Race and the Criminal Justice System, Essay Example

There is a common belief that the law is designed to benefit the each and every member of the entire community, thus ensuring justice and safety. However, Parenti suggests an idea that law is actually advantageous only for rich members of our society. People are afraid of crime on the street, because of the way it is portrayed in movies and on television in general. However, the author differentiates between two types of crimes – ‘crime in the streets’ and ‘crime in the suits’. ‘Crime in the streets’ is a concept used for criminal offences we see in the news and read about in the newspapers, like murders, burglary, robberies, and others. ‘Crime in the suits’ is used to define corporate crimes that cost the society much more in lives and money, but even thought they are regularity, they are rarely prosecuted or made public. And even if they are prosecuted, no one goes to jail, thus they are required to pay huge fines, which they never do. These people may steal millions and stay free, but as for regular people – “A Virginia man got ten years for stealing 87 cents.”(Parenti, 123) Rich people do not go to prison, thus 90 percent of all incarcerated people are men, poorly educated and unemployed.(Parenti, 125) According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2,310,984 prisoners were held in federal or state prisons or in local jails on June, 2008. Among these people there isn’t a sing head of corporation.

The ‘war on drugs’ appears to be a huge issue in the U.S. as it refers to racial minorities. “The rate of drug admissions to state prison for black men are thirteen times greater than the rate for white men.”(Drug Policy Alliance Network, 2008) One of the main source for such racial inequity is historical bias against racial minorities, which rationalizes their unbalanced presence in the penal system. Moreover, it is generally perceived in criminal justice that most crimes are committed by minorities, and most minorities tend to commit crimes.

References

Parenti, M. (2006). Democracy for the Few. Thomson/Wadsworth.

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (2008). Prison Statistics. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from http://www.ojp.gov/bjs/prisons.htm/

Drug Policy Alliance Network. (2008) Race and the Criminal Justice System. Retrieved May 19, 2009, from http://www.drugpolicy.org/communities/race/criminaljust/