Racial Disparity In Criminal Justice

In this essay I want discuss the concepts of disparity and discrimination. First let us define their meaning. Disparity is some sort of difference. For example if there is a job opening and they require a masters and a Caucasian applies with a masters they will automatically be a greater possibility to hire over a black lady with a bachelors. This is not based on race but just job requirements. Discrimination on the other hand is if you were filling a job opening and offered a woman less money than a man, simply because of gender, sex, or age. Let’s look at some current examples of racial disparity related to criminal justice. First one type of disparity happens when there is a huge difference between the percentage of a racial group represented in general and the percentage of the same group represented at any point in the justice process. African Americans make up only about 12% of the United States population but this group accounts for about 40% of arrests, 50% of the …show more content…
One example is racial profiling. This is the unfair practice of law enforcement targeting people for suspicion of crime based on the person’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Another example, police are much more likely to stop and frisk blacks than whites. Over 85% blacks and Latinos stopped were also frisked when stopped. The U.S. Sentencing Commission reported in March 2010 that black offenders received sentences that are 10% longer then white offenders for the same crime. There are many more different forms of discrimination in the criminal justice field. These are just a