Description
this course includes a thorough analysis of special populations in the American criminal justice system: women, juveniles, racial and ethnic minorities, and mentally ill individuals. You explore these populations with regard to three unique criminal justice roles: professionals, victims, and offenders. This Final Project allows you to synthesize this information to draw conclusions and make recommendations to improve the American criminal justice system.
Select a special population within the criminal justice system included in this course that is of interest to you. Reflect on the information provided throughout this course related to this population.
Assignment Length: 10–12 pages (not including title pageand references)
Your Final Project must include the following elements:
- Introduction:
- Describe the special population you selected.
- Explain challenges of this special population related to the roles (professional, victim, and offender) appropriate to that specific population.
- Body:
- Describe any organizations, policies, procedures, or processes that continue to exploit, discriminate against, and/or neglect the special population.
- Explain changes you might make to the current criminal justice system to address challenges faced by this special population in each role you analyzed.
- Explain any resources, organizations, policies, procedures, or processes you would use or implement to promote fairer treatment of the special population.
- Conclusion:
- Explain how the changes you suggested might impact society as a whole.
- Explain how the changes you suggested might contribute to social change.
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running head: RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES
Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Institution Affiliation
Date
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RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES
Introduction
The population of the United States a country is very diverse in terms of ethnicity and
race. There are six racial categories i.e. White Americans, African Americans, Native
American and Alaskan Native, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders and
other groups of two or more races. The race is used to categorize people into groups based on
physical traits, ancestry, social, cultural and genetics that are shared among them while ethnic
groups, on the other hand, is used to categorize people into groups based on similarities in
their ancestry, language, society, nation or culture. It is important to note that there is a
difference between race and ethnicity. Minority groups are defined as a group that is singled
out by the society based on their physical and cultural characteristics. Due to this
discrimination, minority groups normally receive unequal treatment.
The criminal justice system in the United States is made up of several agencies that
are established by the government to control crime and enforce punishments or penalties to
those who break the law. The way the criminal justice system works are determined by the
geographical location they are in charge of e.g. city, county, federal and state among others
(Neubauer et al., 2018). The system has five main components known as law enforcement,
prosecution, defense attorneys, courts, and corrections. The law enforcement component is in
charge of collecting and investigating crimes, protecting evidence and give testimony in
court. The prosecution component is made up of lawyers who represent the state or the
federal government, they review all the evidence provided and decide whether to proceed
with the case or drop it. The defense attorneys are in charge of defending the accused and
they are either hired by the defendant or provided by the court. The court component is
operated by judges whose role is to oversee what happens in court and whether to convict or
release offenders. The corrections department of the criminal justice system is in charge of
supervising the offenders who are put in prison or are on probation.
RACIAL AND ETHNIC MINORITIES
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Challenges Faced By the Special Population
For a long time, the racial and ethnic divide in the United States had been fuelled by
crime and punishments with a large percentage of the people in prison being made up of
ethnic minority groups. Even though greater progress has been made is reducing this divide,
and policies have been put in place that encourages professionalism and accountability by all
the members of the criminal justice system, there are still cases of discrimination and tensions
between minority groups and law enforcement officers.
People of ethnic minority groups face numerous challenges based on their race. Most
individuals from ethnic groups that are the minority still have problems getting the same
employment opportunities. This happens even though they are as qualified or more qualified
as those from other majority ethnic groups. There have been campaigns to educate more
people on the negatives of racial discrimination but it has not been fully abolished. Some
employers will pay employees from minority ethnic groups like African Americans less as
compared to those from the majority ethnic groups (Neubauer et al., 2018). In the worst
cases, people from minority ethnic can only be employed in the lowest of jobs and will suffer
open discrimination in the workplace and even in public places.
When a person from a minority ethnic group is a victim of a crime, it is also possible
that he will not receive the same treatment form the law enforcement officers as one from a
different ethnic group. For example, the rate of victimization for an African American is four
times the average national rate. It is estimated that close to 85% of all black homicide
victims are shot and killed using guns (Parrillo, 2015). There is also a high number of gun
violence related cases that are reported in places where minority ethnic groups reside. There
have also been increased cases of racial profiling which has seen the law enforcement officers
use race as one of the key factors when m...