Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System

There has been an ongoing question for decades about the judicial system and how they decide sentencing. There could be a lot of variables that come into play such as, criminal history and the severity of the offense. Unfortunately there is a possibility that race also comes into play. Our nation's correctional facilities were originally created to withhold citizens that have not obeyed the law(s) applied to them by our government. In the vast majority of cases, the race of the victim tends to have an effect on the sentence outcome. However, in some jurisdictions, the race of the defendant also affects sentencing outcomes, with minority defendants more likely to receive a death sentence than white defendants. Over time the quality of …show more content…
Between the fights, the sarcastic jokes, the tension, and the constant disagreement between people you begin to think what is the point. African Americans are more likely to be jailed pending trial, and therefore tend to receive harsher sentences, while Caucasians are more likely to hire a private attorney, and therefore receive a less severe sentence (The Sentencing Project News). “Racial disparity in the criminal justice system exists when the proportion of a racial or ethnic group within the control of the system is greater than the proportion of such groups in the general population, (The Sentencing Project News).” Illegitimate racial disparity in the justice system results from the unfair treatment of people of different races in the same situation solely based on their ethnicity or race. More oftentimes than not you will get an unbiased jury, but a biased judge. Only because a jury can see your crime on a piece of paper and decide whether or not you are guilty after discussion of the group, which often leads to a more reasonable thought or explanation, while a judge is just one man/woman, who based on their opinion would decide for you too be convicted or not, and how harshly. “After a series of data collection, overview of cases, and gathering of information, we see that people were punished more based off of their race significantly more than their criminal background (Sharp, Gwen).” The same study has also found that young african american men without criminal records are less likely to get called back for a job interview than young caucasian men with an arrest record (Sharp, Gwen). “African American men face a double barrier due to racial discrimination combined with higher rates of incarceration. (Sharp,

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Racial Disparity In The Criminal Justice System