Real draft for is there racial profiling/ discrimination in the criminal system?In this essay I will be exploring the topic of racial profiling in the criminal law system of the US. To begin with racial profiling is using an individual’s ethnicity or race to suspect them of a criminal offence, this suspicion then leads to further unnecessary action such as: car searches, identity and nationality checks. This profiling is based on the concept that race collated to crime for example if there is a higher percentage of black thieves then police use this statistic as a direction of suspicion. In most cases the suspicion isn’t of appropriate standard, the authority figures use and extremely excessive use of abuse towards the suspect without any evidence other than their race. (Oxford dictionaries).
And racial discrimination is when a person is treated in a different way than another person in a similar situation because of their race, colour, or ethnic origin. (Human rights). This essay will mainly focus on this problem in the United States as the media attention related to this is mostly predominant in the states.In USA the media, organisations and protesting citizens have highlighted the abuse of the polices authority in the presence of cases of people of colour.
Cases such as the 2014 Michael brown shooting showcase the injustice in the United States criminal law system. The department of justice civil rights division show us that a person of colour has a higher chance of being stopped and searched whilst driving and being suspected of major crimes such as theft. Through the history of the us we can see racism starting with slavery, then segregation and now police violence.Most believe that police profiling started when police officials started to ‘fight back’ against the war on drugs.
During the late to mid-nineties the drug issue was at its all-time high due to this illegality the police with help of the drug enforcement agency started to take a more ‘attack’ approach against drugs. This began with creating a profile that helped police men focus their attention towards potential drug distributors. The way they did this was to create a check list of things to look out for in a suspect, they were: African/Hispanic, acted nervous, made sure to prevent eye contact and whether they used rental cars.
Although there was no coloration or evidence that people of colour were more likely to be involved with drugs the officers were still trained to recognise that as guide line. This lead to police aggressively suspecting people of colour and this method then became integrated into the criminal justice system permanently.A study by the Rand Institute in 1983 indicated that African American defendants were treated more harshly than the whites. However, the research did not outline the cause of the inequalities. The researchers could not explain why African-American criminals accounted for increasing disproportionate percentage of the street families and crimes in the United States .
pointed out that African- Americans were being “disproportionately represented” in prisons, jails and other criminal justice correctional facilities in the United States. He added that reports indicated a surge in the number of African-American arrests over the past four decades. A study by the American Civil liberties Union in California indicated that African-Americans were three times more likely to be arrested that any other race. Pointing out that statistical figure indicated how national oppression and racial discrimination was deeply rooted in the legal system. In addition, a report on the inequalities in drug arrests by the Human Rights Watch indicated that African-Americans were arrested for drug offenses at rates 2-11 times higher than the whites. This indicated that the United A study by the Rand Institute in 1983 indicated that African American defendants were treated more harshly than the whites. However, the research did not outline the cause of the inequalities.
The researchers could not explain why African-American criminals accounted for increasing disproportionate percentage of the street families and crimes in the United States .pointed out that African- Americans were being “disproportionately represented” in prisons, jails and other criminal justice correctional facilities in the United States. He added that reports indicated a surge in the number of African-American arrests over the past four decades. A study by the American Civil liberties Union in California indicated that African-Americans were three times more likely to be arrested that any other race. Pointing out that statistical figure indicated how national oppression and racial discrimination was deeply rooted in the legal system. In addition, a report on the inequalities in drug arrests by the Human Rights Watch indicated that African-Americans were arrested for drug offenses at rates 2-11 times higher than the whites.
This indicated that the United States criminal justice system was a race biased institution that targeted and punished African-Americans in much more aggressive manner than white people. States criminal justice system was a race biased institution that targeted and punished African-Americans in much more aggressive manner than white people.Although the current police injustice is concentrated in us sates such as Missouri and Texas don’t mean that a similar problem is not imminent in the United Kingdom. In 2011 riots broke out due to the police shooting of Mark Duggan in Tottenham.
This single event lead to a spiral of events that combated the UK policed force, the events started off as protests but spiralled into a criminal frenzy. Although some of the events taken places were wrong this doesn’t mean that’s the protest was overshadowed and it finally showed racial discrimination in the criminal law system. Domestic workplace data has proven that black people are stopped and searched at between four and seven instances more than white people. Although due to the fact that police data is private and inaccessible the overall idea of racial profiling cannot be proven, however racial profiling has been recognized in a range of various policing practices and contexts along with heavy controls in public places being: identity tests of bus and train passengers and raids on locations of worship, corporations and firms. An observational look at of shipping hubs in Paris found that blacks have been and Arabs 15 times much more likely to be stopped than whites in Spain. Moroccans and Romanians were more likely to be stopped than Spanish citizens. Ethnic companies are more likely to be subjected to intrusive measures alongside searches of their private data.
Definitions of racial profiling describe conditions in which movements are based completely on the idea of a person’s race or ethnicity. In practice this has allowed police forces to disclaim the existence of racial profiling where activities are legally justifiable however nevertheless racially biased which includes the use of unwarranted raids and identity checks. Broader controls understand that decisions are usually made on a range of of factors including race. This shows us that racial profiling may also arise. Patterns of profiling can also be seen in discriminatory treatment after a stall has taken place such decisions to move on to look more intrusive searches and arrests. The hyperlink to other varieties of profiling shows that there’s something scientific and green about racial profiling. The fact may be very one-of-a-kind, race is a social assemble; not knowable with the aid of sight.
Racial profiles are each over-inclusive within the feel that many certainly maximum of the those who suit into the category are totally innocent and below-inclusive in that many different criminals or terrorists who do not match the profile will escape police interest. Racial profiling also faces the troubles of predictability and evasion; the greater predictable police profiles come to be the less complicated it is for perpetrators to adapt to circumvent the profile. The ineffectiveness of racial profiling is illustrated through always low hit or arrest charges for policing moves primarily based on racial profiling. There is surprising consistency in statistics coming out of the us the United Kingdom and Europe demonstrating similar hit or arrest quotes throughout racial groups.
In numerous researches ethnic minorities are much less probable to be arrested or have contraband or other sizable proof observed following a search. This refutes the proposition that minorities are much more likely to be concerned in crime and illustrates that racial profiling represents an ineffective use of police resources. Racial profiling additionally comes with heavy prices for those focused. Profiling exacts an excessive price on individuals businesses and groups which might be singled out for disproportionate police interest. For the character singled out stopped and detained the revel in regularly of common repeat encounters with the police may be horrifying and demeaning. Racial profiling stigmatises complete agencies reinforcing and fuelling racial tensions and contributing to the over-illustration of ethnic minorities in other components of the criminal justice machine.
Racial profiling damages police-community family members undermining accept as true with and confidence and deterring cooperation. The harm that racial profiling can do is slowly being recognized. Inside the United States of America the Obama administration convened a undertaking pressure to discover policing and community members of the family inside the wake of police shootings and protests. in march this 12 months the assignment pressure endorsed independent criminal investigations into police shootings the adoption of rules to deal with racial profiling inclusive of collection and sharing of data on stops frisks summonses arrests and crimes the demilitarisation of policing and relaxing the police method to mass demonstrations.
Here the home secretary Theresa may initiate a process of reforms around stop and search in 2013. this included strengthening the code of practice governing using the powers education for officials with attention on unconscious bias and the fine use of prevent and seek scheme a voluntary scheme that binds police to wider recording of forestall and search and its outcomes introduces a lay observer scheme improved court cases mechanisms and boundaries using arguable phase 60 power. yet two years on a current review determined that stops are still unrecorded steering is missing and disproportionality stays too excessive her majesty’s inspectorate of constabulary 2015 in other countries with little to no reputation of racial profiling community groups are forcing the issue onto the general public schedule and worrying trade. In France 13 individuals are suing the French nation for discriminatory stops in the first elegance action of this kind. In Melbourne Australia a similar magnificence movement introduced by means of african-australians became settled last year with the implementation of an action plan including a pilot for recording all stops. In Spain and Sweden nearby groups use twitter to warn migrants where immigration stops are taking place. The fact that racial profiling occurs in special international locations and contexts and has this sort of long history belies the institutional nature of the trouble.
Racial profiling speaks to thoughts approximately race ethnicity and religion embedded in societies and the systems of policing. To exchange it will take more than recommendations or voluntary schemes but structural and systematic reform each inside and outside of the police. At the same time as it remains to be seen if there may be political will to accomplish that groups and people on the receiving give up of profiling retain to protest the need for trade.
Including the black lives matter movement.In Conclusion From the evidence presented in this paper, there is no doubt that racial discrimination exists in the US criminal justice system. Most of the racial discrimination studies with respect to the criminal justice system should completely consider all of the legitimate factors that might that determine how appropriately depict and convey the statistical figures within the legal system on racial, age and gender basis. In consolidating all the factors across various jurisdictions, the right data and impression would be communicate to the public to earn the desired trust.
This is subject to the fact that America’s races are spread differently across jurisdictions. It should also be noted that decisions in the judicial system are based on the evidence availed proving guilt, prior criminal record of the defendant, and the gravity of the case. Most criminal justice administrators, academics and policy makers points racial bias in the criminal justice system. Therefore, the wide consensus about the existence of racial bias in the criminal justice system should be addressed to win the confidence of the minorities on this institution.
