Crime and Racism
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Two of the major social problems facing America have been crime and racism, and there is a strong relationship between the two. Many white Americans who would otherwise not see themselves as racist associate blacks, and especially young black males, with violent urban street crime. These Americans often have little more than a visceral feeling that there is a reason to fear young black males, and they rarely examine the crime statistics for evidence. Another reason for this perception is the prevalence in the inner cities of street gangs of made up of either black or Latino youth. The criminal justice system is supposed to operate as a color-blind system, but an examination of how the accused are treated by police, the courts, and the corrections system suggests that there is inherent bias in certain aspects of the operation of the system. Much of this bias is not overt but is instead a form of institutionalized racism, and it is therefore much more difficult to eliminate. There are also inherent biases in the system based on characteristics other than race--youthful offenders are treated differently than older ones, and the poor are at a disadvantage in comparison to the wealthier defendants. The figures on the number of blacks in prison are disheartening and seem to show a propensity for crime among blacks, though a closer examination of the figures may show an underlying reason in the poverty and in the social underclass from in which these criminals develop. It
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more likely to receive the death penalty than a white person convicted of killing either a white or a black, and forty six percent of the inmates on Georgia's death row are black,with most on death row for killing a white person. The situation is much the same in the 35 other states that have capital punishment. In Maryland, blacks make up nearly 90 percent of the prisoners on death row; in Illinois, 63 percent; and in Pennsylvania, 60 percent. The disparity nationwide is even greater when the race of the murder victim is taken into account: although half of all murder victims in the U.S. are black, 84 percent of the inmates on death row are there for killing a white person. In the last 47 years, only one white person has been executed for the killing of a black person. Out of the 16,000 executions in U.S. history, only 30 cases involved a white convicted of killing a black (Monagle 13).
In 1986, this issue was raised before the U.S. Supreme Court on an appeal by a Georgia inmate and a Florida inmate in two separate cases. This issue was touted as perhaps the last full-scale assault on the death penalty. In McCleskey v. Georgia it was argued that the defendant should not have to show that he was personally discriminated
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1701
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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