Race, Ethnicity, A Crime In America

Chapter five in The Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity, an Crime in America by Samuel Walker, Cassia Spohn, and Miriam Delone (2012) summarized how the court system makes decision based on someone’s race. In the beginning of the book it stated that, “In 2009 the incarceration rate for African American males in state and federal prisons was 6.7 times the rate for whites” (Pp. 2). On page 60, it talks about the general perception of a person who is incarcerated is typically thought of as being African American. Again in chapter two it states, “In the minds of many Americans, the term “crime” conjures up an image of an act of violence against a white victim by an African American offender” (Pp. 73). Maybe there is a chance that these views from the general public has had a greater influence on the incarceration rate of minorities. Which leads to chapter five and how certain factors have led to a high …show more content…
This includes arrests made to the simple aspect of racial profiling. In general no one should make any decision based on race. Yet, “several studies concluded that prosecutors’ charging decisions are affected by race” (Pp. 221). Everyone assumes that anyone who is a judge of a case will be impartial and race will not impact their decision. If this was a known fact to the public, would there be more people trying to fix or help the system? However, just because race might look like a factor the prosecutor may also take into account the economic factor. Unfortunately, as stated in the earlier in the book, a majority of lower income people are part of minority groups. As stated, “Even if criminal justice officials are justified in taking these social and economic factors into account, doing so will necessarily produce unintended race effects” (Pp. 222). This statement explains that maybe there isn’t racism but rather the prosecutor looking out for the best of the criminal and the