1. Examine the various search patterns investigators can use to systematically search crime scenes for evidence.…
In Eugene Robinson’s essay “You Have the Right to Remain a Target of Racial Profiling,” Robinson argues that police officers still racially profile when pulling over people for traffic offenses. He uses a Federal Bureau of Justice Statistics report that states that white, African-American and Hispanic drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by the police in a traffic stop. He doesn’t believe this to be true and delves deeper into the findings. Robinson notes that African-Americans and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched and be the subject of “police use of force”. Black drivers were also twice as likely to be arrested as white drivers, and Hispanics were more likely to receive a ticket. Whites were more likely to receive written or verbal warnings that blacks or…
From the use of a judge to listen to both sides of the trial, to the impartial jury that is used to decide the verdict of the trial. Everyone in the courtroom is there to offer a fair, and safe trial for whomever may have charges brought against them. It may be true that there are many things within the Criminal Justice system that may not work efficiently or even effectively, however there is nothing that is perfect. There is something to be said when it comes to the American Justice system; it gets many things right when it comes to equal rights and fairness for the American…
In the United States of America racial discrimination still exists to this day. Minorities in our country are not seen as equal people. When a person is deprived of their human rights it makes them feel degraded and troubled. In order to become a more civilized country, we must forget the color of our own skin and live with each other as one. In the article “Why Racial Profiling is a Bad Idea” by Tom Head, discusses the way cops pay more attention to those of minority races and how they usually find them guilty of crimes they didn’t commit. Even though many officers will deny their participation in this type of profiling, a lot use this tactic to pull over and arrest Minority races. The article “Racial Profiling Lives On” by Devon Carbado, Cheryl Harris and Kimberle Crenshaw, also displays examples of how racial profiling continues to this day. There are many ways cops can search/arrest African Americans or other Minorities for no reason and still keep from breaking the Fourth Amendment and the authors of “Racial Profiling Lives On” supports there claims with emotional examples that appeal to a pathological type of audience.…
The United States court system is composed of numerous sections of bodies of law that function together to ensure justness is served in fulfillment with the United States Constitution, federal, state and local laws. These organizations include law enforcement, the courts and, correction system all of which have a legitimate responsibility to maintain the American Peoples trust. I am a strong advocate for our court system, although it can use some fine-tuning every level of Justice could stand some improvement but that takes time, commitment and the right officials in office.…
1. BIAS IN POLICE STOPS? In the late 1990s, popular, legal, and political concerns were raised across the United States about police harassment of minority groups in their everyday encounters with law enforcement. These concerns focused on the extent to which police were stopping people on the highways for “driving while black” (seeWeitzer 2000; Harris 2002; Lundman and Kaufman 2003). Additional concerns were raised about racial bias in pedestrian stops of citizens by police predicated on “zero-tolerance” policies to control quality-of-life crimes and policing strategies concentrated in minority communities that targeted illegal gun possession and drug trafficking (see Fagan, Zimring, and Kim 1998; Greene 1999; Skolnick and Caplovitz 2001; Fagan and Davies 2000, 2003; Fagan 2002; Gould and Mastrofski 2004).…
The Criminal Justice System is a necessary aspect of American life. America is known for being the land of the free. If you are living in America you have something called “rights”. Rights as a U.S. citizen are based off “The Bill of Rights” in the United States Constitution. The Constitution clearly states the rights that each and every American citizen are entitled to. Most of the population don’t quite understand how many rights they actually do have as an American. With freedom and rights in our citizens’ defense, it’s only natural that more crimes occur and the criminals become incarcerated. But, did you ever think maybe the innocent get put behind bars all because they did not understand their rights? I have the perfect example which forever changed American history and those wrongfully accused; it’s the case of Gideon v. Wainwright.…
Although most cases of police brutality occur south of the Mason Dixon Line, this is the imaginary line which divided the North and South during the tine of slavery, and states with histories of racism and segregation, police brutality happens throughout the United States of America. The influence of people and the media, ignorance, and the unwillingness to accept others can explain why this happens. One can also look at statistics and come to the conclusion that minorities are not favored amongst police officers. Because being colored is a metaphysical dilemma that many have not learned to accept, all minorities, African Americans and Latinos especially, almost always seem to “fit the description: There is a statistic which asserts that minorities are two to four times more likely to be stopped, questioned, frisked, ticketed, etcetera while driving or walking by…
“About 80 percent of those who are stopped and frisked are Black and Latino” (Hicks). The record breaking numbers have even prompted civil rights activists, leaders, and elected officials to protest several times. The public has had enough of this silence and has begun speaking out against New York’s police departments. “It’s racial profiling, it’s racism, and it’s having dire consequences in our city” (Taylor). Racial profiling is a tactic that humiliates and dehumanizes New Yorkers. Stop and frisk is a program that was made to protect society, but the NYPD has been taking advantage of it instead. The NYPD has also been criticized for illegally stopping bystanders with stop and…
The average indictment rate of police brutality against african-americans is 13% (2012 Supplementary Homicide Report, FBI). This is simply an embarrassment of the judicial system when the indictment rate of police brutality against white Americans is a staggering 63% (2012 Supplementary Homicide Report, FBI). With a 50% difference between the two, this implies the superiority persona officers of law enforcement believe they have when it comes to minorities. To stand in a police officer’s shoes and think one can walk away from shooting an unarmed person of color because the judicial system will not indict them is a dishonor to everything law enforcement is supposed to stand…
This shows that blacks and other ethnical groups are being strippen of their rights and being humiliated by police agencies that claim to have racial profiling as a working method to decrease crime. Statistics clearly show the bias that's behind African Americans and law enforcements. In Ferguson for an example, “African American drivers there represented 86 percent of all traffic stops despite making up only 67 percent of the city’s population; white drivers by contrast, account for only 13 percent of the traffic stops in Ferguson despite only making up 29 percent of its population (Zengerle 2).” This shows that they are being targeted, because the majority of their population has high arrests percentage. “African American drivers accounted for nearly 93 percent of arrests and whites only 7 percent (Zengerle 2).”…
We all know it’s there. Sitting there, watching us, judging us, eventually it’s going to come up in our lives in one way or another. The criminal justice system of the United States of America. Some say it’s great, others hate it, probably because they’ve been through it. We’ve all seen it on T.V.- Cops, Law and Order SVU, I Almost Got Away With It. Someone commits a crime, the police get the bad guy, end of story. Unfortunately it’s not always as perfect as it may seem in real life. Sometimes the bad guys get away with it and innocent people are wrongly imprisoned. If the criminal justice system remains unrevised and prejudiced towards minorities then innocent citizens will continue to be incriminated for crimes they did not commit.…
The way that the police uses excessive force with any minority class men is considered brutality disregarding their ethnicity or economic status. Police brutality has a dramatic change on how the community looks at the law enforcers. Nobody will look at policemen the same way after all the accusations and prove that shows how they are abusive of the power granted to them by the government. Every human, regardless of ethnicity, the color of skin, being a minority, and having legal status in the country has his Miranda rights. Miranda rights can not be broken by police officers when being arrested for a minor crime or a bigger felony. The way a person looks, dresses, acts, or who they hang out with should not be a cause for arrest and brutality…
Is the Criminal Justice System too harsh or unfair? The Criminal Justice System is supposed to deter crime, so that it will prevent previous criminals from acting again and influence others to not commit. Although in many cases the CJS (Criminal Justice System) is successful, there are great amounts of flaws in the system. There are different perspectives on the CJS and it is hard to argue which one is right because they all, for the most part, have good points. Some flaws that are most concerning are having trust with the CJS on not being equal to all citizens.…
Racial profiling is a controversial topic in today’s society. Many minorities feel targeted by governmental officials such as police officers and U.S. courts. “Statistics have shown that blacks in the U.S. are arrested and imprisoned for committing crimes at higher proportions than any other racial group” (“Crime and Race”)Even though minorities feel targeted by governmental officials and have higher crime rates than whites, racial profiling is just an alleged practice. Minorities feel singled out by law enforcement. Governmental officials are suspected to use the practice of racial profiling; the government activity directed at a suspect or group of suspects based solely on race. Is there use of racial profiling within the United States justice system? In 1976, during the court case United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, a Hispanic man had been stopped by Border Patrol while he was driving in his car near the California-Mexican border. The statistics also show that these experiences are not simply disconnected anecdotes or exaggerated versions of personal experiences, but rather established and persistent patterns of law enforcement conduct. It may be that these stops do not spring from racism on the part of individual officers, or even from the official policies of the police departments for which they work. Nevertheless, the statistics leave little doubt that, whatever the source of this conduct by police; it has a disparate and degrading impact on blacks. But racial profiling is important not only because of the damage it does, but also because of the connections between stops of minority drivers and other, larger issues of criminal justice and race. Put another way, "driving while black" reflects, illustrates, and aggravates some of the most important problems we face today when we debate issues involving race, the police, the courts, punishment, crime control, criminal justice, and constitutional law.…