DISCRIMINATION IN THE AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM

« African American discrimination and over incarceration, an historical issue persevering within our current justice system »

Introduction

Since discrimination first began, African Americans were dispossessed of their basics rights through slavery. From the early 17th century, black people were used as propriety. Starting with some racial conflict from which came the idea that the white race was most valuable, blacks were logically inferior and needed to bend over the rules that were imposed to them. Following slavery’s time came the American civil war, the same race conflict was visible, blacks were being put aside and thus, segregated because of race purpose - still. But fundamentally, what does race mean? On what concrete facts can human being decide that some people aren’t worth respect and rights as the rest of the world? Race is a socially constructed term based on the fact that humans needed to characterize people by their physical trait and thus, black people appeared to be a less valuable color than the white one. As a minority, black people were paying for the dominant race’s interest and its supremacy. Starting from this point, we could start to distinguish concrete and legal inequalities such as the ones the Jim Crow Laws were implying. Since then, we could obviously say that color was a trait of legal discrimination. (Banks - 65/66).

Thus, what can we say about today’s society ? After the abolition of the Jim Crow Laws, passed the time of the apartheid, at the edge of the human right concern and equality shouted out through the constitution what observation can we make. In the article “The Impact of Negative Stereotypes & Representations of African-Americans in the Media and African-American Incarceration,” the author writes how can we still note that more than the half of the 2 078 570 American prisoners are African Americans when this same population represents only 12% of the global American population. (Johnson - 71). To what is this incredible rate due? Are stereotypes and African American’s stigmatization to take into consideration? People could possibly link these facts to a notion of institutionalized racism (Longworth) that has been called Little Apartheid. This term designs the factor that influences “policies, rough treatment, lack of civility faced by black suspect, the quality and objectivity of judicial instructions to a jury when an African American is on trial and other acts within the system”. (Banks - 66).

Hence, by which means and which sociological settings we can obviously say that African Americans faces stigmatization and discrimination within the justice system and how. Why do African Americans end up being over incarcerated ? What solution can we draw in order to counter this phenomenon ?

Part 1. IN THE FACTS, FROM SOCIOLOGICAL FACTS TO RACIAL STIGMAS

« Inequality is cumulative, because the social and economic penalties that flows from incarceration are accrued by those who already have the weakest economics opportunities » (Bruce/Pettit - 8). This statement comes back to the start of the problem. Disparities seem to be the roots of the issue. As a heritage of slavery’s times and the Jim Crow laws, African Americans don’t own much, they are, for the most of them, part of the poorest American population. (Mauer - 73)

From a really realistic point of view, the worse one’s social and financial conditions are, the better chances he or she would have to go to the streets, be influenced and end up being incarcerated. Being poor means having difficulties having the ends meet due to a lack of financial resources. In this family pattern, money problems tend to add up to other sociological problems such as mono parental families, alcoholism, or violent behavior. Parents obviously aren’t educated and will not encourage their kids to succeed by studying, they might even influence them to bring home some additional revenues instead of focusing on learning how to go out of the circle and live a better life later.

Moreover, in difficult neighborhoods, the youngest wants to appear strong and start to play the tough guy, going in the streets, entering neighborhood groups (not to talk about gangs from a larger scale point of view) and such. For instance, in order to sustain his own need, a kid from a deprived neighborhood and family will probably be influenced by older guys to become a part (even small) of a drug local organization. This extracurricular activity, summed with the pressure and the attraction for the street and the “tough guy” look will distract him from school and that’s how (in the big lines) we end up having young kids, dropped out, and going to juvenile. According to Western and Pettit’s study (p10), in 2008, 35% of African American kids that dropped out school ended up incarcerated. If we want to look at the issue from another angle, The Organization Building Blocks for Youth reported that African American kids were representing 46% of the youth sent to criminal court and 58% of the kids actually sent to prisons. The worse here is that prison, especially if experienced at a young age, becomes a pattern. Indeed, there is more chances of recidivism and committing crime again if person who  has already went through juvenile, and, even if he or she get out, behavior and habits are running in the family and the tendency shows that kids from ex-convicts are more likely to go to jail as well. We’re facing a real bad circle. How can we explain the huge rates of arrests and incarcerations linked to this specific minority? Which biases are to take into consideration?

Part 2. IN THE FACTS, THE STEPS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION WITHIN THE JUSTICE SYSTEM.

« Historically, the African American experience within the U.S legal system has been largely discriminatory. Research indicates that African Americans endure a far greater number of police stops, illegal/unjust searches and seizures, inadequate legal representation, higher incarceration rates and disproportionate sentencing » (Johnson - 77). What a way to start. We will start analyzing step by step any kind of victimization, discrimination or biases leading African Americans to be over incarcerated.

First of all, profiling and arrests are frequently shown. In his annual report, the FBI revealed that 30% of the people that were arrested were African American. The explanation can be founded in the social conditions linked with the racial history as explained in the first part. Indeed, mostly living in criminalized neighborhoods because of a lack of financial resources, African Americans

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