CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Criminal Justice System

Statement of the Research Problem

Minorities are currently overrepresented in American criminal justice systems. Review of the research in this area, minority is estimated to be overrepresented in 80 percent of the states in America. Overrepresentation means that although African Americans constitute 13 percent of the general population, they comprised 27 percent of all arrests in 2002. Self-report studies of criminal behavior challenge the arrest statistics, since the majority of self-report results do not indicate significant racial differentials. Some self-report research, however, does suggest that Mrican Americans commit more serious offenses. In 2002, Mrican American youth comprised 49 percent of all arrests for violent crimes and 26 percent of all property crimes. However, additional research submits that even if Mrican Americans commit more crime proportionate to their makeup in the general population, it is not enough to correspond to their arrest and confinement rates.

There are countless factors that influence the social phenomenon of minority overrepresentation. Some of these are legal factors such as prior record or nature of the current offense; some are extralegal factors such as race or demeanor; and then there may be a combination of both types. American constitutional and criminal law suggests that justice should be based on legal factors and not extralegal factors. Thus, theoretically, persons should be judged by behaviors which are presumably under their control and not on factors beyond their control. Moreover, this application of the law should apply equally across all persons and not allow for differential treatment based on extralegal factors.

Literature Review

There are racial and ethnic inequalities with the minorities in the U.S. criminal justice system. A disproportionately high number of minority Americans are arrested, convicted, incarcerated, denied early parole and rearrested. There is some evidence of ethnic (Hispanic vs. non-Hispanic) disparities. However, many government agencies do not collect ethnicity data, so it is more difficult to draw firm conclusions about ethnic disparity. There is a similar lack of information about American Indian or Alaska Natives and Asians due to their relatively small percentages in the population, but there is some evidence that American Indian or Alaska Natives are overrepresented, whereas Asians' criminal justice outcomes are similar to those of Whites. However, there is a lot of variability in culture and socioeconomic status between different minority groups, so it is likely that their experiences in the criminal justice system vary widely.

This states that the US Criminal Commission on Criminal & Juvenile Justice should conduct and review studies and make recommendations regarding the reduction of racial disparities in the criminal justice system. This paper focuses on adult offenders. This paper defines race and ethnicity, explores the extent of the problem in each stage of the criminal justice system nationwide (policing, pre-trial detention, sentencing and court processing, community supervision, prison and the death penalty), discusses possible reasons why such disparities occur, and describes US efforts to reduce the problem. The paper concludes with recommendations for reducing overrepresentation of minorities in the US criminal justice ...