Correcting racial disparities in convictions?

[Al B. Sure!]

It's a generally accepted fact that blacks and hispanics are disproportionately convicted of crimes. Even with greater numbers of those two groups commiting crimes, the number of convictions still dont add up.

So what can be done to correct this apparent 'racism' (in quotes as it's undoubtedly unintentional) in the courts?


thanks

[Minodrin]

You could add something like affirmative action, with prison racial quotas or the like. If too many blacks are in prison just release some or do not imprision convicted criminals.

[Stefu]

Well, that's what the disproportionality of death penalty was designed for.

[KrazyHorse]

It's a generally accepted fact that blacks and hispanics are disproportionately convicted of crimes. Even with greater numbers of those two groups commiting crimes, the number of convictions still dont add up.

How do you know (the second part, I mean)?

You could add something like affirmative action, with prison racial quotas or the like. If too many blacks are in prison just release some or do not imprision convicted criminals.

Another solution would be to imprison randomly selected members of "underrepresented" groups.

[chequita guevara]

The biggest way to get rid of the disparity is to get rid of the drug laws.

[Japher]

So what can be done to correct this apparent 'racism' (in quotes as it's undoubtedly unintentional) in the courts?

The conviction of more minorities in relation to the numnber of crimes commited by those minorities may be a little skewed. (I doubted it, but for the sake of the argument lets just say it is.) What can be done to correct it?

In my opinion this is not an issue that can be easily be addressed, because it stems from prejudism, something that is not only ground in the judicial system, but the whole of society. How do change the way society feels? You prove them wrong time and time again...

Minority groups are that; minorities, less in numbers than the others. Thus, it takes fewer of that group to become convicted of a crime for ignorant ppl to assume that all ppl of that group commit crimes. Therefor, in order to overcome this assumption less minorities need to commit crimes.

The mind of an ignoramous;
A) Out of 10 black people, 1 of those ppl has commited a crime = 10% of minorities commit crimes. B) Out of 20 white people, 2 ppl has commited a crime = 10%.

Guess what, an ignorant person doesn't do the math. So what do they see? 9 innocent vs. 18 innocent. A smaller number of innocent black ppl... of course they never realize that they represent a smaller number of the community.

Thus, they hypocracy continues...

I feel that if we had more minorities (hispanic and african american) in positions of power than ppls views would change on what is the normal black person, hispanic person, etc... and not just what we see on TV... by that I mean, professional athletes, singers, rappers, dancers, and actors who run their mouths and get arrested for child abandonment, killing their girl friends, doing drugs, and hitting up gang signs...

Also, with more minorities in power, the youth of those groups may be more inclined or more encouraged not commit crimes, or at least learn how not to get caught... Most white ppl who commit crimes may just be better at not getting caught... when was the alast time you heard of a black serial killer? (and 'Candyman' doesn't count)

[Ben Kenobi]

Albert:

You assume that all races commit crimes on an equal basis. Do you have any evidence for this assumption?

[Zero]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The biggest way to get rid of the disparity is to get rid of the drug laws.

AD: "Drugs fund terrorism"

Me: "**** you, legalize it then ******."

[Ramo]

Yep, down with prohibition.

[Lincoln]

I have not seen any evidence that blacks are charged with more crimes than they commit. The problem is; why do they commit more crimes? On the other hand, so called white collar crimes are not often prosecuted. In that sense (including white collar crimes in the total) blacks are prosecuted disproportionately.

[Zero]

Originally posted by Lincoln
The problem is; why do they commit more crimes?

Crime rate has relations with economic status. And I think its safe to say without being a racists, there are alot of black people in poor urban areas.

They're are alot of poor white folks too, and they also show relations with crime rate because of their economic status, but there's seems to be more blacks in poor urban areas compared to white folks that are prevalent in rural midwest area. (And Urban area vs rural areas has relationship with crime rate as well).

So its not really race, its where individuals are situated and what their economic staus is. There just happens to be uneven balance of poor blacks in urban areas compared to whites.

Am I wrong in anything?

[Egbert]

Originally posted by Minodrin
You could add something like affirmative action, with prison racial quotas or the like. If too many blacks are in prison just release some or do not imprision convicted criminals.

Or you could give a separate legal aid service like we do with the consequence that lots of blacks don't even go to trial.

Most recent incident I heard of:
A used car yard office was burgled by some aboriginal youths but the owner arrived whilst they were burglarising the place. The owner chased them and seized one of them and held him until the police arrived. When the police arrived they advised the owner that he should drop the matter because if he did not then Aboriginal Legal Aid Service would almost certainly lay charges of assault. The owner retorted that he did nothing more than merely detain the youth, he did not do anything violent. The police told him that in their experience that would make no difference, he would nevertheless be taken to court with the prospect of long and expensive litigation. The owner said "what about the damage they did, can't I charge them for that?". The police agreed he could indeed lay charges but it would be a waste of his time (and pointless for the police) because the youths would get off AND he would get criminally prosecuted for assault as a countermeasure. The car dealer decided to "forget the whole thing" and the aboriginal youth was immediately free to go.

Aussie justice in action!

[DinoDoc]

Correcting racial disparities in convictions?

Get white people to commit more crimes.

[Shi Huangdi]

Well Speer, you can do something to fix this problem right now. You said youdownload CDs and sell them, confess that , and that will be one more step towards an equal conviction rate.

[David Floyd]

First of all, AS, you are implying that these blacks or Hispanics shouldn't be convicted in the first place. By and large, that isn't true - I'm fairly confident in most jury verdicts, plus the appeals process. Granted, there are exceptions, but the general rule is, minorities commit more crimes, as you yourself point out.

And here's something else to chew on - I can virtually guarantee you that the ratio of VIOLENT crimes committed by minorities is even higher.

So the solution? I dunno - certainly get rid of drug laws. But don't stop punishing violent criminals just because they are black, either, as you seem to imply.