Introduction
The racial and ethnic problems that plague the criminal justice system have been apparent in recent news and social media coverage. These concerns, which affect a large portion of African Americans and Hispanics, have become one of the leading causes for the incarceration rate for both races. At a combined rate, African Americans and Hispanics make up 58% of all prisoners within the United States, but combined they only make up ¼ of the United States population (NAACP, n.d.). Negative bias within the criminal justice system is apparent in policing and within the legal judicial system especially in regards to the sentencing of African Americans and Hispanics. African Americans who have reported using illicit drugs serve as much …show more content…
This type of behavior towards African Americans and Hispanics has sparked many legislative officials and politicians to enact some sense of reform to combat disparity and educate those within the law enforcement community when managing such situations. There is also some sense of disparity when annotating the percentage of African Americans within the criminal justice system versus Whites in the same field of work. Based on surveys conducted in 2007, Whites accounted for 30% of a police department’s total assigned officers while minorities only account for ¼ of that amount (Ashkenas and Park, 2015). This figure has gone unchanged considering the communities these departments serve are predominately …show more content…
The argument is not if racism exists within the criminal justice system because in some instance it is evident. The overt bias of race can been seen in the language, attitudes, conduct, assumptions, strategies, and policies of criminal justice agencies. The problems that exist could stem from some departments teaching bias behavior to police officers by allowing these same officers to profile or target specific race or ethnic personnel or the problem could be related to the assumption that certain race or ethnic personnel they come in contact or more violent than those of whites. When proper training replaces unethical behavior, police officers will and can benefit from this manner of training and therefore are better prepared when interacting with the
The racial and ethnic problems that plague the criminal justice system have been apparent in recent news and social media coverage. These concerns, which affect a large portion of African Americans and Hispanics, have become one of the leading causes for the incarceration rate for both races. At a combined rate, African Americans and Hispanics make up 58% of all prisoners within the United States, but combined they only make up ¼ of the United States population (NAACP, n.d.). Negative bias within the criminal justice system is apparent in policing and within the legal judicial system especially in regards to the sentencing of African Americans and Hispanics. African Americans who have reported using illicit drugs serve as much …show more content…
This type of behavior towards African Americans and Hispanics has sparked many legislative officials and politicians to enact some sense of reform to combat disparity and educate those within the law enforcement community when managing such situations. There is also some sense of disparity when annotating the percentage of African Americans within the criminal justice system versus Whites in the same field of work. Based on surveys conducted in 2007, Whites accounted for 30% of a police department’s total assigned officers while minorities only account for ¼ of that amount (Ashkenas and Park, 2015). This figure has gone unchanged considering the communities these departments serve are predominately …show more content…
The argument is not if racism exists within the criminal justice system because in some instance it is evident. The overt bias of race can been seen in the language, attitudes, conduct, assumptions, strategies, and policies of criminal justice agencies. The problems that exist could stem from some departments teaching bias behavior to police officers by allowing these same officers to profile or target specific race or ethnic personnel or the problem could be related to the assumption that certain race or ethnic personnel they come in contact or more violent than those of whites. When proper training replaces unethical behavior, police officers will and can benefit from this manner of training and therefore are better prepared when interacting with the