Minorities in criminal justice Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Minorities in criminal justice - Dissertation Example Overrepresentation occurs at all levels of justice system. Those who oppose the opinion that minorities are overrepresented say that the average percent of arrests of black people, for example, is only 26 compared to 74 of whites. However, these 26% result in 45% of cases with detention (Miller 1997). In addition, the overrepresentation of minorities is found in violent crimes and confinement. Thus, the overrepresentation can be explained with other factors, different from discrimination but some prejudice still plays an important role. Further, there is enough evidence to prove the notion that the minority groups are in reality treated differently from the majority groups by the representatives of the justice system. Approximately 75 percent of the researchers in this question have concluded that racial and ethnic differences have influenced the decision making in the justice system (Miller 1997). Some believe that the overrepresentation of the minority groups in the justice system is not discriminatory because these minority groups tend to commit more crimes than Whites, for example. However the following examples prove that the problem is not in amount of committed crimes: (1) police policies and practices: targeting the low income neighbourhoods, group arrest procedures; (2) location of the crime: minorities tend to sell drugs on the street while the white youth does it at home where the chances to be caught are much lower; (3) different reaction of the victim committed by the majority or minority representative.