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Within the criminal justice system there are various situation that take place. Nevertheless, the ones that are actually used include court procedures and law administration. Circumstances that will be deliberated on within this paper are disparity situations and discrimination situations. Depending on the situation, disparity can result in discrimination. Further included will be definitions, examples and comparing as well as contrasting of discrimination and disparity.
The two factors referred to as legal and extralegal are the factors in which disparity consist of. These factors doesn’t essentially mean discrimination. Provided by the lawful factor are valid explanations for the judgments made on the person’s unlawful behavior and felonious record. An example of this would be once an individual is in court and the judge is determining the sentence or how much time that the person will have to serve based on the crime which could be murder, burglary, rape, etc.
Another example would be an individual being arrested for breaking and entering or regular based on their past unlawful history, and the fact that they were in the area where the crime took place at the time that it took place. Other than these reasons, there’s no other evidence that this person committed the crime. In addition, lifestyle, gender, nationality, and class status, are included in the extralegal factor. These factors are not valid reasons to base decisions on.
For example when an individual’s guilt, innocence, and the time that they will have to serve if any is determined on the individual looks as well as the population or their community and the class of the community that they live in. “The CARD report found “stark racial disparities” in the criminal justice system and “wide racial disparities in the areas of human rights violations, environmental racism, healthcare, housing and education”. Despite the significances of the factors the unfairness is still visible and is used as valid reasoning for the person’s imprisonment or innocence.
The person isn’t only being affected within the criminal justice system but they are being affected outside of it as well. Consequently, discrimination is the different treatment or judgment against a group because of their class status, nationality, religion, etc. Institutionalized, systematic, contextual, and individual acts of discrimination are all different types Of discrimination. The criminal record or behavior of an individual is what the institutionalized information is based on. Discrimination in or from the criminal justice system is known as systematic discrimination.
Contextual information is based on particular crimes. Lastly, here’s single acts of discrimination which is determined or based off the acts of the person. Discrimination is revealed to the person in several different facets and conduct received based on group association such as class status, nationality, and many more factors. An example would be when a female is arrested based on her appearance. It all would stem from her being in a known area where there are prostitutes and it is late at night. The female has on provocative clothing. She’s pulled over by an officer and assumed to be a prostitute so she is arrested.
However, what the cops don’t know because they didn’t ask is that the female was walking home from a bar which is around the corner from her house. She is walking home because she’s drunk and she didn’t want to drive. Another example of discrimination would be, when a male of Middle Eastern descent is accused of making terrorist threats. The judge ignores the fact that there is lack of evidence and instead bases his decision on the nationality of the male. The judge then arrives at the conclusion that he is guilt-ridden because of his own beliefs about people of Middle Eastern descent.
Now it is not just us, but the international community that has recognized that indigenous peoples within the U. S. Are subject to racism on many levels and has called for effective steps by the U. S. To remedy this situation. We will be watching closely to see if the U. S. Finally decides to become a country which operates under the rule of law. ” Assumptions about individuals of Middle Eastern descent Stem from the 9/11 incident and maybe even the flight 370 incident. Assumptions like these make individual from around the world believe that there is no unity between the
US and other countries and nationalities. When looking at the comparisons, both discrimination and disparity are alike for the reason that they are both fixated on the punishing of the person for a crime in the court of law or apprehension. Disparity and discrimination will assist in coming the decision on whether the person is guilty or an assumption that the person is not innocent. In difference, the person is punished on a different level. The punishment is typically severer. Discrimination can divide out into several different parts compared to disparity.
Disparity doesn’t have as much ability to branch out as much as discrimination does. Discrimination can stem from disparity however they are not the same things when you look at the bigger picture. In conclusion, discrimination and disparity are circumstances which take place in the criminal justice system. According to Mathis (2007), “Real reform is needed. Without an acknowledgement and analysis of the racial disparities in arrest, sentencing and incarceration, the criminal justice system will be, in effect, creating its next generation of prisoners.
Racial disparity is just an example of an actual disparity, which was mentioned in this paper. However, there needs to be improvement in the criminal justice system, so this can become less or no longer an issue.