W.E.B. DuBois was one of the first people to publicly discredit the CJS claiming that it formed laws that oppressed the minorities. Centuries later, his words are still used by activists arguing for changes that would end the overrepresentation of the minorities in prisons. However, the calls seem to fall on deaf ears with the continued over-representation of minorities in the jails and the stereotyping that dominate most arrests. According to Rosich (2007), the debate on disparities within the CJS has both its supporters and opponents.
The proponents argue that the laws created tend to target the minorities mainly the blacks and Hispanics who form more than 80% of the total population of the prisoners of victimization and violence crimes. The opponents, on the other hand, argue that the reasons for high incarcerations among these groups are because of their criminality records or the propensity to commit crimes (Rosich, 2007). Others say that the researches that provide such biased data records are biased in the studies they undertake by ignoring white color crimes that the whites are more likely to commit and arrested for than the minorities. Whether or not such issues are right or not, the CJS needs to determine the institutional racism and change the disparities to ensure that people are confident of justice.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The use of racial profiling is one of the many reasons that the law enforcers are more likely to associate blacks or Hispanics with a crime. According to McNamara & Burns (2009), black men are twice or three times more likely to be stopped in traffic by the police than their white counterparts. The authors claim that the trend is expected to result in higher rates of searches that may lead to the incarcerations even when there is little or no reason for the blacks to have committed crime. Immigration is also termed as another factor that contributes to the disparities or biases of the CJS with illegal immigrants associated with crimes and the law enforcement using the stereotyping ideas to term all immigrants as criminals thus leading to the association with terrorism and other crimes (Nellis, et al., 2008). These are just but a few issues that cause the bias CJS and with the polarizing debate on the way to change the trend, different studies propose the use of multiculturalism as used in other institution to be used in implementing the policy changes.
The first element is based on acknowledging that there is a disparity problem in CJS. The acknowledgment will ensure that everyone understands the issues from arrests to parole which will help determine the different stages of the build-up to the racial discrimination in the CJS. The stage may face challenges from people who are think or support the current CJS, but facts will ensure they acknowledge the need for changes. The second step is involving everyone from the arresting officers to the uppermost position. Communication is empowering in the sense that the people will feel part of the change or a sense of belonging. The main problem would be incriminations for officers who open up but since the approach is focused on encouraging communication, the officers’ statements should not incriminate them but a lesson for everyone on the needed changes (McNamara & Burns, 2009). The step will help in determining the systematic failures that need to be changed thus assist in designing a program that would result in impartiality in the CJS.
Training the public from the schools to the CJS officers should be encouraged to ensure that everybody is active in the fight for change. The lessons should be based on promoting the strength of diversity and America as a melting pot that has dominated the country for more than a century. By knowing the strengths and weaknesses of different people, it will be possible to end the misguided stereotyping that influence the racial profiling in crimes.
Lastly, it is important to note that changing policies and strategies is useless if the current disparities in the socioeconomic environment remain the same. The CJS can only be significant if it helps reform the social status in the country and ensure that everyone is proud to be an American (Griffith et al., 2007). Therefore, empowerment of the low-income majorities will reduce crime rates and probability to commit crimes.
References
Griffith, D., Mason, M., Yonas, M., Eng, E., Jeffries, V., Plihcik, S., & Parks, B. (2007). Dismantling institutional racism: theory and action. American Journal Of Community Psychology , 39 (3-4), 381-392. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10464-007-9117-0
McNamara, R. H., & Burns, R. G. (2009). Multiculturalism in the criminal justice system. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Nellis, A., Greene, J., Mauer, M., & Sentencing Project (U.S.). (2008). Reducing racial disparity in the criminal justice system: A manual for practitioners and policymakers . Washington, DC: Sentencing Project.
Rosich, K. (2007). Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System. . American Sociological Association . Retrieved March 6, 2018, from http://asanet.org.
