Table of ContentsIntersectionality of race and class in the criminal justice systemThe relationship between policy and incarceration ratesRacial profilingDisparities in sentencing and conviction rates between crack and cocaineReduced legitimacy of the criminal justice systemWhether explicit or not, power and privilege shape our understanding of crime and justice. This article will seek to answer the research question: “How does the criminal justice system accentuate racial disparities among African American men in the United States?” “In order to answer this question, the intersectionality of race and class will need to be analyzed in more detail. This article will begin by examining the numerical differences in incarceration between young white and black men, examine the policies in place that may enable these disparities, and finally examine how incarceration promotes social inequalities within the black community . Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayIntersectionality of Race and Class in the Criminal Justice SystemRace is commonly used as a way to signify identity and differences between individuals. Through analysis of research, it becomes clear that there is a direct relationship between racial and class disparities in the United States. Racial threat theory seeks to explain how policies based on discrimination are used to punish a specific population. This theory suggests that black Americans are sentenced much harsher than white Americans because they are perceived as a threat. Class bias in criminal sentencing is suggested by findings that defendants with higher levels of education will receive relatively shorter sentences and are generally less likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes. Increasing incarceration rates among less-educated black men indicate that perceptions and stigma surrounding low-income minority neighborhoods receive disproportionate attention from law enforcement in these areas. The intersectionality of race and class allows for a deeper analysis of the unjust justifications and consequences of discriminatory policing practices in the United States. The Relationship Between Politics and Incarceration Rates Rising rates of incarceration reflect decisions by policymakers to increase the number and length of prison sentences in the United States. Rising crime rates in the 1970s and 1980s led authorities to adopt a war on drugs approach to combating street crime. In the 1980s and 1990s, lawmakers signed laws ensuring that convictions not only led to prison time, but that those sentences lasted for longer periods. The main methods of carrying out these sentences were the implementation of a mandatory minimum sentence, three strikes and life without parole. Mandatory minimum sentencing laws ensure that people who commit certain crimes receive minimum prison sentences. Indeed, the three strikes law would require a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison for those convicted of a third crime. These methods demonstrate a clear political choice aimed at moving from non-punitive laws to punitive sentences that exclude the rehabilitation of the people concerned. Since then, changesMinimal changes have been made to the criminal justice system, creating exceptions to the scope of these laws, for example the power of a prison officer to grant leave for good behavior. These changes, however, do little to address the systemic problems that enable the use of highly punitive policies in the current political environment. These policy changes have far greater consequences for specific groups than others and have exasperated racial bias in the criminal justice system. In the book No Equal Justice, David Cole argues that:Double standards are of course not explicit; At first glance, criminal law is color and class blind. But in a sense, this only makes the problem worse. The rhetoric of the criminal justice system sends the message that our society carefully protects everyone's constitutional rights, but in practice the rules ensure that law enforcement prerogatives will generally trump the rights of minorities and the poor. By granting suspects substantial constitutional rights, in theory, the Supreme Court validates the outcomes of the criminal justice system as fair. This formal fairness obscures the systemic concerns that should be raised by the fact that the prison population is extremely poor and disproportionately black. The double standards evident in the criminal justice system benefit those with abundant social and economic wealth. These policies continue to be in effect because of their legitimacy and justification among white Americans. Racial profiling Racial profiling is the police's use of suspicion based on an individual's race, ethnicity or religion rather than their behavior. The use of racial profiling by police officers developed from the drug courier profile created in the 1980s by the Drug Enforcement Agency as a way to combat drug trafficking in the United States. Police officers have been trained to look for indicators, such as nervousness and other behavioral indicators, that match the profile of the drug courier. Even though the evidence did not indicate that African Americans were more likely to use drugs than white Americans, they were nonetheless singled out because DEA training materials depicted the faces of minorities at a more pupil. Due to policy changes and training provided to law enforcement, among other factors, traffic stops have become a primary method for community members to be racially profiled. According to the Washington Post, stop-and-frisk data only produces crime results. 3% of the time. This means that 97% of the time African Americans are arrested, they are profiled for no reason. Not only does this serve to refute claims about the effectiveness of profiling, it indicates that resources are being wasted on a method that produces minimal results. In the book titled “Suspicious Citizens,” the authors found that: “Blacks are almost twice as likely to be arrested as whites – even though whites drive more on average,” “Blacks are more likely to be searched after a check”. and “just by getting into a car, a black driver is about twice as likely to be stopped and about four times as likely to be searched.” Compiled data indicates that African Americans are unfairly targeted as potential crime suspects and that using race as an indicator of suspicion creates disproportionate results. The damage ofRacial profiling is much more important than many people think. This experience may cause many African Americans to distrust law enforcement and has obviously increased racial tensions in America. Rates The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world, with 1 in 9 prisoners serving life sentences. In 2002, nearly 12 percent of young black men were incarcerated. In 2004, black men made up 43.3 percent of those incarcerated, despite making up only 13 percent of the total population. In 2010, blacks were incarcerated six times and Hispanics three times more than non-Hispanic whites. Although the number of prisons nationwide has declined over the years, there still remains a visible gap in incarceration rates between specific groups, and a significant portion of the population remains incarcerated. black men and white men commit the same crime, black men receive an average sentence nearly 20% longer. Even though white Americans commit drug crimes at a higher rate than black Americans, Black people are incarcerated for drug offenses at a rate 10 times higher than white people. Statistics show that although African Americans make up 37 percent of crack cocaine users, they are 21.2 times more likely than whites to be imprisoned for crack possession. The question then is why is crack cocaine punished so much more harshly than cocaine? Crack cocaine is typically used in low-income neighborhoods because it is a less expensive form of cocaine, while cocaine is primarily used by wealthy white Americans. Since crack is considered a drug consumed primarily by the black population, crack users are punished much more harshly than cocaine users. The perception of crack as a "black drug" increases the likelihood that black drug users will be incarcerated: a person found in possession of crack can be convicted of possessing as little as 5 grams, when it would take almost 500 grams of cocaine to be convicted of the same charge. In this case, poverty and racism serve as a catalyst for the War on Drugs approach, which fails to understand why crack entered these communities in the first place. In other words, social and economic discourses were ignored in determining these policies. Clearly, social perceptions and biases have a direct influence on policy implementation, as white Americans remain “relatively untouched by anti-drug efforts compared to blacks,” thereby increasing drug disparities. sentences in the United States and serving as a means of “legitimizing” crime. perceptions in black communities. Mass incarceration functioned quite similarly to the Jim Crow era of anti-black laws; further destabilizing Black communities and maintaining historic social and economic disadvantages. From a life course perspective, the impact of a criminal conviction lasts much longer than the sentence incurred. Evidence shows that incarceration is closely linked to negative social and economic factors such as unemployment and restrictions on political and social rights. People of color, particularly those with less wealth, are most affected by the punitive policies employed by the U.S. criminal justice system. Among formerly incarcerated black men, 35.2 percent remained unemployed, while white men experienced the lowest levels of unemployment at 18.4 percent. Alongside high unemployment levels, employees with a recordjudicial officers also face significantly lower salaries. Black men and women are most affected, as stigma surrounding prior race-related criminal convictions causes employers to hesitate in hiring decisions. Incarceration can increase barriers to economic stability and mobility. According to Bruce Western and Becky Petit, "state prisoners average only a tenth grade education and about 70 percent have no high school diploma." As a result, ex-offenders typically lack the work experience, human capital, and soft skills needed to successfully re-enter the workforce and obtain housing. These factors create a self-fulfilling prophecy as individuals are unable to sufficiently financially support their families and are more likely to return to criminal activity upon release. The National Research Council of the National Academies found that when offenders are able to obtain stable employment, their ties to criminal activity usually disappear. The impact of a prison sentence is not individualistic but rather has a cumulative and intergenerational effect. Offenders' families are disproportionately affected by the financial burden during and after the period of incarceration. A disproportionate number of incarcerated people grew up in poor, racially segregated neighborhoods, and their social and economic marginalization is only reinforced by the resulting incarceration inequalities. Women and children are most affected by the mass incarceration of African-American men. The Welfare Reform Act of 1996 prohibits people with prior drug convictions from using cash assistance and food stamp programs. Although some states have repealed or minimized this law, several still enforce the restrictions outlined by the law. The resulting socioeconomic disadvantages affect a family's ability to accumulate wealth and increase the likelihood that children will also be incarcerated at some point in their lives. In the United States, approximately 2.7 million children live in a home where at least one parent is incarcerated. In addition to this disadvantage, there are declining levels of civic and political engagement among former prisoners (reformulation) and those most affected by their imprisonment. In "Politics of Race and the Criminal Justice System," Paul Testa argues that "those most affected by the disparities of the current system are the least likely to participate in politics, while those who are relatively unaffected are often unlikely to recognize that the problem requires political solutions.” This argument raises an interesting question in that the prevalence of incarceration among minorities, specifically African American men, may not be understood by non-minorities due to the fact that they have not been negatively affected by the systems currently in place. Given this lack of understanding, many fail to recognize the root of disproportionate incarceration problems and view the fact that increasing numbers of Black men are incarcerated as an anomaly. Research supports this theory as one study indicates that although 68% of black people perceive crime Even though the justice system is biased against the black community, only 25% of white people believe the system produces biased results. Perceived bias within the black community indicates a lack of trust in the criminal justice system, but the lack of perceived bias among whites indicates the effect.