Crime Rates and The Criminal Justice System essays

Crime Rates and The Criminal Justice System essays It seems as though the issue of race is unavoidable, regardless of the context in which we are speaking. It is a shame that the idea of race play a role in any aspect of life. For someone of color to be disregarded, or overlooked, when being considered for an education or employment is unacceptable, but seems to be much more tragic when the issue of race spills over into our criminal justice system. It is imperative that the very nature of any justice system must be founded on the idea the application of the law be fair, no matter what your race. It has become quite apparent that race influence our criminal justice system based on the simple fact that blacks comprise nearly half our prison population while they make up only 13 to 14 percent of the general population. Race plays a major role, not only in rates of crime, but also in the decision-making process of our criminal justice system. Race plays a role in criminal activity, not only here in America, but in other countries as well. As I mentioned before, blacks (being a minority in the country) are over-represented in our prisons. This lends testimony to the fact that race, does in fact, play a role in rates of crime and our criminal justice system. There are many theories that could possibly explain blacks and their involvement in criminal activity including constitutional factors, economic deprivation, the idea that black family life fails to install adequate regard for long term goals in order replace instant pleasures for delayed rewards and the idea that blacks have somehow developed a skewed view the larger society and its values. For example, for the most part, we are residentially segregated. This means, that for the most part, blacks live in black neighborhoods and whites live in white neighbor hoods. It is also fair to say that the white population is currently dominant in America. This is not to say whites are better in a...