Over the last years, the use of race by law enforcement agencies in the police system has received a great amount of attention all across the United States. Race and ethnicity has always been a serious and rapidly growing issue in the American criminal justice system. Criminology research that explores the relationship between race, ethnicity and crime is what shapes how individuals in society perceives different racial groups. Race and ethnicity refers to the use of a person’s traits to determine whether someone may be active in illegal activities. For example now, African American are often racial profiled by many police officers this is the main reason of racial profiling due to their differences in skin color from other races. Racial disparity in the criminal justice system exists when the proportion of a racial or ethnic within the control of the system is greater than the proportion of most groups in the general population. Race and ethnicity have been identified in all parts of the system, from arrest, trial as well as exoneration. This topic is important to me as well as being a controversial topic throughout the criminal justice system today because this is something that happens everyday in the criminal justice system. In my opinion racial disparities and ethnicity links to crime because racism can be shown through language, attitudes, conduct, strategies or policies of the criminal justice system. Also racial discrimination is prevalent in the criminal justice system due to police raiding and targeting innocent black men each day due to their skin color, quicker than white individuals.
In society today many police abusively and continually hurt and humiliate black people because that is what they are paid to do everyday. Most objectives investigation of a United States law enforcement agency finds that the police treats African Americans with contempt. In New York, Baltimore, Ferguson, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many other cities the United States justice department and federal courts have stated that the official practices of police departments include violating the rights of African Americans. The police kill, wound, beat up, detain, frisk, and handcuff against blacks in circumstances in which they do not do the same to white people. Imagine getting shot at just because of the skin that your in? Imagine going outside and getting arrested for something you didn’t do? All because of your skin tone and the race that you are. Race and ethnicity is something that many people can relate to growing up in society for example, on the news all we hear is who got shot, which police shot who, or who got imprisoned and the chances are very high for it being a colored individual and an innocent colored individual at that. Police policies such as “broken windows” and stop and frisk have impacted young black men of color. Prosecutorial policies which consists of plea bargain guidelines that disadvantage blacks males compound these disparities. Also sentencing laws that dictate harsher punishments for crimes for which people of color are disproportionately arrested. In the article Sampson, Robert J., and Janet L. Lauritsen. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States.” Crime and Justice, vol. 21, 1997, pp. 311–374. JSTOR, JSTOR, states “ blacks and to a lesser extent hispanics, suffer much higher rates of robbery and homicide victimization than do whites”. This explains how blacks and hispanics are unfairly treated and it also depicts how they receive harsh sentences for the same crime that a white individual would commit and get a more less sentence. Blacks and hispanics are always usually accused for robbery even if they didn’t commit it just because of social injustice.
One disadvantage of race and ethnicity factoring with crime is that the increased number of innocent people are frequently being stopped and targeted for absolutely no reason just because of their race. Officers who are racially biased to the use of discretion is one cause of racial disparities in police contact that are not explained by differences in crime rates which is used design to target minor violations with the rationale of circumventing serious crimes, these policies place people of color under greater scrutiny. An example would be Darren Wilson a NYPD police officer who stopped Michael Brown who is a black male for jaywalking. Also Officer Daniel Pantaleo and his colleagues who approached Eric Garner for selling untaxed cigarettes in which Garner innocently died as a black male for absolutely no reason. Racial profiling has allowed individuals who have done nothing wrong to suffer the burdens of the law enforcement in order to prove their innocence. This can however create tensions between minorities and officials which can eventually lead up to further misunderstandings. Such examples are leading people to feel victimized themselves and preventing the police from serving the entire community. In the article“Incarceration and the erosion of the African American Family”(Esposito, Luigi 2018) states “One out of three black men will experience incarceration at least once in their life. While one out of seventeen white men will experience incarceration at least once in their life.” This is implying that black men and women are more prone to get locked up, than white men and women who have committed the same, or similar crimes. Not only does this enhance the idea of Institutionalized racism, but it also shows that black individuals are targeted more than white individuals in which they get torn away from their families and loved ones. Also in the book “Suspect Citizens,” Frank R. Baumgartner, Derek A. Epp and Kelsey Shoub they shared what they found “Blacks are almost twice as likely to be pulled over as whites — even though whites drive more on average,” “blacks are more likely to be searched following a stop,” and “just by getting in a car, a black driver has about twice the odds of being pulled over, and about four times the odds of being searched. This shows that black individuals are more targeted than white people, which is humulating and unfair also this reveals how black individuals are more likely to be searched despite the fact they’re less likely to be found with contraband as a result of those searches. Not only do police look at race, but in my opinion they also l0ok at appearance and gender among other traits. This stereotype has come into effect when a black male wears “baggy jeans”and looking “suspicious or nervous” is more likely to be arrested than a white individual. Race and ethnicity by police is a major factor in racial disparities in the criminal justice system think about Trayvon Martin, a 17 year old black teen who got shot and killed by a white individual for looking “suspicious” when all he had on was a hoodie and an went to the store to buy food and an Arizona.
To add on to this, there is a documentary on netflix called “ The Kalief Browder Story”, which is about a black male who is wrongly convicted of a crime he did not commit due to the color of his skin. Kalief was accused of robbing a man on a late night after leaving a party and was then taken into custody, and released two years later, The thing is that he didn’t get convicted, his family just didn’t have the means to pay for bail, therefore he had two years in solitary confinement waiting on trial. The court tried to give him a plea deal and he kept on refusing because he knew he was innocent. During the course of the two years Kalief suffered severe physical and mental health in prison. “Now, I’m in jail around these grown men and they’re, you know, they’re fighting each other. I don’t know. It was like hell on Earth.” Browder added he was beaten, stomped on and hit with weapons by correction officers”.(Viacom 2017). Kalief went to living a normal lower class minority life, to a hell hole as he described on rikers island. Aside from the fact that Kalief was beaten and got into fights regularly with other inmates, he was also physically abused by the guards. How can the beating and rejection from others not cause one to become oddly isolated and mentally damaged. Kalief even tried to commit suicide more than once while imprisoned. He became insanely withdrawn, and very paranoid and he believed that the law enforcement was always looking, and that he was always under surveillance. This led Kalief browder to committing suicide, he came home insanely damaged. He didn’t find his place in this world anymore, and he wanted to end his own mental distress. How can a parent come home on these terms possibly worst to a family after being locked away for an X amount of time? It will be unlogical to place a child on the hands of a person who is this mentally ill. Racial discrimination is one of the major contributors to police brutality in the society, some of the police brutalities actions are perceived in terms of racial profiling. There have been numerous protests and riots due to police officers not being indicted formed that started out as a twitter hashtag that is entitled #BlackLivesMatter. Individuals around for killing unarmed young black men, and with these protests a new social movement was the world are using the All Lives Matter statement to twist the Black Lives Matter Movement into being anti-white instead of pro-black. All lives matter, but there is a reason why people are reasserting that black lives matter. If the statement that black lives matter is not true, then America is sending the message that black lives are not truly lives and therefore they can be easily killed.
In conclusion the issue of racial profiling and ethnicity has doubled during recent years. Racial profiling is not only a violation of human rights, but it has also been proven to be ineffective in society because this act goes against individual rights to equal protection and many studies have shown that it does not contribute to the common good. However, it is debatable that racial profiling should only be used for Be On the Look Out when it is necessary to identify a suspect in a specific crime or when distinguishing features are crucial. Furthermore, the police should stop racial profiling and frisking young black men due to their darker skin color. Lastly, using race neutral methods, such as behavior is beneficial to our security, while racial profiling is not.