Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In this report, Ghandoosh cites statistics that are pretty convincing that there
is a problem with racial disparity in the criminal justice system in the United
States. One in three black men will be incarcerated in their lifetime when
only one in seventeen white men will ever be incarcerated. The author starts
20(1/2), 141-155.
Semien and Roettger inspect class and caste models to explain racial
disparities in society as a whole and specifically the U.S criminal justice
system. Their reflection gives a historical perspective on the criminal justice
Alegria examines the idea of racial profiling through observing White people
in public
conversations about racially loaded topics. The author finds that the focus
group uses colorblind language. The author also finds that even though color-blind language
is used, there is still
racializing discourse present. This article shows that even though people in
society today know the words not to say, they continue to racialize people in
their conversation and the way they treat them. They would not call
Ibe, P., Ochie, C., & Obiyan, E. (2012). Racial misuse of "criminal profiling"
by law enforcement: Intentions and implications. African Journal of
Criminology and Justice Studies, 6(1/2), 177-196.
Ibe, Ochie, and Obiyan examine critical issues in criminal profiling in relation
specifically to African Americans. They look at the misuse of criminal profiling
by law enforcement. The history of criminal profiling is discussed to set the
stage for the research being completed. All three of the authors of this article
have Ph.Ds. and are professors in criminal justice departments at wellestablished universities adding greatly to the credibility and usefulness of
this article. The information included would be helpful for someone who does
not understand what criminal profiling means and how that can be a
justification for racial profiling.
One of the main concerns in the U. S. criminal justice system is the
recidivism rate or the rate at which criminals return to prison after they are
released. Recidivism adds greatly to the number of prisoners in the criminal
justice system especially because the United States does not appear to be
able to rehabilitate criminals very well. This source examines the role that
Wehrman looks at why black men are more likely than other races or females
to return to jail or prison. He ties in other criminological studies to show that
racism in society effects post-release opportunities for convicts of African
American decent making it harder for them to remain crime free. The author
gives recommendations for further study into the inequality in the justice
system. Wehrman has a Ph.D. in sociology and he is a professor at a major
university. This is a valuable resource because of the authors credibility and
the information about how race impacts recidivism
Sentencing
This paper has established that racism has a role in the
disproportionate number of African American men in our criminal justice
system. A look at how racism affects sentencing specifically will bring about
a better understanding of why we have a disparity problem. The following
sources look at how race affects sentencing jail length, prison length, and the
rate that juveniles are convicted under adult consequences.
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.
Howell and Hutto address whether race has a direct impact on juveniles
being sentenced to restitution, probation, or jail. The juvenile justice system
is examined as to whether it is meeting its intended goal of rehabilitation.
The authors review literature about the court systems to introduce the
purpose for their current study. Through this research, the authors find that
race does impact sentencing of juveniles as adults which has a direct impact
on the number of African American men in our criminal justice system. The
main author, Rebecca Howl, is a Ph.D. and is an instructor at the Department
of Criminal Justice at the University of Alabama. The authors give an
Bebo, J. A. (1999). The war on drugs, crack cocaine, and the resulting
sentencing disparities. Discourse of Sociological Practice, 2(1), 34-38.
Bebo writes this article to expose the fact that laws are composed in ways
that make them unfair to parts of the population. He points out that criminal
sanctions and sentencing are racially unfair. He discusses how the general
public views these laws and how those views are influenced by our media
and entertainment. The article is published by a major university and Bebo is
a senior lecturer at the University of Massachusetts. This allows one to
assume that it is a credible source.
Reuter, P. (2013). Why has US drug policy changed so little over 30 years?