Disparity and Discrimination
Ilka McCoy
CJS/221
November 02, 2015
Ben Harm

Disparity and Discrimination
Disparity in criminal justice means inequity of arrests and sentencing for certain groups of people based on race, religion, color or sexual preference; it almost always refers to racial and ethnic disparity. Racial disparity has been definitively verified, though it may not always be related to intentional discrimination but due to the impact of the media and social networks this seems to be the main focus. Some of the stronger legal factors involved in racial disparity include severity of the offense and previous criminal record and personal history of the offender in question. Discrimination is an ugly factor of today's society, because it is the unfair treatment of one group opposed to another. For example one may dislike a person based on the color of their skin, sexuality or gender. In current situations that we have all witnessed in the media we have seen many incidents that involved white police officers and African American victims. I say victims because this is what has been presented to us by the media, and all we had for information was what was written in the paper or reported on T.V., there was no information that would show a timeline of the events that led to the situations. Recently in current events we have seen several cases in which white officers have been accused of using extreme force and in most cases the victims have been African American. The media has made sure that the public sees only parts of the situations and in some cases they don’t give all the before details that lead to the end result. in my reading of chapter 2 (Russell,1988p.70) it talks about crimes of Racial Hoax in which a victim makes up the description of the supposed offender and in many cases they give false information to the authority. There have been several cases in history of wrongful incarceration in which later the accused has been cleared of charges and sent free.
The different types of discrimination in the criminal justice field include but are not limited to racial, economical, gender, sexual preference, religion, and ethnic. We see examples of racial discrimination every day in the news and in the paper. We probably see racial discrimination the most of all, a lot of time certain groups of people are singled out during traffic stops because of their color or ethnic background. African Americans are stopped when any violent crime is being investigated, Hispanics are singled out when it comes to immigration issues as if they were the only immigrant group in the U.S.A., and whenever people think of terrorism they automatically assume Muslims are involved. It is a sad but true reality in our society that a person can be judged just simply by the color of their skin or religious preference. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked so hard for equality and to stop prejudice and even though we as a society have come a long way it is inevitable that many people still have that mind set.
It is important to note the differences in the criminal justice field because each has its own meaning and effect on a situation, discrimination can impact a criminal case when there is racial profiling involved and victims are treated differently based on their skin color or ethnic background. This we see a lot when judgments are made of a person just based on appearance without giving them a benefit of a doubt. Disparity on the other hand involves more than just the profiling, it also means that a great impact is made in for instance the sentencing process and maybe even affects the right to a fair trial. Both Disparity and Discrimination have a great impact in the criminal justice field and how decisions are made as to who is and isn’t guilty and how they will pay for their crime. There is evidence that shows how certain ethnic groups are more likely to be targeted and accused than others, and what statistics show as far as percentages of prisoners based on race or color.
In conclusion I learned that as much as we think that our justice system seems to be fair that it has its own flaws and a lot of time mistakes are made and innocent people go to jail and pay for crimes that they didn’t commit but they just fit the profile.