Racism in the Criminal Justice System Essay - 1276 Words

Is the Criminal Justice system racist? This question has been asked many times by people of many colors. According to Mac Donald (2008), the criminal justice system is not at all racist. The article depicts arrest rates of both whites and blacks and compares statistics on these arrests. It looks at the number of whites and the number of blacks in jails and prisons. In this critique, we will be looking into this article to see these points in which Mac Donald states proves that the criminal justice system is, in fact, not a racist one. It has been said that the criminal justice system is a racist system because blacks are incarcerated at a much higher rate than whites. Many people want to know why. The race industry will proclaim that it†¦show more content†¦15). The percentage of black males (in jail or prison) between the ages of 20 and 34 is eleven percent. These statistics are not always acknowledged by advocates. The advocates will blame it on bias of those who make the decisions regarding arrests, and sentencing. Mac Donald (2008) looks at the idea that cops over arrest blacks and ignore the crimes that whites commit. However, the races of criminals that are reported by the victims do in fact match arrest data. According to a research study as far back as 1978, â€Å"a study of robbery and aggravated assault in eight cities found parity between the race of assailants in victim identifications and in arrests--a finding replicated many times since, across a range of crimes† (Mac Donald, 2008, p. 15). It does not make sense to think why crime victims would be biased in the reports they give to the police. Mac Donald next explains how advocates say that this â€Å"bias† is not only with police and who they arrest, but also moves up the law enforcement chain. They believe that judges and juries must also be biased. Advocates state that judges over sentence blacks and give them stricter and longer punishments than whites would receive for the same crime. However, in 1997, criminologists Robert Sampson and Janet Lauritsen concluded differently. After massive amounts of reading and studying information and statistics regarding charging and sentencing, they concluded that large racial differences in criminal offending,Show MoreRelatedRacism And The Criminal Justice System1739 Words   |  7 PagesWith so many news stories and incidents surrounding the topic of race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that racism may exist within the criminal justice system. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possib le determinants may play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts. 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