Justice and Racism?

Question

Why are black offenders given stiffer penalties for the same crimes commited by their white counter parts? How does such a small population of people in America (%) represent such a high number of the prison population?

"commit more crime"? Please check out the Justice dept website and click the statistics link.

I think the census has "African-Americans" under 20%.

By judging your votes, the truth is clear. My question was merely a decoy. A majority of the votes seemed based soley upon a false premise that Racism isn't a problem. To those of you who are open minded, I appreciate your answers. Socioeconomic stature does play a big part in "getting off the hook". Look at OJ & MJ.

Zoom - Thinking empirically tells me there's more to a stat than just a number. Poverty doesn't discriminate. Averages mean nothing.

Answer 1

as long as the white races lives, all the other races will face racism from them, just a true fact

keep in mind, not all white people are bad, just most who still has this idea deep inside them, that they are the "superior race". some know this and some does not even know that they are like that and think they are a very understanding person, but in the end, they still think like that.

So what do you do? just be proud of who you are and stay strong

Answer 2

How does such a small population represent a third (or more) of the prison population? I would bet that a greater percentage of blacks are prosecuted and convicted of more crimes that whites---as opposed to whites getting less jail time .

How do you know black offenders are given stiffer penalties for the same crimes committed by whites? Can tell me where to find this information?

While I agree that the percentage of blacks in prison is much higher than whites, I am not certain the cause is race. Why do I say this?

Women are just more than half of the US population, but are only about 15% of the prison population. Is this sexism? Have the women secretly taken over and are giving women who commit crimes a pass? I don't think so.

While racism can play a part in sentencing and criminal prosecution, it cannot be the sole reason for the fact that blacks represent a disproportionate amount of convictions. Perhaps economics and location play a part?

Answer 3

Often, the penalties assigned to a crime are chosen by judges. American judges have the same prejudices as other Americans, and probably view black offenders less sympathetically than white offenders.

Blacks make up a high percentage of the prison population relative to their proportion of the population as a whole because blacks have, on average, lower socioeconomic status than whites. With poverty and lack of options comes crime.

As to why blacks have lower socioeconomic status than whites, it has something to do with the fact that most blacks arrived in America after being captured and sold as slaves. Slavery ended a long time ago, but blacks have become an underclass and have had a very hard time rising in the social structure because of lingering racism and other cultural characteristics that propagate from one generation to the next.

Answer 4

What a shameless question. So when a black person commits a crime we should put a white person in instead because that will be less racist. Black people are not a little population. The reason why there are more black people in prison is because they commit more crimes. All because there are more black people in jail it is not necessarrly racism. Like no offense but it seems that in places like oakland there is a lot of shootouts and gang related murders. If you commit a crime you go to jail not regarding what race you are. Luckily we don't have to even out jails like everything else. Commit a crime go to jail!

Answer 5

Actually Blacks are not that small a population.

Now to the question. It is true that historically minorities have been given stiffer penalties over the years than whites. It is also true that as the number of minority judges has increased the ratio of minorities getting stiffer sentences than whites has not drastically changed.

Not necessarily a racial issue, but not necessarily not one either.

Good Question.

Answer 6

They make up such a high percentage of the prison rate because they commit more crimes, not because they get stiffer penalties. Believe it or not, not everyone is out to get you.

Answer 7

Are you suggesting that if a black person commits a crime and is put in the slammer, the police should take ten whites right off the sidewalk and put them in the slammer too, so that the proportion is right ?

Answer 8

You factor in the reasons behind the crime.

You get more if you walk into court give a the judge a bunch of lip and disrespect for him/her court.

If you go to court and respect the court and show remorse and not show up next week the judge is more likely to give you a break.

The reason why they are in jail because they did it.

Answer 9

they are in jail because they done the crime it has nothing to do with race if a white man kills someone he goes to jail the same as a black man would the population of blacks in jail is there own d**** fault!!!

Answer 10

not necessarily racism at this point,more an economic thing,im sure if you did a study people in lower class families get longer sentences than those in rich families.