseling: A Multicultural –Social Justice Perspective. New York: Cengage Learning. Pollock, J M. (2012). Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice. New York: Cengage Learning. Welch, R, and Angulo, C. (2002). Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System. Washington: Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights. Read More