Racial Disparity in US Criminal Justice System

Introduction

American nation is one of the most racially diverse democratic nations in the world but unfortunately, the fruits of economic prosperity which this great nation has gained are not uniformly shared across the society. This has resulted which has resulted in marginalization of whole segments in the American society. One of the fundamental aspects of this marginalization is disparity in the treatment of persons based on their race and color. This disparate treatment occurs incrementally across the entire spectrum of US criminal justice system. Ethnic and racial disparity causes public to mistrust the criminal justice system which impedes the ability of system to promote and foster public safety. Many people who work within the criminal justice system are aware acutely about the problems related to racial disparity and oppose it and try to eliminate or mitigate its effects through counteraction. The purpose of this essay is informing readers about the main causes of racial disparity and examining the possible actions which can be taken on the part of criminal justice professional to either eliminate or reduce this disparity. The practitioners in the field readily acknowledge the notion that racial disparity is indicative of other problems related to public safety in American society. Reducing the racial disparity will surely result in more credibility of US criminal justice system. Justice system will then be able to play more effective role in responding and preventing a crime and increase its commitment towards public safety.

Discussion

What is Racial Disparity?

When the proportion of ethnic or racial groups within the control of the system is greater than the proportion of such groups in the general population, racial disparity in the system exists. There are variety of factors which causes disparity in criminal justice system ranging from differing criminal activity levels, legislative policies, emphasis of law enforcement agencies on particular communities, and judgments on the part of criminal justice practitioners who use broad discretion at one or more stages in the criminal justice system (Alpert. Pp. 671).

Unwarranted or illegitimate racial disparity is caused by discriminating between two or more similarly situated races and treating them differently in provision of justice. In some instances, this discriminatory treatment takes its roots in overt racial bias of the practitioner, while in others; some influence of other factors which are not directly associated with race comes into play. Moreover, disparity sometimes results from unguarded, institutional or individual level decisions which are solely race-based. Sometimes, characteristics which are highly correlated with a race such as poverty also cause differential treatment and perpetuate and foster racial disparity.

Key aspects to address racial disparity in the US criminal justice system

Acknowledging the fact that racial disparities have a cumulative nature: Person in the Criminal justice system goes through different stages before getting the justice which ranges from arrest to parole. Racial disparity problem is not the result of actions at any single stage; rather it builds on each stage of the continuum of criminal justice system.

Encouraging communication across the criminal justice ...