AFRICAN AMERICANS INCARCERATION

African Americans Incarceration



Abstract

As African Americans migrated from Africa, they were not treated equally. Blacks were discriminated in every field of life. Blacks are so much suppressed by the racial discrimination that they become frustrated and angry; they are not getting their rights. They are not born criminals but social discrimination compels them to commit crime. Whether it is education, health or punishments for specific crimes, Blacks discriminated in each field as compared to Whites.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Reasons for More Blacks Incarceration1

Factors that Lead Towards Crime2

Extreme Poverty3

Urban Residence3

Racial Discrimination3

Unfair Prosecutions4

Facts and figures5

Conclusion7

References8

Appendix9

African Americans Incarceration

Introduction

African Americans are also known as Afro-Americans or Blacks frequently. They originated from Africa, people from different races come under African American race but the most dominant ancestry is from Africa. African Americans were known by this term first but over the times new terms like Negro, colored, Afro-American were also used to define them. Terms that are mostly used to define them are African American and blacks used interchangeably.

Almost 35 million African Americans are living in United Sates which makes them 12.3% of the total population, according to the 2000 US Census. Approximately 88% of black lives in metropolitan areas, half of them live in South.

Reasons for More Blacks Incarceration

African Americans face high prejudice and racial discrimination. There are many reasons that blacks indulge towards committing a crime, which increase their chances to go jail. This is not their innate behavior, they are forced to do so by discriminating them at every stage of life. Over the years, different researchers criticize the US judiciary system for being bias. In many ways, there are much different punishments for Blacks as compared to White men. There are severe punishments for Blacks and flexibility for Whites committing the same crime. Due to social injustice, discrimination and racism Blacks are more inclined towards crimes. They are not born criminals, many researchers argue that over time, not being treated fairly and after bearing all the inequalities and injustice in society psychologically they are so disturbed that they chose the wrong way to show their frustration. For example, in 1980 when United States decided to free the state from drugs, police took strict actions in black dominated areas while white dominant areas are largely overlooked. Blacks are very likely to have capital punishment as opposed to Whites on committing the same crime e.g. if Blacks murdered Whites there is a high chance that Blacks will be sentenced to death, conversely if blacks had killed other Blacks chances are really low for capital sentence, this shows that the judicial system is biased when it comes to do justice for society. Young Blacks who face all this or heard about these incidents, are more likely to show hatred for society and according to many researchers this is a normal reaction because they are not getting equal rights which they are entitled to.

Moreover, if we consider social indicators like health, education, and living standards, one can find prominent difference between ...