Week 3 Criminal Justice Racism and Efforts to Correct

Criminal Justice Racism and Efforts to Correct

Racial disparities exist in education, jobs, salaries and of course, policing.  Racial disparities in policing range in different cities from the composition of the police force to the types of arrests and to the actual court system.  Over the past decade, policing forces have become more and more diverse, especially in cities like Los Angeles which has a large Latin American population that continues to rise.  The types of persons being arrested shows disparities all over the country, such as in Philadelphia where approximately 90% of the death row inmates are minorities (Crutchfield, Fernandes, Martinez, 2010).

            Individuals on parole often saw favoritism from their parole officers if they were part of the majority group.  Minorities felt discriminated against and reported various degrees of prejudice radiating from their parole officers when making decisions regarding their parole periods.  These disparities are but one part of the criminal justice system where racism is seen.   Reports, studies and findings over the years have shown a possible decline in racism within parole but many of these studies have been criticized due to their methodology (Denney, 1997).

            Anti-racism behavior reportedly didn’t develop within criminal justice systems until the 1980’s when equal opportunity policies and to a lesser extent, anti-racism policies were developed in local government ran education and social services.  One of these examples early anti-racism policies within the criminal justice department that was developed was in relation to the training of probation officers.  The training school that trained probation officers wrote into their requirements the ability to demonstrate and operate antiracist, anti-sexist and other forms of discriminatory policy and practice in order to enable them to work effectively within a multicultural society (Denney, 1997).

Since civil rights movements in the 1900’s, the criminal justice system has continuously evolved in an effort to become more multi-cultural and racially accepting.  These improvements to the criminal justice system will build trust between public and policing departments and further solidify society as a whole. 

Bibliography

CRUTCHFIELD, R. D., FERNANDES, A., & MARTINEZ, J. (2010). RACIAL AND

        ETHNIC DISPARITY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE: HOW MUCH IS TOO

        MUCH?. Journal Of Criminal Law & Criminology, 100(3), 903-932.

Denney, D. (1997). Anti-racism and the Limits of Equal Opportunities Policy in the

        Criminal Justice System. Social Policy & Administration, 31(5), 79-95.

        doi:10.1111/1467-9515.00076