Criminal Justice Position Paper

Victor S. Keitt 

Thomas Edison State College – Feb 2012 Semester

2012-02-AOJ-102-OL009

Intro to Criminal Justice

Is the Criminal Justice system designed with equality in mind?

I. History of Criminal Justice as applicable to minorities

A) Treatment

B) Complaints

C) Perception

II. Differences in administration of sentences

III. Education of minorities in criminal justice system

IV. Solution

The timing of this position paper is fortuitous as it relates to recent current events. Many of the minorities who have witnessed recent events in the Trayvon Martin case that has swept the nation are in agreement that there appears to have been a double standard in the treatment of the case with an African American victim. The fact that the police department’s allegedly lax attitude in processing the information relating to the youngster’s murder resonates with many who feel that, had the victim been white and the assailant of a minority race, matters would have been handled much more differently. Many have developed, over the years, a wary attitude when it comes to the police or other authorities, particularly in the inner city community. I can speak from experience in this regard, as I lived in New York City as there were many flashpoint cases that highlighted the distrust that many minorities have for the authorities. One such case was that of the 1999 incident involving Amadou Diallo, a man of African descent who was murdered by four New York Police Department officers, in a hail of 41 bullets, because they believed...