Intro To Social Work.

Learning resources

Segal, E. A., Gerdes, K. E., & Steiner, S. (2019). An introduction to the profession of social work: Becoming a change agent (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

• Chapter 13, “Violence, Victims, and Criminal Justice”

 

Post: Two examples of the impact of race, ethnicity, and/or socioeconomic status in the criminal justice system.

 

Respond to two classmates.

With ideas about how to apply principles of social justice within criminal justice (consider both victims and offenders).

 

Note: Practice using APA citations and a reference list by supporting your post with evidence from the reading.

 

Response1

Disparities within the criminal justice system can be a concern even in youth demographics. The juvenile justice system starts a pattern of unequal treatment.  Brown et al. (2023) mention that “racial and ethnic minorities are overrepresented at all stages of the process, from arrest to detention to adjudication and placement” (p. 668). Brown et al. (2023) elaborate; Hispanic and African American youth are likelier to enter the juvenile justice system even with similar delinquency and offenses. Once in the juvenile justice system, the consequences for youth from vulnerable populations tend to be more severe, and they are placed in secure detention and correctional facilities more often than their white peers.

As adults, black and Hispanic people face continued inequality as they enter the criminal justice system. Cadoff et al. (2023) note that racial disparities are a chronic issue in the criminal justice system in the United States, noting, “Research has repeatedly demonstrated that people of color are more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested by police officers than White people, even after controlling for relevant factors such as crime rates, socioeconomic status, and drug use” (p. 13).  National Conference of State Legislatures (2022) reports, “Significant racial and ethnic disparities exist at every stage of the criminal justice system, from arrest to sentencing to incarceration” (para. 2). Further, they explain the disparity of black Americans making up only 13% of the United States population but comprising 33% of the prison population and 23% of the jail population and Latinx Americans accounting for 17% of the overall population but representing 24% of the prison population and 15% of the jail population” (National Conference of State Legislatures, 2022).

 

Racial disparity in our justice system, rooted in historical racism and ethnocentrism, starts affecting outcomes when vulnerable populations are children and continues through each tier of our criminal justice system. Social workers must be aware and sensitive to unjust systems that are biased against our clients. Social workers can advocate on behalf of policy changes, culturally sensitive training, and alternatives to arrest and incarceration for those we serve.

 

Resources

 

Brown, C., Fine, A., & Cauffman, E. (2023). Youth and the justice system. In L. J. Crockett, G. Carlo, & J. E. Schulenberg (Eds.), APA handbook of adolescent and young adult development (pp. 665–676). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000298-040Links to an external site.

 

Cadoff, B.,  Jones K., Bond, E., Chauhan, P., & Rempel, M. (2023). Lower-Level Enforcement, Racial Disparities, & Alternatives to Arrest: A Review of Research and Practice from 1970 to 2021. Data Collaborative for Justice at John Jay College. https://datacollaborativeforjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/A2AReport-6.pdfLinks to an external site.

 

National Conference of State Legislatures. (2022) Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Justice System. The Legislative Primer Series for Front-End Justice. https://www.ncsl.org/civil-and-criminal-justice/racial-and-ethnic-disparities-in-the-criminal-justice-systemLinks to an external site.

 

 

 

Response2

• Discrimination based on race or ethnicity is only one of the possible reasons for these inequalities in incarceration rates; thus, it is important to distinguish between inequality and discrimination. The presence of disparities between racial or ethnic groups on any variable of interest is simply referred to as racial/ethnic disparity. African-Americans were imprisoned at a pace about 14 to 1 higher than whites. Recent comparisons of incarceration rates have shown racial and ethnic disparities; for example, Hispanic males were imprisoned at a rate two and a half times higher than non-Hispanic white males at the end of 2001, whereas African-American males were imprisoned at a rate more than seven and a half times higher than non-Hispanic white males.
• Race and ethnicity shape the nature of police-citizen encounters, according to a long history of study. Racial and ethnic minorities, for example, have lower levels of satisfaction with and distrust of police. Perceive more injustice and racial bias in law enforcement activities, and are more likely to record negative personal experiences, such as police violence and discrimination. Indeed, according to national survey findings, more than 40% of Black Americans claim to have been treated unfairly or discriminated against by the police at some point in their lives because of their race.

REFERENCE:

• https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/208129.pdf
• http://criminology.fsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/NEW_DIRECTIONS.pdf