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Why are the principles of science and the ethical guidelines for science so important to research Studies have found that more and more black people are stopped on the streets for questioning, but few are charged as a result. This shows that the police have tainted images of black people. The researchers studied three different ethnic groups (white, black and Asian suspects) in two age categories (17 - 20 yrs and 21 - 25 yrs) and found that more blacks than whites were refused bail by both the police and the courts. This has led to the over-representation of blacks in prison. That is why the prison figures are 18. 2 % more than the total population.
Walker found that discrimination was found in one age category but not another. The prison statistics show that by the end of the criminal justice system process, black people were far more likely to be undergoing the most severe penalty available. The prisoner is most likely to have missed out on the educational system and belongs to a minority group. Wolfgang and Ferracuti applied a theory relating to an earlier study on homicide in Philadelphia. A significant number of homicides that had occurred amongst lower-class people resulted from trivial events that took on great importance due to expectations on how people behave.
All people were expected to behave by asserting their chance to achieve vast riches. Although all individuals are not expected to achieve this goal, it is generally accepted that they should all try. Those who didnt were characterised as lazy. PACE (Police and criminal evidence act, 1984) is an act which sets out to help safeguard suspects from mistreatment. It should help the minority who are discriminated against, but it doesnt seem to happen. The minority's dont have the expertise to plead innocence when condemned as the criminal justice system is made up of liberal, middle-class, white men who base a lot of the cases on discretion.
As they are not many ethnic professionals it doesnt seem fair, as it could be classed as bias, as the white judges (or magistrates) prefer to give the middle-class a second chance. PACE is backed by five codes of practice, the first, Code A being on stop and search. The objective basis is that it shouldnt derive from the general characteristics, Jefferson was unconvinced by this as he thought it was a guide to reasonable suspicion. Brown found that PACE had limited impact on stop and search practise due to difficulties over the concept of reasonable suspicion, poor training, poor sanctions for breaches of rules, and lack of public awareness of stop and search powers. There is another theory, the cumulative effects theory which predicts an increase in the proportion of black people among suspects and offenders from the earliest to the latest stage of the process. But it has been found that bias had not been found at every stage of the criminal justice process, in reality black people are more likely to be acquitted than white people.
Bias against black people has risen since the 1970 s when the black youths tried to identify themselves to the police and society as individuals. This has led to direct racial discrimination from the judges and magistrates who remembered the time of segregation and other similar matters, this would build up and provide a racial outlook therefore showing discrimination. Being a part of an ethnic group is seen as being a member and an important source of personal identity, it is seen to be an attack on the group as a whole when one member has been targeted. This is why there are many practical problems when trying to improve decision making procedures. The criminal justice system should take into account there are not enough minority groups in the workforce, especially the police, or the courts, so therefore try to improve the standards when dealing with offenders. Even though racism and discrimination is part and parcel of living in a society, a persons identity as a human should be more important than the colour of the skin.
Bibliography Greenberg, David. 1999. Criminology. New Brunswick, N. J. : Rutgers University Press.
Kornhauser, Ruth R. 1998. Social Sources of Delinquency. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Like, Allen E. 1991. Perspectives on Deviance. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Free research essays on topics related to: criminal justice system, pace, black people, reasonable suspicion, middle class
Research essay sample on Criminal Justice System Reasonable Suspicion
