Assessing the role of race in the court system

This is a paper that is focusing on Assessing the role of race in the court system. That is the disparity? What might be the cause of the disparity? Who benefits? Who loses?

Assessing the role of race in the court system

Assessing the role of race in the court system. That is the disparity? What might be the cause of the disparity? Who benefits? Who loses? Within this topic, you should focus your analysis somewhat narrowly on a case study, particular context, or example that highlights your topic inequality.

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Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

Ethical Background
It is generally agreed that discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin is morally wrong and a
violation of the principle of equality. The equality principle requires that those who are equal be
treated equally based on similarities, and that race not be a relevant consideration in that assessment (May and Sharratt 1994: 317).

In other words, it is only possible to justify treating people
differently if there exists some factual difference between them that justifies such difference in
treatment (Rachels 1999: 94). Equality is a nonspecific term that means nothing until applied to
a particular context. Thus, in a political context, equality means equal access to public office and
equal treatment under the law, and equal treatment extends to equality in terms of job hiring,
promotion, and pay.

Race refers to groups of persons who are relatively alike in their biological inheritance
and are distinct from other groups (American Anthropological Association 1997: 2). Ethnicity
is a cultural phenomenon referring to a person’s identification with a particular cultural group
(Hinman 1998: 403). However, race is socially constructed, and the notion that persons “belong”
to a particular race was developed in the last century based on the belief that there was a
biological basis for categorizing groups of people.

Biologically, however, the term race has no meaning, yet society continues to give the notion meaning by using it as a social category.

The notion of race gradually took hold in U.S. society when the institution of slavery reinforced the
idea that one race could be inferior to another (Banks and Eberhardt 1998: 58). In the United
States, the law has had the effect of distributing benefits and burdens based on race, and the
assignment of a person to a racial category has often, in the past, determined his or her rights and
obligations (e.g., in the “Jim Crow” laws passed at the end of the Civil War).