...trends in the study of sociology is the inevitable social inequality in the society. When talk about inequality, sociologists usually link stratifying institutions which label people into social categories such as the educational system and the formal labor market. The three articles discussed below explore the different faces of inequality in society. These articles are Incarceration and Stratification (2010), The Mark of Criminal Record (2003) and The Black-White Test Score Gap (2004). The overarching theme that will be pointed out below is inequality face by black people in the United States. These articles show inequalities face by black people in three different landscapes: incarceration cells, employment, and education. This paper included the role of media in the proliferation of racial inequality between white and black people. Lastly, this paper also presented the missing gaps on literature and how should we address the problem of racial inequality. Summary Inequality is present in incarceration cells. Wakefield and Uggen (2010) claimed that incarceration became a powerful “engine of social inequality that plays a massive and racialized part in the contemporary stratification system” (Wakefield and Uggen, 2010, p. 388). The study conducted by Wakefield and Uggen (2010) covers the scope of imprisonment and the process of selection into prison. The authors then proceed by giving the implications of incarceration in different aspects of their lives such as education, labor...
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...Ohio State University law professor and civil rights activist Michelle Alexander, author of "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," reports there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War. Statistics reported in 2006, by the U.S .Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics support this claim, which show that Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation’s 2 million prison and jail inmates, while Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent. The disproportionate ratio of blacks to whites who are incarcerated is especially great in Iowa, Vermont, New Jersey, Connecticut, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and South Dakota – greater than 10-to-1 (USJB, 2006). Why this structural inequality towards African Americans is happening, why it matters, and suggestions to rectify this, are issues that are discussed in this paper. Why is this happening? Since 1970, the U.S. has experienced a large and rapid increase in the rate at which people, regardless of race, are housed in federal and state correctional facilities (Snyder, 2011). This rapid growth in the prison population has been attributed in a large part to the rate at which individuals are incarcerated for drug offenses, especially minorities (Snyder, 2011). Between1995 and 2003, the number of people in state and federal prisons incarcerated for drug offenses increased by 21 percent, from 280,182 to 337...
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...Addressing Hidden Discrimination in Public Policies. Racial inequalities from the past continue to live on in several public policies today, often concealing hidden agendas that maintain segregation and economic inequality, especially against African Americans. Kevin Kruse’s “Traffic” and Michelle Alexander’s “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” offer important perspectives on how. Historically, seemingly beneficial laws have excluded African Americans, and increased segregation and economic disparity. Kruse reveals how creating the US interstate highway system, to expand economic growth, disrupted black communities and restricted their access to better jobs, healthcare, and education. Furthermore, Alexander’s...
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...disparities exist within the criminal justice system and have shown many problems of inequality between the white and black race. In addition to having inequality within the criminal justice system, the criminals also have impacted their family members in different ways due to being incarcerated. The media has misrepresented African Americans by emphasizing African Americans participating in crimes while ignoring crimes committed by whites. People in society are assuming that only black people commit crimes, which is unfair because the incidences of people committing crimes are about equal between the races. Racial disparity favors white people over black people in the criminal justice system. Therefore, society must reevaluate the way society portrays who commits crimes, and where they are committed. Throughout many decades of history, black people had been discriminated against and treated as second class citizens in American society, even though they participated equally in the workforce. Discrimination has happened from slavery until present times. For example, during the 17th century until 1865, slaves were viewed as inferior people because it was a popular notion that they were ignorant and did not deserve the opportunities that the white culture had. According to Banks, slaves were not allowed any rights or freedom that the whites enjoyed and instead received brutal and inhumane treatment, because white culture assumed that was the way to...
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...This makes one question whether, people in the United States are really held to this standard, or are certain people more prone to crime in the land of opportunity and freedom? Our society is built around the societal norms of the dominant white group and racial and ethnic inequalities are intertwined in every aspect of our society causing minority groups to struggle against a society built around white privilege. Prevalence Minorities in comparison to their population in the United States are incriminated at a higher rate than Whites. Spohn (2000) stated that “a majority of the studies reviewed…found that African Americans and Hispanics were more likely than Whites to be sentenced to prison, even after taking crime seriousness and prior criminal records into account” (as cited in Hartney & Vuong, 2009, p.10). In 2010, racially the United States population identified as being comprised of 196.8 million Whites who identified as White alone (69.1%), 38.9 million Blacks or African Americans (12.6%), and 50.5 million Hispanics (16.3%) (2010 Census Brief, 2011). However, Of those federally sentences in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 36.7 % or 68,180 were Black, 32.5% or 60,268 were Hispanic and only 27.5% or 51,091 were white (Motivans, 2013). As seen by these numbers, African Americans were 7.7 times more likely, and Hispanics were 5.2 times more likely, than...
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...In the article “Beyond Crime and Punishment: Prisons and Inequality,” by Western & Pettit, the explosion of the penal population after 1970 actually does not have anything to do with increasing crime rates at all. After the year 1970, crime rates both increased and decreased, but the imprisoned population has been increasing every year since 1974. Western & Pettit looked deeper and found that a key factor to the increasing imprisoned population has something to do with drug offenders, which account for the fast-growing rate of incarceration. Though the war on drugs provides an explanation for why there was an explosion of imprisoned people, what explains the relationship between high incarceration rates and inequality? Western & Pettit speak...
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...Both Alexander and Taylor suggested many solutions and methods to solve the problem of Mass Incarceration. These are necessary transformations in the American society and policing system in order to create democracy and freedom in the country. Alexander described how the racial caste system created an overwhelming imprisonment and on the other hand Taylor talked about the modern policing state that also led to mass incarceration. Alexander describes what she thinks is necessary to be challenged in order to solve the problem of mass incarceration. She argues that we need to end the War on Drugs, in order to transform the law enforcement of culture, we need better drug treatment services, because cultural traits are more responsible for racial...
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...Criminal Justice System Professor: DD Jona Jones Devry University ] I. Criminal Justice System II. Introduction Incarceration is a kind of punishment in which criminals are held in prison, because they have committed a crime. People are usually incarcerated because they are involved in illegal activities various jurisdictions in different nations have devise different laws and regulations to govern the function of incarceration (Mauer, 1999) III. Body of the paper A. Prevalence 1. Statistics regarding incarceration 2. Statistics regarding race (Kennedy, 1997) 3. Racial disparity in prison sentence 4. Racial disparity in duration of sentence (Kennedy, 1997) This explains and illustrates the various incidents and statistics of African American, Hispanic and the white people. This elaborates that ethical discrimination occurs is the entire criminal justice process. The minorities and ethnic groups are given more harsh punishments as compared to white. B. Causes 1. Reasons behind African American in jail 2. Disparities in ways African American communities are policed (Huffing Post). 3. In adequate allocation of resources 4. Racial profiling (Wall Street Journal). This section describes the various reasons and causes due to which most of the African Americans have to go to jails once in their life time. It will also show how lack of resources contributes to the problem. C. Consequences 1. The impact on individual...
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...racist, biased opinion. Resulting in killings, shootings, and protests. There are a variety of races that make the headline stories of these events, but there is a specific race that repeatedly makes headlines of newspapers. The shootings and killing of African-Americans teenage boys have been the trending topic lately. It is hard to distinguish why these events happen. Certainly, there is no one, or race, to blame for this happening, however, understanding the root cause may help. The high incarceration rates of minorities is an examples and the killings proves how the criminal justice system is extremely flawed to this day and has always been built off of the privilege whites inherited and that blacks do not have. It has been proven time and time again that black and whites are not equal within the criminal justice system. History even says that the early conception of the criminal justice system and punishments were formed under conditions of colonialism and slavery. An example is white police offers repeatedly killing African American Males and being found not guilty; from Emmitt Till to the Ferguson case. Which is history repeating itself, the more things change, and the more they remain the same. In each generation, new tactics have been used for achieving the same goals—goals shared by the Founding Fathers (Alexander). Which is also known as institutional racism, which is systematic domination of people of color, embedded and operating in universities, corporations,...
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...Unfair Incarceration: Minorities’ Plight in the U.S. Judicial System DeVry University Cultural Diversity in the Professions SOCS 350N Spring 2013 Abstract The United States is well known as the Land of Opportunity, but if you’re a minority that opportunity maybe a greater chance of being incarcerated in the state and federal penal systems. Civil rights battles have raged for the greater part of the last century in this country. With milestone victories in the early and mid 1960’s equality under the law seemed to be a foregone conclusion. There are numerous laws, policies and even a Constitutional Amendment that address the matter that race should never be a factor. With this is all in play and in mind, you would think that statistics of the U.S. penal systems racial analysis has to be completed with a huge margin in error because it is not near equality. In a cursory search of this topic one can find a deluge of graphs, tables, and statistical analysis. The one thing you cannot find is a quantitative or qualitative consensus of why this has occurred or why it is still occurring. A preponderance of the evidence is anecdotal and offers suggestions of policies and attitudes that have led to this epidemic in contemporary American society. In this review, an endeavor to gather the gist of the issue and attempt to answer why or how this came about and the numerical extent. Followed by the consequences to the affected groups and the whole of society. Finally...
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... Eastern Michigan University Abstract Racial disparities in corrections measured by the black to white per capita incarceration rates vary from state to state, This paper will analyze the current trends and the impact incarceration has on communities of color and how criminal justice policy and practice plays a role in this. According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, out of a total population of 1,976,019 incarcerated in adult facilities, 1,239,946 or 63 percent are black or Latino, though these two groups constitute only 25 percent of the national population. Some of the greatest racial disparities in rates of incarceration happen in states in which minorities are massed in urban areas, which tend to have both higher rates of crime and greater law enforcement activity. This paper will also discuss how these incarcerations affect the offenders, public safety, criminal policies and procedures. Racial Disparities in Corrections There are many factors regarding the disproportional rates of incarceration in communities of color. Data generated by the U.S. Department of Justice predicts that if current trends continue, one out of every three black males born today will go to prison in his lifetime, as well as one of every six Latino males. The rates of incarceration for women overall are lower than for men, but similar racial/ethnic disparities still apply. Some law makers are looking at ways...
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...article points out the disparity in wealth and inequality of incarceration between whites and blacks with similar family characteristics and education. It also points out that poor white kids are less likely to go to prison than rich black kids. I feel that the whites started out with an enormous advantage over blacks because whites had a longer history of prosperity so a large percentage of whites tend to get more of their family inheritances. For instance, assets like houses are passed down from parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and they appreciate throughout the year. The blacks on the other hand had generations of discrimination, mass incarceration, and voracious finance. This have prevented the blacks from succeeding and disallowed them from building wealth for themselves and their families. They are treated unfairly when dealing with police officers, in the court system, applying for a house loan of any sort and in workplaces. For example, a white man receives a job offer over a black man with more qualification and educational background....
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...Failure to address these special considerations perpetuates cycles of inequality and undermines the goals of justice and rehabilitation within the U.S. criminal justice system. Potential Solution or Strategy One potential solution to address the disproportionate representation and inequities faced by minority populations within the criminal justice system is the implementation of community-based diversion programs. These programs aim to divert individuals from traditional criminal justice processing and towards community-based interventions and support services. Community-based diversion programs can help mitigate racial disparities within the criminal justice system by providing alternatives to incarceration that are more equitable and responsive to the needs of minority populations. By promoting fairness and reducing the reliance on punitive measures, these programs contribute to a more just and inclusive criminal justice...
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...in the United States Prison System Micah O’Daniel Institutional Corrections 2/22/11 Racial inequality in the American criminal justice system has a strong effect of many realms of society such as the family life, and employment. Education and race seem to be the most decisive factors when deciding who goes to jail and what age cohort has the greatest percentage chance of incarceration. Going to prison no longer affects just the individual who committed the crime. Instead, the family and community left behind gain a new burden by one individual's actions. The United States still has a large disparity between Whites and Blacks and now a growing Hispanic population. This racial disparity in the educational system, job sector, and neighborhoods have all contributed to the booming prison population in the latter part of the 20th century which has only continued to widen in the 21st century. At the end of 2006, the Bureau of Justice released data that stated that there were 3,042 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,261 Hispanic male prisoners per 100,000 Hispanic males, and 487 white male prisoners per 100,000 white males (USDOJ, 2008). The likelihood of black males going to prison in their lifetime is 16% compared to 2% of white males and 9% of Hispanic males (USDOJ, 2008). Other social factors can be linked to the racial inequality in the criminal justice system such as socioeconomic status, the environment in which a person was...
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...of color. (Alexander 2012, 189) The statistics contradict the U.S.’s long-held ideal of freedom and equality. Trump was elected to quite men like Kaepernick and calm the anxieties white people had about the state and direction the country was heading. To understand the level of the circumstance, it is important to dive into the racial history of the United States. In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander states even though slave owners, Ku Kux Klan members, and unjust police men, didn’t exist in the same period, each group of men is responsible for many of the lives lost due to the fear of intimacy created by the different racial caste systems—a system that has survived the test of time and continues to affect many black men in the United States but is now more imperceptible to the American public.( (Alexander 2012). History has repeated itself, but also brought something new to consider in each moment. She makes a point and expresses that different racial caste systems appear to fade, but then new systems take their place with the needs and limitations of their generation. As the names of the racial caste systems change, so do the names of the victims and their murders....
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