African Americans are at an increased risk for undergoing some disciplinary action within the legal system than any other group in the United States. (
One of the primary phenomenon that indicate the high risk of experiencing disciplinary practices among African American minority groups in the country is their over-representation in American prison system.
According to bureau of statistics for the US department of justice (2007), the number of inmates in federal and state prisons increased to more than 1.5 million between 2005 and 2006 (U.S Department of Justice 2007). (Is this a Quote? There are not Quotation marks?) Out of this population, 35% were African-Americans, despite the fact that they represented only about 12.4% of the nation’s total population. According to the national council on crime and delinquency (2009), African Americans make up 28% of all arrests made in the country, 40% of the inmates and about 42% of the population of prisoners on death row (U.S Department of Justice 2007). (Again are these quotes?) This is in contrast with the whites who make up around 68% of the total population, and a surprising 71% of the total arrests (U.S Department of Justice 2007). Yet, whites make up only about 40% of the population of inmates in federal and local prisons and around 55% of the population of inmates on death row. These facts clearly indicate an over-representation of the African American people in the US prison system. Some of the reasons that drive this phenomenon include discrimination in the American justice system, the education system and the effect of stereotypic nature of the police, the judicial system and the society in general that holds on to the belief that African Americans, especially males, are more likely to commit some felony than any other group in the US. These issues are present in the UK prison and judicial systems, where some minority groups such as the Blacks and Asians suffer the risk of experiencing some
References: Brown, T. M. 2007. “Lost and turned out: Academic, social, and emotional experiences of students excluded from school”. Urban Education, 42(5): 432-455. Darensbourg, A., Perez, E., & Blake, J. J. 2010. “Over-representation of African American males in exclusionary discipline: The role of school-based mental health professionals in dismantling the school to prison pipeline”. Journal of African American males in education, 1(3). Day-Vines, N. L., & Day-Hairston, B. O. 2005. “Culturally Congruent Strategies for Addressing the Behavioral Needs of Urban, African American Male Adolescents”. Professional School Counseling, 8(3): 236-243. Elliot, D. S. 2003. “Serious violent offenders: Onset, developmental course and termination”. Criminology 32(1): 1-21. Equality and Human Rights Commission. 2008. ‘How Fair is Britain?’ London, UK: EHRC. National council of crime and delinquency. 2009. ‘Created equal: racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system’. Oakland, CA: NCCD. Skiba, R., et al. 2006. “Are zero tolerance policies effective in the schools? An evidentiary review and recommendations”. American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force. Zeiderberg, J., & Schiraldi, V. 2002. ‘Cellblocks or classrooms? The funding of their education and corrections and its impact on African American men’. Washington, DC.