Exposure to Racial Discrimination in Criminal Justice System
The criminal justice system of the United States comprises several challenges and flaws, while the issue with the spread of the racial disparity poses the most significant problem to the welfare of the citizens of the country. This problem is not new to the criminal justice system as it has roots in the XX century with the consideration of the cases of African Americans in trial. In the beginning of this period of time, African Americans amounted to 10% of the entire population of the United States, while the amount of the sentenced prisoners may be regarded as relatively high. The analysis of the cases shows that the sentencing legislation were accepted and interpreted as discriminatory in nature because of the provision of the protection to the black people over the citizens belonging to the white people. This trend in the behavior of the law enforcements agents including judiciaries caused the development of the social movement aimed to declare the discrimination on the basis of the race as unconstitutional conduct and treatment to the members of the minorities. Coming back to the current state of the affairs in the criminal justice system, it is necessary to underline that the exposure to the discrimination in different forms occurs at diversified stages of the criminal proceedings starting from the activity of the police officers and up to the delivery of the judgment by the judiciaries of the criminal trial. Therefore, the overt discrimination with the beginning of the XXI century has been evidently decreased, while the issues of the unfairness to the people of different racial and social groups still exist (Gastwirth and Nayak, 1997).
According to the survey of the Amnesty International Organization, that has been provided with the purpose of the analysis of the situation in the criminal justice system of the United States in 2010, the minorities are overrepresented in the group of the victims of the racial disparity at the all stages of the criminal justice process. In fact, the experts states that current criminal justices system may be treated as the venue for the expansion of the illegal behavior of the members of the law enforcement agencies towards African-Americans and other minorities in comparison to the position of white people. The close examination of the police reports reveal that the officers pretend to stop and search for the evidences African-Americans and Latinos much more frequently than white people. The statistics shows that only 10% of white people are stopped by the police officers, while their vehicles are not examined deliberately as it is done with the property belonging to the representatives of the minorities. The same situation exists with the proliferation of the drug arrests within the country. The Bureau of Justice Statistics evidences that African-Americans were deterred at a rate of three times that white people. This data confirms the existence of the peak racial disparity in the criminal justice system as the evident problem to the stability and livelihood of the society grounding on several factors. Based on the findings of the experts, there are some primary causes of the racial disparity among the officers of the criminal justice system (Barlow and Barlow, 2002). In fact, some officers have initial prejudice to the members of the minorities which are of plenty in availability within the territory of the United States. This prejudice lies in the fact that African-American should be guilty per se in comparison to the position of white people. In this regard, the police officers search for the illegal elements in the vehicle belonging to the minorities with the purpose to prove personal belief (Lytle, 2010). Furthermore, it should be said that African-Americans are seemed to await for the trial hearing than white prisoners. This fact is grounded on psychological reasons among the officers of the criminal justice system that the minorities do not have equal rights with white people. In addition, the reports of the U.S. Sentencing Commission show that the African American usually receive 10% longer detention than white people for the same offences in terms of the criminal legislation. Meanwhile, the assumptions of the officers of the criminal justice system in the behaving of the racial disparity are not groundless. This implies that for the long period of time, the United States observed the peak of the criminal activity under the guidance of the African Americans flowing to the country. This tendency gave rise to the formation of the attitude to this group of the society beyond its significance and size. Therefore, the contemporary community faces difficulties during the removal of this portrait of the African-American group in terms of the connection to the criminal activity (Jollevet II, 2008).
Accordingly, it is highly important to say that the disparity exists not only between the ethnical and racial groups of people, while this trend is applicable to the analysis of the behavior of the officers of the criminal justice system to the people of different age group. With the 2010s the police officers are seemed to exceed the limits of the usage of force during the detention of the criminals, while the juveniles are much more likely to be arrested by the officers. The analysis of this situation under the close eye of the experts in this sphere delivers the opinion that the officers as the first group of the representatives of the criminal justice system has no trust and credit to the juveniles. From one perspective, it is reasonable that the officer may deter the juvenile for the investigation of conspicuous matters. The United States is observing the increase in the amount of the crimes committed by the juveniles so that the officers are requested to be much more attentive to the behavior of this social group. At the same time, the raise in the juvenile criminal activity does not imply that all members of this group are inclined to behave in the same manner (Schlesinger, 2005).
Consequently, this trend is becoming out of the control of the state authorities beyond the fact that the government regularly points out on the necessity to take measures aimed to remove ethnical and racial discrimination among the criminal justice system. Given the financial position of the arrested persons belonging to the minorities, it is clear that some of them will not afford themselves to pay for the bail. In this case, the person will have to sit in the prison and wait for the trial, while the hiring of the private lawyer is too expensive. With that, it appears that the minorities are not able to prove the legality of the actions and behavior on the same terms as the white people because of the financial differences. Some experts believe that exposure to the racial discrimination is caused with the desire to govern the flow of the immigrants coming to the country. Meanwhile, one should keep in mind that the imprisonment has certain legal consequences to the further livelihood of the individual. Despite the fact that some minorities face difficulties with the receipt of the satisfying working opportunities in the United States, the status of the criminal decreases the availability of these working places to the person to null. Therefore, the minorities become the subject of the racial disparity on behalf of the law enforcement agencies having the impact on the entire life of these people (Weitzer, 1996).
It is quite difficult to predict the further development of the issue with the racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the United States and measure its limits in exact terms. Besides, it is clear that this problem should be targeted in the nearest future by joint actions from the members of the minorities, state authorities and other drivers of the justifiable world. The last years are featured with the increased cases of the extreme brutality on behalf of the police officers while some of them were not responsible for the actions with the imposition of relevant sanctions in form of imprisonment or any other measure. This statement implies that the situation in the criminal justice system is seemed to be grounded on the voluntarily behavior of its staff in the manner that the government is awaiting for the amicable resolution of the situation. However, one can not agree with the fact that it is necessary to leave behind the issue of the racial discrimination. Otherwise, the prisons will be full with the representatives of the minorities and juveniles, while the white people may appear out of the focus of the police officers. In 2010 the American government has already initiated the program aimed to tackle the spread of the racial disparities within the criminal justice system with the adoption of the Fair Sentencing Act where the sentences and penalties for the offences have been reconsidered. This action should decrease the disproportionate effect caused with the delivery of the similar judgments to the different members of the minorities. Besides, these efforts of the state authorities are not enough for the removal of the risks related with the development of the issue in the strong social problem. Furthermore, the problem with the racial discrimination is widely discussed among the managers of the law enforcement agents in order to amend the state of the affairs in the better dimension. With that, there are several training programs launched in the different states of the United States which are governed by the local state authorities jointly with the representatives of the international organizations as Amnesty International, the United Nations. The programs include special sessions where the police officers are taught about the necessity to maintain the equality in the rights between the people during the arrest, sentencing and other stages of the criminal justice system. In this respect, the officers are taught that any exposure to the racial discrimination means the violation of the basic human rights. Meanwhile, the training has the purpose to decrease the proportionality between the treatment of the agents of the law enforcement agents to the different ethnical and social groups situated in the United States. Accordingly, it is highly important to bear in mind that the United States is among the authorized jurisdictions which set the rules for the putting people into the jail and prison. Upon release from the prison, the race still matters as the people start looking for the job. With that, the nature of the criminal records will be taken into account during the consideration of the working opportunities for the white people and other ethnical group. Given the fact that the huge amount of the African Americans are exposed to the longer sentencement and difficult terms for the imprisonment, the trend with the racial discrimination should be removed in order to improve the livelihood of different races within the United States. The criminal justice system of the United States should serve with the purpose to achieve justice by all means, while the people involved in this process should bot be the subject of the violation of the any legal norms.
References
Barlow, D. and Barlow, M. (2002). Racial Profiling: A Survey of African American Police Officers. Police Quarterly, 5(3), pp.334-358.
Gastwirth, J. and Nayak, T. (1997). Statistical Aspects of Cases concerning Racial Discrimination in Drug Sentencing: Stephens v. State and U.S. v. Armstrong. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 87(2), p.583.
Jollevet II, F. (2008). African American police executive careers: influences of human capital, social capital, and racial discrimination. Police Practice and Research, 9(1), pp.17-30.
Lytle, D. (2010). Neighborhood racial context and perceptions of police-based discrimination among black youth. Policing, 33(1).
Schlesinger, T. (2005). Racial and ethnic disparity in pretrial criminal processing. Justice Quarterly, 22(2), pp.170-192.
Weitzer, R. (1996). Racial discrimination in the criminal justice system: Findings and problems in the literature. Journal of Criminal Justice, 24(4), pp.309-322.
