Summary: How Has Criminalized Specific Identity Groups

The textbook gives great examples of the history of the United States and some of the ways the CJS has criminalized specific identity groups. One example that stood out to me was slavery. Obviously, blacks were deprived of every right and were treated as property but what I did not know is that politicians used the CJS to keep freed-slaves as a type of property even after the Civil War. With slavery over, the CJS had stricter guidelines for freed-slaves and when they were caught breaking those guidelines that others did not have to abide by, they were imprisoned to leased out to farmers who used them to work. As clever as that was, it is apparent the ethical dilemmas it created. In today’s world, we can relate this discrimination based on identity to social class. …show more content…
Whereas a working class person may receive a harsher punishment for the same crime with reasons such as: a means to flee, no family, no steady job, etc. This goes on in our court system every day and in some cases such as the Stanford swimmer sexual assault case that got national attention. Another good example of the criminalization of specific identity groups is spousal rape. Although it is now illegal in all fifty states, that was not the case until 1993. This is a prime example of gender identities being maintained, even if it is an extreme measure. Up until the 1970s, women were seen more as a servant to the man and spousal rape made no sense to society as a man should be able to sleep with his wife whenever he pleases, regardless of how she feels. This has thankfully been changed and society is slowly starting to show that women should not be treated in this regard but rather