Racism in the Criminal Justice System

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The United States Judicial System and Racial Profiling ENG 122 Lisa M. Carlo May 27, 2013 The United States Judicial System and Racial Profiling There is reluctance in American society to talk about race and crime because race is a touchy subject. Everything in today's society has to be politically correct. One has to be very careful what they write or say because of the fear of what might happen if someone misunderstood what the real meaning to their statement was. For that reason, when a person talks about race and crime many individuals may interpret their opinions differently. Therefore, many people try to avoid talking about such controversial subjects. When living in a country comprised of a variety of races, one might think that acceptance and the freedom to live free of discrimination, especially by law enforcement officials, should be automatically granted, for a society of different individuals allows the realization that a specific race is not the only one inhabiting this world and that other races are here for the same reason. And yet this is not the case with the majority of the population today. Even though black people tend to be less educated and are lower income, the judicial system is racial profiling because white people commit the same amount of crimes as blacks but more blacks are in prison than whites. In 2010, the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that “in the United States an estimated 558,700 African American adults were incarcerated under the state and federal jurisdiction. African American males had an imprisonment rate 3,059 per 100,000 while white males had a rate of 456 per 100,000”. ("Bureau of Justice Statistics," 2012) These numbers do not reflect county jails, probation or parole populations. “An African American child born
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