Problems within the Criminal Justice System

Problems within the Criminal Justice System
By Elden Mabini
Final Paper

When you think of the criminal justice system, you think of justice being served to those who wish to threaten it. The criminal justice system is a very powerful system that protects our society but like society, it is not perfect. The justice system runs off of discrimination against race and gender. It is believed that African Americans are the criminals, Caucasians are the victims, and women are too weak to even be in the system. Are these information accurate? I believe that crime should not be totally focused on minorities, although the media seems to portray it that way. There have been a lot of crime where a Caucasian was the mastermind and its workers who are African American get punished for those crimes. Society notices more on minorities because they are indeed the inferior group in society. When it comes to females in the criminal justice system, society believes that they are too weak to carry out and force law into its citizens. Also when females commit crimes, they are seen as more of a criminal than men. Society has build up these images of races and genders of what they are supposed to be.
Crime is defined as an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it and for which punishment is imposed upon conviction. The criminal justice system was made to protect society against criminals, crimes committed and serve justice to those who act against the justice system. Society has categorized people and stereotyped them with certain actions mostly found in that race. For example, Caucasian are found to this type of actions, blacks do another type of action and so forth. The criminal justice system also believes that actions are based on race and gender. Our society has grown to be a better environment that what it was before. Slavery was abolished, women's movement for women's rights to be considered politically, and a culturally diverse country. Many ethnicities come to the Unites States in search of a better economic life and a justified criminal justice system. However, society still has some issues with certain races, which result in a mass stereotyping of races. When you think of crime suspects, you think male, black, dirty, and a danger to society. Society has believed this more so because of the way how media portrays these criminals. Crime is not only committed by African Americans, but it seems like mostly all crimes are committed by them. In my studies, I have learned that every race commits crime, but the minorities in society are punished more severely.
A police officer's duty is to keep crime off the street and put criminals behind bars. Society needs protection from criminals so that life can go by smoothly. In the past, African Americans as well as other minorities were not accepted in society and were looked as inferior to the dominant group, the Caucasians. According to statistics and observations, African Americans and Hispanics have the highest crime rate in the Unites States(Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). If your family came from a poverty background, you were more likely to engage in crime. In my opinion, this is because growing up in poverty, you do not have the education and resources to be taught about crime and social norms in society. Minorities engage in crime and get punished for it. What about when people who rank high in society commit crimes? It is more likely that those who rank high in society in an economic way commit more sever crimes than minorities. Minorities commit more of property, domestic, and drug abuse crimes. Usually those who have money are the mastermind of major crimes because they have the resource, money, and connections to do so (Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). The downfall to this is that criminals who have a lot of money can hire the best lawyers that can get them out of their alleged crime or lessen the amount of sentencing. Criminals with no money, often minorities, cannot hire the lawyers needed to defend them so they will most likely be found guilty of the crime allegedly committed.
(http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/kingchronology.html) - summary
The Los Angeles Riots of 1991 was a good example of police and society discriminating against African Americans. Rodney King, an African American from Los Angeles, was found speeding on the freeway. Police pulled him over and surrounded him with guns. King gets out of the vehicle and then surrounded by LAPD. LAPD was about to arrest King until Sgt. Stacey Koon and three other LAPD officers joined the scene. These four officers beat Rodney King with metal batons of fifty times before arresting him. King was beaten badly and then sent to the nearby hospital. Fortunately for King's defense, the whole situation was caught on tape and was leaked out to the local media. Soon enough the FBI got a hold of the video and the case became a federal matter. According to Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, the officers who committed the beating of Rodney King would be prosecuted and the officers who were at the scene would be suspended until further notice. Society seen this video and 92% said that the beating was unnecessary and brutal. The case went to court and the officers who participated in the beating of Rodney King was acquitted and had no charge of unnecessary beating. Because of this, riots broke out in Los Angeles, leaving 53 people dead, 7,000 people arrested, and 1 million dollars worth of property damage. This event is a major example of discrimination of the criminal justice system against African Americans. All evidence shown in court was supposed to be proof of Rodney King's beating, yet the jury found the officers not guilty.
Police officers operate by racial profiling. Racial profiling is defined as the action of pulling over a person based on their race(Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). For example, African Americans are viewed by society as criminals if found in an area where Caucasians are the dominant population. An officer would pull over or stop an African American just because he or she looks suspicious in a "white neighborhood". This is discriminative against African Americans because it is stereotyping them with always committing crimes and being deviants in society.
Statistics have been made to show what races are linked to certain types of crime. The Uniform Crime Report has been made to show these types of information. However, these reports only show information about offenders that the crime was resulted in an arrest. This presents many issues because there are a lot of crimes committed that were not reported. Also, the UCR only shows crime reports linked to only four racial groups, Caucasian, African American, Native American, and Asian(Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). It leaves out crime committed by other racial groups. In my opinion, the UCR is not accurate because it does not show enough information about crime and its relation to racial groups. However, the UCR is used many times as a source of statistics for crime.
The NCVS was also formed to show crimes associated by race. According to it statistics, African Americans are more likely to report property and domestic crimes more than white people(Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). It also states that Hispanics hardly ever call the police. Studies also show that rape and property crime victims were more susceptible to report their victimization to the police if the offender was an African American. By this information alone, the NCVS is a inaccurate source to show crime according to race. If African American are more likely to report a crime than whites and Hispanics, then how will society know about the other crimes committed by other races.
Graph on crime based on race.
There is also discrimination in the police force. According to Women and the Criminal Justice System, women are discriminated against when seeking a job in the police force (Wormer and Bartollas, 2007). Society and men who are already on the police force believes that women are too weak to carry out law and unable to capture criminals. This is an example of men being the dominant group over women. In society, women are known to be soft-hearted, loving, emotional and supportive. These characteristics make women look weak as a police officer. Women could only be in office work if joined the force. However, studies have shown that women are just as effective police officers as men police officers (Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). In fact, women officers are said to be more understanding with criminals, do not excerpt much force, draw their weapon more less, and able to negotiate better with the criminals(Walker, Spohn, and Delone, 2007). Society did not want women as police officers because it was said to be a man's job. Studies and observations have proved otherwise.
In a conflict perspective, the criminal justice system is very much needed in society. Crime and criminals need to be active in order for justice to be served and the need of police officers. Conflict runs society in this aspect. However, discrimination should not be in the criminal justice system. Race, gender, and socioeconomic status should not be a factor when looking for criminals and establishing sentencing and consequences to criminals. I believe that every person has the ability to commit a crime. The justice system should provide equal rights to offenders by sentencing and punishing them by the level of their crime and not the color of their skin. Women should also not be discriminated against in the police force. They provide aspects and abilities than men are usually not capable of doing. For example, male police officers are more trigger happy than females. They believe in assertive force first. Women believe in connecting with the criminal to make the situation less dangerous.

Resources.
Wormer, K, & Bartollas, c. (Ed.). (2007). Women and the criminal justice system. Boston: Pearson Education
Walker, S, Spohn, C, & Delone, M. (Ed.). (2007). The Color of justice. Belmont, CA: Thomsons Higher Education
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/lapd/kingchronology.html

RUSH HOUR!!

Areas of Discrimination in the Justice System
Analysis on Rush Hour..The movie...Starring Chris tucker and Jackie Chan
By: Elden Mabini
Sociological Concept: Discrimination and Stereotyping.

Rush Hour was a great movie that came out in 1998 that starred Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Chris Tucker (Carter), was a police officer for the LAPD and Jackie Chan (Inspector Lee) was a well respected police officer in Hong Kong. In the beginning of the movie, Carter was portrayed as a trigger-happy, rebellious, and always getting into trouble. Inspector Lee on the other hand was known for his investigative work and dedication to the police force. In the beginning of the movie, the daughter of the Chinese Ambassador that resided in the U.S. was kidnapped by Chinese vigilante and then was up for ransom. The FBI got involved because the kidnapping happened to an official in U.S territory. Inspector Lee was a colleague to the ambassador and was also close with each other’s families. The ambassador asked Inspector Lee to help find his daughter and aid the FBI with the case. However, the FBI had different plans for Inspector Lee. Carter was assigned to babysit Inspector Lee but was told by LAPD that he was going to be working one and one with the FBI on a big case. Inspector Lee came to the U.S but was not shown any respect by the FBI. The FBI did not want anything to do with Inspector Lee and felt that they could handle things on their own. They just needed a babysitter, Carter, to watch him so that he wouldn’t get in the way of the case.
In the movie, it was real clear about who was high rank, low rank, and the amount of importance a case would be. The FBI agents were all Caucasian. Carter was a black person who worked for LAPD. Inspector Lee was a Chinese police officer. This showed the stereotypes of these races because the whites are usually on top, and the rest follow underneath. During the case, Carter and Inspector Lee was not allowed to be a part of the case because of the interference the FBI thought they would have. The movie also showed an underground gambling ring that was run by blacks. These people only knew about the kidnapping but had no part in the actual kidnapping. They were used to give information about the kidnappers. The main person who planned the kidnapping and the ransom was white, followed by his workers who were Asian. This shows the example of proletariat/bourgeoisie, and the stereotype of white males planning and in charge of a mass operation, but minorities do all the dirty work. The Asian vigilantes did all the killing, kidnapping, and the setting up of the bombs, while the main person simply operated from a distance. He did this so that he had a lesser chance of getting caught by the police. His workers would get caught or get killed first before him.
The FBI agents thought that Carter and Inspector Lee would not be able to provide any input or progress to the case. In the end, Carter and Inspector Lee found all the leads to the case, and actually solved the case. They even rescued the little girl.
Although this was a good action movie, it was also showed good examples of discrimination, stereotyping, and exploitation. Carter and Inspector was discriminated against because they were not allowed to help with the case. Also, the case did not seem of much importance to the FBI. Whites were stereotyped as people on top, in both the “good guys” and the “bad guys”. Carter was also exploited because he thought that he was going to be working on an important case with the FBI, but found out his job was to be a babysitter for Inspector Lee. It may be wrong to show these kinds of concepts, but these types of movie sells and becomes very popular in society. Society likes these types of action movies, especially when it’s of people with different ethnic backgrounds.

How Society Constructs the Images of Men and Women

What Men and Women Can and Cannot Do
Sociological Image: Colors, Sports, and Bikes
By: Elden Mabini

http://contexts.org/socimages/?s=The+Fractal+Nature+of+the+Gender+Binary%3A+Or+Blue+vs.+Turquoise

Blue vs. Turquoise

The article states that although the colors blue and turquoise seem identical, blue is masculine and turquoise is feminine. Colors are socially constructed to categories that best match as feminine or masculine. In the article, a picture of a deodorant is being advertised. The background is blue and a masculine-type woman that is doing a karate move is on the advertisement. The deodorant advertised is for women who participate in active and aggressive activity. Another advertisement shown is a lady in a dress, promoting a more elegant deodorant and has a lighter shade of blue as the background color. The 3rd image is a lady doing a work out and wearing under armour. The lady is being shown as sporty and the background is more of a darker shade of blue. In my opinion, this article shows discrimination in the sense that women who are more feminine are supposed to like only feminine type of colors, and women who are more active in sports or physical activity are portrayed in a masculine way and are supposed to like masculine colors. The advertisement also shows discrimination because it only targets those who participate in sports or those who do not. You see discrimination in colors when men wear feminine type of colors such as purple or yellow. Men who wear these type of colors are looked as feminine, but I have been noticing that a lot of men in our society today are wearing “feminine colors” and are indeed not feminine.

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/12/29/feminizing-womens-sports-teams/

Women in Sports

This article states that women who participate in sports are often looked as lesbian and masculine-type figures. A woman’s image is society is socially constructed to look graceful and elegant. In society, men are meant to play sports and girls are not.If a woman engages in masculine activities such as sports, society labels them as lesbians or “tom-boy”. Women who do participate in sports feel as if they are pushed to obtain a feminine social image or else looked frowned upon. There are pictures shown in the article that shows a women’s basketball team wearing a dress and makeup and holding up a basketball. This shows that a woman can be an athlete and still keep her feminine traits. This shows discrimination because if women participate in sports, they will be looked as more masculine, which is socially unacceptable. Women respond to the situation by being pushed to look more feminine. You also see this situation in MMA. MMA is an aggressive contact sport in which fighting in different styles of martial arts is used. Men are known to be more aggressive so a fighting sport will be socially tied to being a “man’s” sport. Now there are MMA leagues that are made for women. Society looks down at these women are label them as “tom-boy” or lesbians. I believe that sports or any type of recreational activity should have the opportunity to be obtained by men and women.

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/09/19/when-woman-means-short/

When “Woman” Means “Short”

This article shows an advertisement of a motorcycle and its additional features that can be added. One of the features is called a “lady seat”. This seat is made smaller and lower than the normal seat. In society, women are shorter and have a smaller frame than men. Because women are known to be smaller than men, the company of the motorcycle calls the smaller seat a lady seat. In experience, I have seen many women that are taller and have a larger frame than me. It is true than women are smaller than men, but it does not apply to all women. This shows discrimination in a way that men and women are socially constructed to have different physical characteristics. Since a smaller seat is being made, it is called a lady seat. To fix the discrimination in this situation, the smaller seat could be called a shortened seat or something in that area, instead of being called a lady seat. You also see this in society in shoe sizes. There are men’s shoe size and a women’s shoe size. At some point, the size of a men’s shoe will be the same as a women’s shoe. Ex: Men’s size 8 and Women’s size 10 may be the same size. Women are again portrayed a being smaller, so the size number also has to be smaller.

Nike Factories in Vietnam: The Exploitation of Vietnamese Worker

Global/Foreign Issue
by Elden Mabini
January 4, 2010
Sociological Concept: Conflict Theory

Introduction:

http://www.clrlabor.org/alerts/1997/nike_worker1.html

NIKE IN VIETNAM: an eyewitness account written by Thuyen Nguyen, Vietnam Labor watch

In this article, author Thuyen Nguyen talks about the working conditions of a Nike Shoes factory in Vietnam. She investigates on how much workers in the factory get paid, type of benefits, and working conditions. She stayed in Vietnam for 16 days and talked to the workers of the factory. She feels that it is good that Nike is providing jobs for Vietnam, but working conditions and pay is very harsh.

Excerp from article:

“ I spoke to 35 workers individually and at length. Most Nike workers are young women from poor rural areas of VN. They have no work in the countryside and their families cannot support them, so they are forced to come to HCMC to look for work. These are young women used to working on farms, used to poor living conditions. Yet they told me that their lives working in Nike factories are even worse.

Many of them work up to12 hours/day. They work in noisy, hot factories that are filled with the smell of paint and glue. In an 8-hour shift, they are not allowed to go to the bathroom more than once; they are not allowed to have a drink of water more than twice.

The basic wage for a factory worker is $1.60 per day but the cost of eating is about $2. None of them save enough money to send home to their families. All of them require some help from family members in terms of money, food or housing.”

Sociological Analysis:

In a socialist perspective, I would apply conflict theory in all aspects to this article/situation. Nike shoes are being sold in America starting from about $79.00 +. The most expensive pair of shoes I have seen was $500.00 and there may be more expensive shoes. The people working in the Nike factories in Vietnam are getting paid $1.60 a day. As you can see, there is a lot of profit being made here.

Nike targets workers from rural, poor, and feminine origin. They targeted these types of workers because they need any type of job to support their family, no matter the pay. The good view to this situation is that Nike is providing jobs from Vietnam citizens that were not available. Poor citizens could now work and provide for their family. The downside to this is that the pay is horrible and working conditions are even worse. I watched a video on this issue and it said that the workers did not have any benefits or health insurance. If they got sick, they would not have the funds or resources t take care of themselves. The video also showed that there were harmful fumes and chemicals that they had to deal with and the proper gloves and face mask was not provided. So tell me, is getting paid $1.60 a day worth this type of harmful working conditions. The Vietnamese workers do not think so, but have no other choice or source of income.

I would apply conflict theory to this situation because all sectors of society are working together functionally. Vietnam can now provide more jobs for their citizens and Nike can save money from cheap labor which results in more profit. The conflict is that the working conditions and pay is extremely harsh and Nike does not even provide the proper protection from all the hazardous chemicals for their workers. Nike is making money from the exploitation of Vietnamese workers.

Personal Opinion

I feel that the Corporate Nike should take care of their workers, even the foreign workers. This situation goes against what American workers believe in. That’s one of the reasons why unions were created. Nike may make a lot of profit from cheap labor, but is it really worth it? Nike should really take a look into the working conditions and at least provide some type of health insurance or protective wear.

Increase cigarette tax, decrease cigarette smokers

Domestic Issue Essay
by Elden Mabini
Dec 28, 2009
Sociological Concept: Conflict Theory, manifest and latent functions

Introduction

Excerpt from Honolulu Advertiser local news: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20091228/NEWS01/912280350/Hawaii+smokers+cutting+back+in+response+to+higher+tobacco+taxes

“Through the first 10 months of the year, Hawai'i consumers bought 417 million packs of cigarettes, which, based on state tax collections, was down 12 percent from the same period a year ago.

While lower consumption of tobacco has health benefits, it could be problematic for a state that's counting on recent tobacco-related tax hikes to generate nearly $47 million in added revenue over two years to help balance the state's budget.

Higher tobacco taxes are aimed at driving down demand while simultaneously increasing income for the state and for programs such as cancer research. So far it's been a formula that has delivered — sales of cigarettes statewide have been declining in recent years and the increased tax rates have more than offset the reduction in sales.

This article shows how cigarette sales are used to keep Hawaii’s economy afloat. The state of Hawaii raised taxes on cigarettes, knowing that people would still buy it. An average cost of cigarettes ranged between $5.00 to $6.00. Due to the increase in cigarette tax, you can now buy a pack of cigarettes between $7.00 to $9.00. People adjusted their budget to be able to buy cigarettes. Due to our current situation in our economy, people simply can’t afford to buy cigarettes at these prices. People are now forced to quit because of health issues, but mainly because of financial reasons. The excerpt of the article shows that cigarette sales dropped 12% this year. The excerpt also shows that Hawaii’s economy raised cigarette prices to increase their revenue, but actually did the opposite.

Sociological Analysis

By the way how this article is presented, I would use conflict theory to analyze this article. To apply a conflict theory into a situation, you need to show that there is conflict between parties or opposing sides, and that conflict actually runs society. First off, the article shows that 417 million packs of cigarettes were bought by Hawaii consumers in just ten months. According to Hawaii census 2008, there are 1,288,198 Hawaii residents. From this information alone, you could say that majority of Hawaii’s consumers smoke cigarettes and cigarette sales are used to stabilize Hawaii’s economy. Smoking cigarettes is bad because it causes many health complications like death, lung disease, bad breath, etc. However, Hawaii’s economy noticed how much cigarettes were being sold, therefore an increase in cigarette tax was accessed. This way, there would a possible increase in revenue if Hawaii’s consumers choose to buy cigarettes with the increased prices. The conflict here would be that Hawaii’s economy is being stabilized by the expense of its consumer’s health. If people continue to buy cigarettes with the increased cost, the economy would make more revenue. However, if people continue to buy cigarettes, there would be an increase of health issues and less money in their pocket due to purchasing cigarettes. This can also be considered a conflict theory because if people continue to smoke and ruin their health, then pharmaceutical companies and other health companies would also make more money because people would be seeking medical help to overcome their health problems. Eg. Nicotine patches, gums, etc…

This article shows that the increase in cigarette tax actually drove consumers to quit. This now is a problem because cigarette sales will no longer be stabilize Hawaii’s economy. The economy will have to find other ways to bring in revenue.

Personal Opinion

I think that there a lot of sectors in society that conflict theory can be applied to. For example, the medical and justice sectors of society can only work if there is conflict with the people. If there were no sick people, hospitals and medical occupations would not be needed. If there were no criminals or people challenging the justice system, there will be no need for the justice system. However, the medical and justice sectors play a huge role in society and is needed in order to care for the society.

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