Race and Crime Essay

Are minorities continually being unfairly overhe ard, tried and penalise as a result of racial disagreement or do minorities nonwithstanding post to a greater extent crimes? In secernate to check up on if inconsistency or dissimilitude is the cause of current over mission of minorities in the criminal in effect(p)ice agreement we sacrifice to study subspecies, ethnicity and past anti-Semite(prenominal) judicial practices. Are the historical antib insufficiency practices and past laws the cause of the brassatic unbalance of power in relation to melt down, var. and dissimilitude inwardly our society that leads to more crime among minorities today?There be many theories on why, how and even if ctype Aaign disagreement plays a significant procedure in apologiseing the current arrest and immurement rank of minorities in the United States. tender strain theory, because it in addition involves the most lying-in to important mixer aspects of society is the maven I most agree with. In my experience restricted access to mixer and cultural capital is the cause for lavishlyer(prenominal) than expected crime evaluate among our citizens who lack these two important aspects of crime control.The unfitness to achieve triumph base on societies definition causes sign and alternative ship canal of thinking to achieve that level of winner, which is sometimes outside the confines of the law. The term flow has traditionally referred to the biological differences of mankind. The differences that distinguish us by the color of our skin, hair food grain and certain physical features determine what race we are. Some experts contend that race is just a societal construct and throng are classified and labeled by the culturally dominant mathematical group in that society.This type of classification system tends to stand for that one race is inferior to other (Walker et al pg 6). The term minority is employ for any race that is less in numbe rs than the race in power. before long in the United States the majority is considered to be Caucasian and the minorities are African Americans, Hispanics, Arab Americans, etc. There have been many historical examples of minorities being unfairly treated within the confines of our judicial system. Race discrimination and social and stintingal divergence have a direct impact on crime and criminal evaluator (Walker et al, pg 78).In the southern states during the 1800s barriers were created in the laws to breach nonwhite persons from the majority, white persons called the Black Codes. These codes created a sub judice line of separation stating where blacks could and could not go in public, what land they could own and how they could advance a living. The term, coloring material Line encompassed everything involving what water fountains and bathrooms moroses could use and where they could stand or twit in public spaces.The Jim Crow laws of the 1900 were also racist laws and a ctions that deprived African Americans obliging rights, claiming blacks were inferior to the whites and were lower class people. The colored sign was the most visible lucre of inferiority imposed upon African Americans by the Jim Crow laws (Davis PhD). The punishment for breaking these laws and codes were crush lynching, serving prison time on chain gangs and debilitating debt imposed by sharecropping attempts to make a living (Davis PhD). foregoing laws and codes set the stage for economic in fitity of minorities in the United States.Income, wealth, unemployment are the bill measure of economic inequality. All of these measures allude deep and persistent inequality in society generally and with respect to race and ethnicity (Walker et al pg, 79). In order to determine if race discrimination has the major contri preciselyor to minority over representation in the criminal justice system we moldiness rule out the idea of disparity being the cause of overrepresentation. The conc ept of disparity in the criminal justice system refers to differences in say incarceration evaluate of a certain race but not because of systematic race discrimination. dissimilitude is a way to explain the high numbers of minorities as criminal perpetrators with true factors. These factors could include, minorities commit more crimes, not because practice of law officers, judges and juries are racists. Crime arrest and convictions could be solely based on legal factors. These legal factors include the earnestness of offense, mitigating circumstances and previous criminal records. These factors distant to extralegal factors that include race, class, gender and lifestyle (Walker et al, pg 18).If arrest and conviction rates were based solely on legal factors with no weight given to extralegal factors, a high minority count would be considered disparity not systematic discrimination on part of the criminal justice system. To determine if only legal factors and not extralegal facto rs are the cause of an overrepresentation of minorities in the criminal justice system ofttimes more research needs to be conducted. If the cause of high incarceration rates is because of disparity instead of discrimination at that place is one theory I sapidity explains why there is disparity.The Social puree Theory explains the causes of disparity among minorities that leads to higher rates of arrests and incarceration rates. Robert Mertons social stain theory holds that each society has a dominant set of values and goals along with accept fitting means of achieving them (Walker et al, pg 92). If success in life is measured by your social status, involving what you own, where you live and who you know then that is your individualized goals for success. The ways to achieve this success are seen as hard work, education, self-control and as individual achievements (Walker et al, pg 92).If the American woolgather is not realized by a group of people because of societies inabilit y to provide equal levels of educational and work opportunities to achieve success it results in what Mertons calls social strain. Mertons theory of social strain addresses the sally between what society views as success and a persons circumstances are for seek to achieve that success. (Walker et al, pg 92). Social strain helps to explain high rates of criminal occupation among minorities because minorities are more likely to be denied legal opportunities to obtain the American dream by legal means.The high levels of economic inequality experienced by minorities, unneurotic with continuing discrimination based on race and ethnicity, mean that minorities are cold less likely to be able to achieve approved social goals by conventional means (Walker et al, pg 93). In demonstration I believe minorities do commit more crimes today, but that is because of a record of discrimination and blocked opportunities to achieve social and cultural capital. The ruling class, the majority, be cause of past-institutionalized and systematic discrimination has created what we have today, a disparity among minorities baffling in our criminal justice system. then even though we have curbed contextual and individual acts of discrimination we have nonetheless to address past discrimination in a meaningful way time still upholding the law. Bibliography Davis, Ronald L. F. Ph. D. California State University, Northridge. Creating Jim Crow. narration of Jim Crow retrieved on June 2, 2011 from http//jimcrowhistory. org/history/creating. htm Lafree, G. & Russell, K. K. (1993). The argument for studying race and crime. ledger of Criminal Justice Education. 4, 273-289. Walker, S, Spohn, C, & DeLone, M. (2007). The Color of Justice Race, Ethnicity, and Crime in America. Wadsworth print Co.