Gender Inequality In The Criminal Justice System

Throughout America’s history we have achieved great accomplishments and have participated in conflicting moral events. As a country we have evolved greatly since the formation of our nation and unfortunately when someone wins someone else has to lose. One of our biggest internal problems the country faces today is the inequality in the criminal justice system and the differences between ethnicity/race and how they are treated once entering the system. I believe our problem stems from over 200 years ago when we had slavery in full effect in our country. People openly believed that the African American race was inferior and belonged in a position of servitude. Of course overtime more and more people abandoned that philosophy and …show more content…
Of course people can’t get into trouble without the intervention of the police so let’s start there. It is thought that African Americans commit property and violent offenses at an elevated rate than other races however these pockets of crime spike when factoring in living in a low socioeconomic area. While this explains a little bit it doesn’t cover or account for all the statistics. Extensive research suggests that reactionary implicit racial bias is the culprit. This is essentially when a police officer makes a rapid decision within little time without full information. What happens is the police officer fills missing information with general stereotypes of what the public may think, and then acts on it subconsciously supported with the partial information they do have that partially implicates the suspect. A study shows that all races in the U.S. associate African Americans with words like “Aggressive, Violent, Dangerous, and Criminal. (Sentencing Project)” More likely than not when a police officer is involved on a call with an African American they are more likely to stop them, frisk them, search them, and more quickly to charge them compared to white people. The same problem follows suit when heading to trial public defenders combined with not receiving enough funds at times let minorities fall through the cracks in the system. We are all …show more content…
The way we expect them to go out and better themselves is like telling a lawn mowing company to cut grass without a lawn mower. You simply need the tools for success. One of the major blows to success is we strip felons of their utility and mobility. African Americans are more likely to enter the system and felons are at heavy disadvantages, so we can expect the cycle to repeat and them to be trapped in the system. Short term consequences of course are paying fines, imprisonment, and probation/parole. Those come and go and vanish. It’s the longer consequences that linger and prevent success. They ensure that you will be making home again soon in your local prison because we just make it too hard for you to live the conventional way. Once a felon you lose the right to vote, to be on a jury, to own a gun (in some cases), and to hold public officer or state job. Military service will be denied. Were just getting started once you’re a felon the landlord holds the right to evict you from your apartment or if you’re looking for an apartment good luck once a felon. If you’re trying to go to college receiving financial aid just became a challenge. Trying to actually get a job will be difficult because you have to put down you were convicted of a felony and employers jump ship when they see that and credit