Criminal Justice in the US - Essay Example

Criminal Justice in the US Outline I. Introduction II. The Black American Community of the United s A. The vulnerability of people in the ages of 25 to 29 among the Black American community in the United States. B. Variables associated with the criminal records of the Black American community of the United States. C. Racial Discrepancies in Criminal Offenses by the Black American Community D. Discrepancies in the representation of Black American community in the judiciary and its implication to the criminal justice system of the United States III. The Hispanic Community of United States A. Socio-economic set-up of Hispanic community in the United States and its relation to criminal activities among that community in the United States B. Criminal justice processes meted to the Hispanic community in the United States as relates to convictions of defendants. C. Research of prison sentences given to the Black community D. Representation of Black community in the judiciary and its implication to the criminal justice system of the United States IV. The White Community of United States A. General criminal records associated with the White community of the United States V. Conclusion Introduction Just as it is trumpeted by other nations and non-governmental organizations the world over, the United States of America believes very much in justice for all and equality before the law. The need for equality and justice for all is emphasized in both the United States Constitution and The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, which states that "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for al" (US Constitution Online, 2011). Criminal justice for all United States citizens is especially crucial against the background that the United States is made up of heterogeneous setting, comprising different indigenous cultures, tribe and race. Three of such settings are the Black Americans, Hispanic and the White Americans. There are debaters in sections of social justice law who have a feeling that criminal justice meted out to these three groups of dwellers of the United States is not equal. This paper therefore seeks to examine this controversial issue of equality before the criminal justice in the United States among the three setting of citizens named. The vulnerability of the Black American community in the United States On the whole, records from the United States Department of Justice and other sources such as The Black and White of Justice, Freedom Magazine, Volume 128 paint a very bleak picture about criminal records of Black Americans in the United States who are in the age group of 25 and 29 (Jeneen, 2008). People in this category of description are commonly associated with criminal offenses that have to do with drugs and violence. Even disturbing is the fact that as the years goes by, statistics on the number of Black Americans engaged in criminal activities increase. This is reported by the Drug War Facts (2010) who state that records from the late 1990s compared to current records show an increasing trend of criminal offenses. Such growing trend clearly put every other child who is newly born a Black American or into the community of Black Americans at a vulnerable risk of eventually growing up to join the masses. Variables associated with the criminal records of the Black American community of the United States Research conducted on drug offenses by the Drug War Facts (2010) showed that “blacks comprise 62.7 percent and whites 36.7 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prison.” In fact as with all other criminal cases, there are pertaining variables and factors that account for the shocking facts. Most researchers relate high crime rates among the Black American community to their socio-economic background. Yang et al (2008, pp. 853-868) conclude in their research on African-American and Low–Socioeconomic Status that there is generally low socioeconomic background of Black American communities in the United States. As long as the facts of their research hold, there is the indication that poverty, unemployment and illiteracy among this group of people are going to surge high. Unemployment breeds bad company and poverty. Even though Dwyer (2001) denies that poverty is a cause of crime sighting that “from 1933 to 1941, a period of high unemployment and low economic growth, crime rates declined, whereas during the 1960s and early 70s, a period of rising prosperity, crime rates rose”, there have been several counter researchers to refute his conclusions (Appiah, 2004; Konadu, 2008). Generally, it is said that the youth are lured into crime, especially crimes relating to drugs and all forms of fraud because of the belief that it will help fetch them so much money. This accounts for why young Black Americans will go into such criminal activities because of poverty and unemployment. On illiteracy, Michael Brunner, a leading U.S. Department of Justice official, details the link between academic failure and delinquency (Hinds, 2003). When delinquencies grow, they mature to high class criminal cases and thus the task of improving access to education to the Black American community would continue to be a perfect way of reducing crime among them. Racial Disparity in Criminal Offenses against the Black American Community The following graphs discuss rational discrepancies in criminal offenses by the Black American Community in the United States of America from the years of 1983 to 2003. The records of offenses have been grouped into two major parts, which are drug related offenses and non-drug related offenses. Figure 1 Figure 2 Source: Pamela (2008) The graphs above show calculations from the national corrections reporting program and census population data. The results from figure 1 show that as far as non-drug offenses are concerned, there is a very level of disparity against the Black community in the United States. On a rather disturbing note, the disparity rate ranks above 6 for most of the years under review. Figure 2 presents even a worsened result for drug offenses as the disparity rates rank above 14 for most of the years under review. It is however good to observe that the rates keep coming down with the years. It is just hoped that as the years go by, a time will come when the disparities will be corrected. Discrepancies in the representation of Black American community in the judiciary and its implication to the criminal justice system of the United States At the very centre of the judiciary system in the United States, there exists very large gaps of discrepancies among representation of Black Americans. Such discrepancies are made bear by Gryski and Barrow (1994) who reported that “the watershed of bench diversification was the Carter years; Latino representation continued to increase moderately during the watch of Republican administrations while African-American representation declined. Clearly this is an unfortunate development for a nation that trumpets justice for all and equality before the law. One may wonder why the numbers and representation of Black Americans in the judiciary might constitute a bleach of fairness in the criminal justice system of the United States against the Black American community. The implication is that the Black American Community will lack personnel who are very much abreast with legal and criminal issues that concern them and so defending them in times when criminal justice is needed most is going to be very handicapped. Socio-economic set-up of Hispanic community in the United States and its relation to criminal activities among that community in the United States The Hispanic community of the United States is another group of citizens who can be described as disadvantaged as far as socioeconomic status is concerned. This revelation was made evident by the American Renaissance (2006) who stated in a survey that “Per capita income of Hispanics is one half that of non-Hispanic Whites and household net worth is less than one tenth.” As seen by Appiah (2004) and Konadu (2008), low socioeconomic standing and its attendant problems such as poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are causes of high rates of crime and can therefore be related to high incidence of crime among the Hispanic community. Criminal justice processes meted to the Hispanic community in the United States as relates to convictions of defendants. Statistics from the American Renaissance (2006) on criminal activities among the Hispanic community is not welcoming as the records show that “Hispanics are 3.3 times more likely to be in prison than whites; they are 4.2 times more likely to be in prison for murder, and 5.8 times more likely to be in prison for felony drug crimes.” As far as convictions and imprisonment of defendants are concerned, “more than half of all people sent to federal prison for committing felony crimes so far this year were Hispanic” (AP, 2011). This is a disturbing trend considering the implication of federal prison convictions against citizens. As a nation that seeks to continue to be a global leader in terms of economic, development and security growth, the inputs and services of Hispanic community is very much needed to achieve this. Though convicting people of criminal offenses such as murder and drug related offenses is a signal that the situation is under control, preventing these offenses among the Hispanic community would be a better option. Research of prison sentences given to the Black community Research has shown that “Hispanics already outnumber all other ethnic groups sentenced to serve time in prison for federal felonies” (AP, 2011). Such a situation where there seem to be glaring disparity against a particular group of persons in terms of prison raises serious human rights questions and questions on justice. Though there may be some analysts who would argue that stronger prison sentences are deterrent measures, the issue must be looked at from a holistic perspective. Higher prison sentences should be good only if it is being received by every other American citizen and not by a group of people alone. Representation of Hispanics in the judiciary and its implication to the criminal justice system of the United States The Hispanic community is a learned one that is capable of taking up responsible portfolios and entrepreneurial positions in the United States and according to the U.S. Census Bureau (2009), “2.3 million Hispanic-owned businesses in 2007, up 43.6 percent from 2002 whereas there are 69Percentage of Hispanics 16 and older who are in the civilian labor force in 2008.” These records not withstanding, not a lot of Hispanics are in the judiciary or BAR Association of the United States. The statistics of ethic disparity against the Hispanic community in the BAR of New York is represented in the diagram below. Source: Puerto Rican BAR Association (2011) Records from the graph are very unfortunate as the population of the Hispanics continue to grow over the years. Over a decade (ending 2010), the population of Hispanics living in the United States had doubled “but despite their explosive growth, Latinos are still disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system” (Tabachnick, 2011). In a situation like this, the local population of Hispanics has every cause to raise questions of fairness in the judiciary system. Indeed with such low numbers of representation, it is very likely that that section of the population is not going to have people who understand their core needs as far as crime prevention and criminal justice are concerned. General criminal and Judicial records associated with the White community of the United States The discussions so far point to one thing and that is the White Race of the United States of America are less involved in crime, favored on the grounds of crime disparity and have a better representation in the Judiciary and BAR Association. In the graphs below there is a clear indication that the White Community are less involved in drug and non-drug related crimes for the years, 1983 to 2003. Source: Pamela (2008) An unfortunate situation as far as the criminal justice system of the United States of America with reference to the White community is that most crimes committed in the United States are committed against Whites. This is noted by the US Department of Justice survey of crime victims in a statistics that documented “more than 6.6 million violent crimes (murder, rape, assault and robbery) are committed in the US each year, of which about 20 per cent, or 1.3 million, are inter-racial crimes” (Sheehan, 1995). Though it would be said that the White community has an advantageous representation in the judiciary and BAR, justice will never be said to have been fairly distributed if steps are not put in place to reduce crimes against them. Conclusion From the discussions so far, there are two major forms of disparity and injustice in the criminal justice system of the United States of America as far as the Black, Hispanic and White communities are concerned. The Black and Hispanic communities suffer injustice in terms of little representation of their populace in the judiciary and BAR. Whites also suffer injustice in terms of little protection for them as far as crime committed against them is concerned. To achieve the true meaning of justice for all and equality before the law, these imbalances ought to be corrected. REFERENCE LIST American Renaissance (2006). Hispanics: A Statistical Portrait. Retrieved September 24, 2011 from http://www.amren.com/features/hispanics/index.html AP (2011). Felony Convictions Highest Among Hispanics. Retrieved September 24, 2011 from http://atlantapost.com/2011/09/07/felony-convictions-highest-among-hispanics/ Appiah G. T. (2004). Crime from a Socioeconomic Perspective. PrintMark Group Limited: Toronto. Drug War Facts (2010). Race and Prison. Retrieved September 23, 2011 from http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/64 Gryski G. S and Barrow D. J. (1994). A Bench That Looks Like America? Representation of African Americans and Latinos on the Federal Courts. The Journal of Politics. Vol. 56, No. 4. Hinds M. (2003). Illiteracy and Violence: Confusion About Cause and Effect. Retrieved September 21, 2011 from http://www.readingstore.com/illiteracy_and_violence_confusi.htm Jeneen J. R. (2008). The Truth about Black Crime. Retrieved September 21, 2011 from http://www.peace.ca/truthaboutblackcrime.htm Konadu A. (2008). Contemporary Issues of Crime and Poverty in America. Georgia Publishers: New York Pamela E. O. (2008). Racial Patterns in State Trends in Prison Admissions 1983-2003:Drug and Non-Drug Sentences and Revocations. Introduction and National Graphs. Retrieved September 22, 2011 from http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/RACIAL/StateTrends/RacialPatterns_Intro_National.pdf Puerto Rican BAR Association (2011). Improving Judicial Diversity: It’s Time to Accelerate Our Efforts. Retrieved September 24, 2011 from http://www.prba.net/main.cfm?actionId=globalShowStaticContent&screenKey=cmpContent&htmlKey=editorialsAseda&s=prba Tabachnick C. (2011). Latinos and the Justice System. Retrieved September 23, 2011 from http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/articles/2011-03-latinos-and-the-justice-system U.S. Census Bureau (2009). Hispanic Americans by the Numbers. Retrieved September 23, 2011 from http://www.infoplease.com/spot/hhmcensus1.html US Constitution Online, (2011). The Pledge of Allegiance. Retrieved September 23, 2011 from http://www.usconstitution.net/pledge.html Yang et al. (2008). 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