This is how it works.

This is how it works.
As you can see, everyone must go through the same process, no matter their race/status/income/gender/species.

The justice system is biased based on which of the following? (choose all that apply)



Tuesday, April 20, 2010

This just grinds my gears.

It has been brought to my attention that race and wealth seem to be the major issues that people see the criminal justice system as discriminating against. Today I will focus on the race factor. Most people see the disproportional amount of African Americans in jails, and assume that this is because the criminal justice system is racially biased. What most people fail to see is that the amount of crimes allegedly committed by blacks is much higher than that of whites. So, when looking at the amount of people accused of crimes and the amount of people jailed for those crimes, the numbers are pretty equal, racially speaking. Those who see the system as racially biased are simple uneducated on the issue. I'm sure that there are the occasional racist policeman, juror, judge, or attorney, but that is inevitable. The fact is that despite these people, the system as a whole is equal when it comes to race. The fact that more colored people commit crimes is not the fault of the criminal justice system.
Posted by at

2 comments:

  1. BryanApril 20, 2010 at 2:58 PM

    [citation needed]

    numbers would be nice. I'm not necessarily doubting your credibility or anything, but I'm just saying that throwing in a number, percentage, or statistic at some point could probably make your argument a tad more effective.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 21, 2010 at 6:32 AM

    I would have to disagree with your claim.

    - More than 20% of black defendants who have been executed were convicted by all-white juries.
    - The report revealed that 80% of the cases submitted by federal prosecutors for death penalty review in the past five years have involved racial minorities as defendants. In more than half of those cases, the defendant was African-American.
    - The study, based on data collected from court records of 502 murder cases from 1993 to 1997, found that race plays a significant role in who gets the death penalty.
    - A report released by the New Jersey Supreme Court found that the state's death penalty law is more likely to proceed against defendants who kill white victims.
    [http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/race-and-death-penalty]

    And for a more personal account of racial injustice in the "justice system" you should read this book: Death of Innocents, by Helen Prejean.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)