Critically assess the extent to which discriminatory practices within the criminal justice process operate against ethnic minorities

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‘Critically assess the extent to which discriminatory practices within the criminal justice process operate against ethnic minorities’

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Introduction

Since the creation of human societies, crime has always been present, in many different forms, becoming an inevitable phenomenon for every society. At the same time, a number of questions have been raised as well. ‘How can crime be prevented?’, ‘Who is responsible for taking an offender from initial contact with the law to final disposition?’ To provide answers to the above questions, solutions to the crime problem and to shape the direction of crime policy, people turn to the criminal justice system. In contrast to crime, the criminal justice system has existed for approximately 200 years (Senna and Siegel, 2002).

In order to understand the criminal justice system one should view it as the process that takes an offender through a series of decision points, beginning with arrest and concluding with his/her rehabilitation. Through the criminal justice process, key decision makers determine-based upon laws, rules, regulations and discretion-whether to maintain the offender in the system or to discharge him/her without further action. It is important at this point to mention that, the criminal justice process is divided into two categories: 1) the adversarial criminal justice system and 2) the inquisitorial system. This essay will refer to the adversarial criminal justice process. The adversarial system is based upon ‘proof’ (in contrast to the inquisitorial system which is based upon ‘truth’) and upon the assumption that ‘the truth is best discovered by powerful statements on both sides of the question’ (Department of Criminology, 2006/07:1-19). According to this principle, the prosecution has to lead the case to court, prove that the defendant is guilty and the judge has to ensure that procedures are followed and make the concluding decisions in the case. The English, Scottish, Northern Irish, Australia, Canada ant the US are some of the criminal justice processes which are based on adversarial principles (Department of Criminology, 2006/07

In principle, anyone who goes through the criminal justice process has the right to be treated fairly and without discrimination (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2008).

However, there are some groups who receive differentiated treatment when they come into contact with the criminal justice system either as suspects or as victims of crime. These groups include women, youth/juveniles and cultural minorities (Department of Criminology, 2006/07).

This essay will discuss the extent to which discriminatory practices within the criminal justice process operate against minority ethnic groups. More accurately, this essay will outline the discrimination that this ‘vulnerable’ group experiences by the police force, the prosecution agencies and the court.

For the purpose of this essay the terms ‘ethnic minorities’ and ‘discriminatory practices’ will be defined as follows: the Oxford dictionary defines ‘ethnic minority’ as the group of people from a particular culture or of a particular race living in a country where the main group is of a different culture or race (Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, 2000). In essence, though, the term ethnic minority means that a group of people is being discriminated from the majority, due to their race or national origin (Banks, 2004). ‘Discriminatory practices’ lead to decisions made by the criminal justice agencies being based upon stereotypes and prejudices against an individual of a particular race (Lampropoulou, 1999).

In earlier times, nature of the involvement and the extent of the involvement of the racial minorities in the criminal justice process was an issue that had not attracted a lot of interest. However, ‘Since the 1970s substantial research evidence has been produced which focuses on this issue and shows that, as a proportion of the whole population, some sections of the ethnic minorities are over-represented at various stages of the criminal justice process’ (Department of Criminology, 2006/07:8-5).

According to the author’s view, discriminatory practices do occur to some extent within the criminal justice system. This discriminatory attitude stems from a combination of many factors. On one level it is the result of the fear that all human beings have against anything and anyone that differs from the majority (e.g. in skin-colour, different customs etc.) (Livejournal, 2005).

Another factor is the pressure that sometimes the criminal justice agencies experience coming from various political parties, society in general, the local community and the criminal justice system itself, to become stricter so as to control crime more effectively. The factors influencing the existence and the extent of discriminatory practices will be discussed in greater detail in the following sections of this essay.

Furthermore, this essay will attempt to prove that, although discrimination against members of ethnic minority groups exists, that does not mean that the whole criminal justice system operates in an unfair and unjust manner against these groups. It has been proposed that the over-representation of the racial minorities within the criminal justice process can also be the outcome of higher levels of ethnic minority criminal activity (Department of Criminology, 2006/07). For instance, the poor financial background of these people can urge them in deviant and criminal behaviour and consequently they become over-represented into the criminal justice system.

Finally, this essay will conclude that the discrimination against minority ethnic groups can and should be ended. The criminal justice system should not treat these groups differently than the majority of the population in each country. All people are equal and should be treated as such, regardless of their skin colour or their culture and customs. In addition the criminal justice agencies should not be influenced by external pressures and should make their decisions based on the legal context (for example available evidence, the seriousness of the charges etc). As a result, the criminal justice system would treat everyone justly without discriminatory practices, neither when one becomes victim, nor when one is suspect of a crime.  

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Discriminatory Practices within the Criminal Justice System

The first agency of the criminal justice process that an individual comes in contact with, as a suspect/victim of a crime is the police. The police are responsible for recording and investigating a crime and apprehending and detaining the suspects (Department of Criminology, 2006/07). Moreover, the police provide the subsequent agencies of the criminal justice process with information about the crime and details about the defendant.

The police play a fundamental role for the future of the case within the criminal justice process since, like the rest of the ...

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