In this research paper I will analyze the break down the officially recognized races in the US, crimes specifically relate to these urban areas that are not present in more rural and suburban areas, finally how are crimes handled both at the judicial and executive levels in poverty-stricken communities as opposed to upper class communities. All communities are affected by crime and the criminal justice system designed to prevent it. However, impoverished urban areas with a large minority population are disproportionally impacted. Why is that? In order to be able to answer this, you must first examine a few additional questions.
Using Material from Item B and elsewhere, assess sociological explanations of ethnic differences in offending and victimisation. According to official statistics there are significant ethnic differences in the likelihood of being involved in the criminal justice system. Black and Asians are overrepresented in the system. For example black people make up 2.8% of the population, but 11% of the prison population. Contrastingly whites are underrepresented.
This information also shows where and when individuals are most likely to become victimized. Victim surveys also provide more detailed information on crime events than did national data systems based on police records. These surveys would ask respondents to provide information on themselves, the offenders, the nature of the crime, and the context in which it occurred. While this type of information may have been available in local police files, it was not assembled nationally by agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in a form that allowed easy access. Moreover, the detail available in police files varied substantially, depending on the willingness of police officers to ask victims systematically for the specifics of crime events.
Due to increasing violence and gang activity numerous steps are now being implemented address gain affiliation in our prison system. Contrary to most of societies popular beliefs, gang affiliated inmates do not make up the majority of incarcerated inmates. In a 2002 national survey only 15,398 gang affiliated inmates were locked-up in state and federal prisons. Many states reported fewer than 1000 gang affiliated inmates in their correctional system. (Kawucha, Marquart, & R, 2006) Despite gang member’s low numbers in correctional facilities, the problems they cause are
You also will have highway patrol or state troopers and even state police. The local police departments will be organized to only work within a certain jurisdiction in the city while sheriff departments will work in the county. Both of these agencies will work together because the sheriff’s department has the jails to house people convicted of small crimes or awaiting prison and trail. Federal agencies have their own jurisdictions which all depend on the agency. State police have jurisdiction over anywhere in the state but still work within the states agency’s when arresting a suspected criminal unless they broke federal crimes then the case will go to the federal courts.
Labeling theory involving Gangs There is a separation that is prevalent in today’s society between the rich and the poor. People who are born rich are able to commit crimes and avoid the punishment that follows, while the poor must face full punishment of the law and have few if any rights when it comes to formal sanctions of law enforcement. When you think of a gang more than likely, you do not think of a large group of close friends but rather a group of people who are menaces to society who carry guns, sell drugs, and cause havoc and violence in many different types of neighborhood’s. This is why we will investigate in further detail the labels that are placed on gangs using labeling theory and the effects it has on their social interactions. A sociologist by the name of Walter Miller did a study where he interviewed law enforcement personnel and social service professionals who dealt with youth gangs.
Disparity The definition of disparity means that there is a difference among a group of people that are represented. When society witnesses many blacks being placed under arrest for committing crimes, and at least 75% of the prisoners that are black; this may cause individuals to conclude that the judicial system may be racist through discrimination. This is not always the case though. Try stepping back and looking at the crimes that are being committed as well as how serious the crimes were that were committed, and review the history of the criminals (Bilchik, 1999). The system cannot release numbers of criminals just to even out the numbers between the races that are in jail; doing so would be considered discrimination as well.
First and for most, to be able to identify the suspect and be able to contact them for further information or hearing information we must obtain their personal information. The other reason police get certain specific information form suspects is for statistical purposes. They use the FBI’s uniform crime report to form probabilities of which races were most likely to commit which crimes, where are they going to commit those crimes and what time of day will they possible commit them. The problem with race when determining guilt or innocence or whether to adjudicate a juvenile is that no matter what the crime when it comes to minorities most feel they are treated unfairly. They think that they system has it in for them and is biased to their ethnicity.
Moreover, further statistics show that black people are seven times more likely and Asians twice as likely to stopped by police compared to their white counterparts. Some may say that racism can be a result of a ‘canteen culture’ where some officers hold negative stereotypes of ethnic minorities and pass on their views to their colleagues which will lead in a general negative stereotype among the police force. Reiner explains that characteristics of canteen cultures include cynicism, suspicion, macho values and racism. On the other hand, the McPherson inquiry after the murder case of Stephen Lawrence concluded that the police force was institutionally racist. This meant that police procedures and culture disadvantaged non-white people in an indirectly racist way.
How far would some sociologists agree that statistics of police recorded crime exaggerate crime levels among some ethnic groups? Crime is an illegal act which happens every day by many different types of people in forms of theft, assault, murder etc. Statistics were created by the government to give them an overall view of the crime rates within the country/area, the “official statistics” help the police and government to solve these crimes. An Ethnic group is a group of people with a certain type of ethnicity for example – Black, White, Asian etc. Official statistics show that a large number of ethnic minorities are more likely to be in prison and are also more involved in recorded crime, than a white person in comparison to their