Introduction
False imprisonment is an unacceptable social practice where an individual is held in custody of the law without proper justification of crime. In the American social setting, false imprisonment mainly occurs due to racial disparities that have led to social-class groupings amongst the Americans. Apparently, false imprisonment has become a debatable topic in many American sociological schools. The American society is composed of various ethnic groups that divide into dominant and minority groups.
The non-pure Americans form the minority groups within the United States. The Native Americans, commonly defined by their white color, constitute the dominant group. They have deprived the minority groups of political power and economic will. These racial differences have led to poverty amongst the minority groups since the Native Americans lead most of the business sectors in the United States. As a result, the Native Americans have denied the minority groups their right to wealth.
The situation has divided the American fraternity into wealthy dominant group and the poor minorities. This discrimination extends into the judicial system where prosecutors judge unlawful Americans based on racial lines. This paper reveals the false imprisonment that occurred in the United States due to race and class disparities.
Background to False Imprisonment in the United States
The United States as a multicultural motherland has gone through thick and thin in an attempt to ensure racial equality amongst its people (Weich and Angulo 2011: 12). False imprisonment towards lesser groups in the United States started during the slavery period. The occurrence of successive civil wars initiated the modification of the Bill of Rights (Welch 2007: 277).
In addition, Jim Crow’s laws presented blatant discrimination while at the same time enhancing cultural disparities between the Whites, Blacks, and other minority groups in the United States. Non-pure Americans were segregated from a variety of public places including health facilities, public transport, housing, and schools where they were denied their rights to vote (Welch 2007: 278).
Jim Crow’s laws purposely enhanced hate relationships between the Whites and other communities, thus depriving the minority groups of their say on the rule of law.
Since the Civil Rights movement in 1960s, imprisonment rates in the United States have remained an impasse to the American minority groups. Although the Civil Rights Act granted political and economic powers to the American minority groups, it did not adequately establish proper laws to govern the judicial system (Hartney and Vuong 2009: 45).
Racial discrimination and prejudice took a different dimension, with the Native Americans community bearing most of the political and economic powers to control America (Western and Wildeman 2009: 221). The situation aggravated for the African-Americans and their minority counterparts leaving them in a state of class-poverty. Due to the alarming impoverishment, many children of the ‘black class’ missed elementary education, contrary to the ‘white’ children who attended the best schools in United States.
Western and Wildeman (2009: 226) reveal how some researchers have linked inadequate education to increased rates of imprisonment in the minority communities. Inadequate education leads to unemployment among the minority groups. The situation further leads to increased poverty levels. Poverty together with unemployment forced most of the youths from the minority groups to engage into unlawful activities in an attempt to find a better life and food for their impoverished families (Western and Wildeman 2009: 227).
Nevertheless, the above statement does not solely imply that criminal activities belonged to the minority groups only. Some ill-minded Whites also committed some cruel forms of crimes, even to their fellow Whites. These circumstances led to the establishment of elaborate court systems to deal with the increasing criminal cases.
White judges practiced favoritism rather than administering equal justice to all Americans. This malicious practice left African-Americans and other minority groups vulnerable to arrests by the white police officers (Western and Wildeman 2009: 234).
The American Judicial System
The judicial system is very crucial in any government. It reinforces security measures that are put in place by citizens to get hold of law offenders. The effectiveness of the system relies entirely on the security personnel that are entrusted with powers to establish peaceful and harmonious interaction of citizens (Weich and Angulo 2009: 18). However, the American judicial system operates contrary to the set performance roles.
Welch (2007: 279) unveils that there exists unequal administration of justice in the American judicial system. Racial disparities between the police, victims, and witnesses set a bad pace for the awaiting judgment of the criminal activity. Police and other law maintenance officers exhibit racial discrimination and prejudiced judgments to people of color (Hartney and Vuong 2009: 47).
Hartney and Vuong (2009: 62) unleash a report published by the “National Council on Crime and Delinquency” that indicates how officers arrest citizens based on their race. This report further gives an isolated case of the Los Angeles Police Department where officers ruthlessly handle suspects and criminals who are arrested from the African-Americans and Hispanic-Americans (Hartney and Vuong 2009: 64). Criminologists have adequate proof of the existence of inequality in the judicial system.
Their research studies reveal that the system is characterized by biased arresting of non-pure Americans (Mauer and King 2007: 32). According to Weich and Angulo (2009: 32), researchers have failed to provide dependable results on the existence of discrimination in arrest, treatment, and processing of criminal information.
Partial and faked information that is given by police departments alter the outcome of research findings, thus leading to misrepresentation of the black communities and other minorities in favor of the Whites (Weich and Angulo 2009: 43).
Racial Profiling, Prejudice, and Unequal Judgment
It is a common behavior to associate people of color with criminal activities and other unlawful happenings in the United States (Welch 2007: 281). Misconception or misrepresentation of the black community degrades its reputation as Americans. In most occurrences, law enforcers regard the minorities as criminals even without any substantial proof to support their arguments. Welch (2007: 282) defines these misconceptions and misrepresentations as racial stereotyping whereby the Whites relate the Blacks with crime.
These fallacies about African-Americans and related minorities have existed since slavery times. The white community recognizes people from the black community as dangerous and evil-minded (Welch 2007: 282). However, there are little efforts to curb this form of racial profiling in the judiciary system. Research surveys were carried to compare the frequency of Native Americans and other non-pure Americans.
Findings indicate that African-Americans present the highest number of criminal cases in the United States judicial system (Western and Wildeman 2009: 232). Welch (2007: 282) confirms that while statistical findings indicate that the Whites commit many and most notorious crimes in the United States, greater numbers of Blacks and people of color find themselves in the American jails as compared to those of the Whites.
The existence of race and class-poverty in the United States sways the judgment of many police officers, especially those who come from the white community (Weich and Angulo 2011: 27). For instance, the occurrence of a road accident attracts reinforcement of traffic rules by traffic marshals, which may involve regular check-up of vehicles for road compliance. The verdict of people who comply with the rules together with those who do not remains the decision of the traffic officers.
Most researchers agree with Weich and Angulo (2011: 54) that most officers in the United States take advantage of their powers to express their racially aligned attitudes towards civilians of their opposite color. Welch (2007: 283) confirms that most police officers in the United States arrest criminals without satisfactory evidence. Nevertheless, the minority groups are more vulnerable to random arrests in relation to the Whites. Commonly, Native Americans regard people of the black origin as dangerous beings.
Thus, white police officers and their law enforcement counterparts randomly arrest people of color without further investigations on the suspected behavior. This trend of arrest is different for the Whites who enjoy the freedom of being investigated slowly (Weich and Angulo 2009: 31).
Bail Charges
Race and class in the American society significantly influence the chances of discharging a detained criminal through bail charges. Although the criminal justice system requires the prosecution process to take into account the state of employment, family, and citizenship of the criminal, race and class greatly distort the attitudes of individual prosecutors. Instead, prosecutors turn out to be blatant racists in an environment that is deemed secure to administer justice to all Americans.
A research that was carried out in the United States to investigate the degree of detention or discharge on bail revealed biased ruling of bail charges amongst the minorities and the white criminals (Hartney and Vuong 2009: 57). In isolated cases, white prosecutors blatantly deny administration of bail charges to the minority groups’ criminals while extending favor to the white criminals.
This research also indicates that bails charged on minority criminals were far much exorbitant as compared to those of the white criminals, regardless of the intensity of the offence. Most African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans are generally poor because of limited investment opportunities, unemployment, or underemployment.
As a result, exorbitant bail rates lead to detention of more minorities than the Whites do. Hartney and Vuong (2009: 45) attest that African-Americans and the Asian-Americans are more likely to stay for considerably longer periods in remands waiting for trial than the Whites who remain in remands for considerably shorter periods.
Sentencing of Criminals
The sentencing of a criminal is highly determined by the intensity of the committed crime. It is the expectation of everyone that the prosecutor displays a strong sense of loyalty, discipline, and fairness in the entire judicial process (Wilson 2011: 11). However, statistical findings indicate that race and class discrimination play big roles in determining the terms of sentencing a criminal (Hartney and Vuong 2009: 64).
Blacks and other minority groups have an increased likelihood of facing jail terms in the United States as compared to the Whites. A research conducted in California pointed out over 11,000 cases of racial disparities in the event of prosecution. Hartney and Vuong (2009: 47) say that similar crimes that are committed by the minority groups bear more weight than those of Whites. In this context, a black person risks a jail term for committing an ordinary offence.
A separate research conducted to evaluate racial influence on the prosecuting process revealed that Blacks and Hispanics had more chances of facing jail sentence in relation to the Whites. Further research indicates that the minority groups hardly succeed in the appealing of cases. However, their White counterparts in crime enjoy favors from the White prosecutors who help them get hold of better plea deals. On another perspective, minority groups fail to hire good lawyers to defend them during their court hearings.
In most cases, their lawyers belong to the minority groups. This scenario leads to an amplified prejudice and racial discrimination between the Whites and minorities in the courts (Wilson 2011: 17). Due to class-poverty, Blacks have remained relatively poor community as compared to the Whites. Poverty leads to inadequate compensations for their lawyers.
As a result, most of the Blacks prefer lawyers from the minorities since they can hardly afford to buy the support of White lawyers. In addition, White lawyers display racist mannerisms that scare away Blacks from seeking their assistance in court.
Racial prejudice and class poverty also influence judgment on the length of sentence in the American criminal system. In most cases, the period that is served by American criminals in jail varies depending on their race and wealth on similar crimes. Cole (2000: 13) asserts that most African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans serve longer jail terms than their Native American counterparts.
An analysis of a research conducted by the American Criminal Investigation department revealed that criminals from the aforementioned communities served between five and ten years longer than those served by American criminals (Cole 2000: 42). According to Goodman (2007: 30), the American jury is composed of many representatives from the ‘white’ community. Moreover, most Americans identify themselves with lawyers from their racial groupings.
Therefore, judgments that are based on ‘dominant versus minority’ battlegrounds remain a common phenomenon in the American judicial system. As a result, the ‘black’ lawyers find themselves in challenging situations while defending their victims from prolonged jail term rulings. Due to their wealth status and paranoia of racial discrimination, individuals from the minority groups do not hire lawyers from the ‘white’ community origin (Goodman 2007: 31).
Death Penalty
Death sentence is not a new phenomenon in the United States. In fact, this practice began during slavery time when the lynching of naughty Blacks presented the climax of rule by the slave masters (Goodman 2007: 31). Up-to-date, death penalties still exist in the United States of America as a capital punishment system. A decision on capital punishment requires sufficient criminal evidence of murder upon which the criminal faces state death. Death sentence is not obligatory in the United States except for a few isolated cases.
Nevertheless, the existence of prejudice and racial discrimination in the criminal justice system helps White racists distort criminal information that is retrieved from credible sources. Distortion of criminal information at times leads to killing the unintended persons for the sake of the Whites (Goodman 2007: 33). The race of the lawyer and the offender are key factors in determining the death penalties.
He continues to say that Blacks have a higher probability of receiving capital murder than the Whites who have committed the same level crime. A recent survey that targets the race of current death sentence victims from 1999 suggests that people from communities that are not purely Americans contribute to more than half the total number of culprits on the death row (Goodman 2007: 33; Ely and Thomas 2001: 236).
In particular, youths from the above communities receive quite severe death sentences as compared to the Whites. From this survey, one can conclude that the racial background of a criminal majorly influences death sentencing.
Conclusion
Race, class, and gender form the basis for false imprisonment of the minority groups in the United States. People of color are more vulnerable to arrests, detention, and life or death sentences. The historical perspective of the minority groups, specifically the non-Americans, led to misconceptions and misrepresentation of these groups in the American society.
Unfortunately, the American criminal justice system is flocked with majority of Whites as opposed to few minorities who take up positions for mere representation of their disadvantaged people. This disproportionate judicial system characterizes uncertainties in transparency and accountability since it presents a pool of mistrusted racists. Assumptions and racial stereotyping have led to the silent state of war between the Whites and the people of color.
The Blacks are perceived as criminals at first sight due to racial prejudice and typecasting by the Native Americans. This state of affairs between the Whites, Blacks, and other minority groups ignites further false imprisonment of the minorities through unsubstantiated criminal evidence. Nevertheless, the United States government has to take the responsibility to strengthen its laws regarding the prosecution and administration of justice in courts.
Reference List
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Cole, David. 2000. Race, Class and Criminal Prosecutions: The Supreme Court’s Role in Targeting Minorities. Georgetown, Georgetown University Law Center.
Goodman, Maxine. 2007. “A Death Penalty Wake-Up Call: Reducing the Risk of Racial Discrimination in Capital Punishment.” Berkeley Journal of Criminal Law 12(1): 29-37.
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