Department - Author 1
Social Sciences Department
Degree Name - Author 1
BA in Sociology
Date
6-2012
Primary Advisor
Chris Bickel
Abstract/Summary
This paper examines racism in the criminal justice system. The criminal justice system creates and perpetuates racial hierarchy in the United States. African Americans are criminalized and targeted because of their skin color. I analyze the Reagan administration, the War on Drugs, corrupt police practices, media, inner city enforcement, police discretion, racial profiling, and sentencing to reveal this racism and unfair treatment of African Americans. These victims of racism face lifelong marginalization and exclusion because they were criminalized. I also draw a link between the criminal justice system and slavery and Jim Crow. This racism explains why there are so many more African Americans incarcerated.
URL: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/socssp/79
Included in
Criminology Commons, Race and Ethnicity Commons, Social Control, Law, Crime, and Deviance Commons