Research Paper on:
Proposal for Research into Race Issues in the Criminal Justice System

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
and that the reason there are higher percentages of black individuals either charged with or convicted of crimes punishable by imprisonment is that higher percentages of blacks participate in illegal  activities than do whites. The purpose of this proposed research is (1) to determine whether old ratios of blacks to whites in the criminal justice system are still valid,  and (2) to assess to what degree racial discrimination is seen to be operational within the criminal justice system of a single state in terms of arrests, convictions and total  length of time of imprisonment. Introduction Crime policy is one of those societal issues that routinely can be neatly predicted along party lines in state and federal legislatures.  The most liberal of observers claim that "Crime policy is being created by politicians who are using fear of crime to gain popularity. The US criminal justice system is inefficient,  inhumane and racist. African Americans are being unfairly targeted by a corrupt and illiberal criminal justice system" (Szykowny and OSullivan, 1994; p. 2), while Fraser (1998) reminds us that less  than 4% of the African American population is involved in drugs and the criminal justice system in any way! Therefore less than 4% of Americas Black population is driving the  image of 33.5 million Black people. Theres something wrong with the picture, this stereotype" (p. 235). Despite the low number of total black individuals involved with the criminal justice  system of this country, "Over two-thirds of the people in prison are nonwhite minorities even though whites commit the majority of violent crimes in America. In fact, African-Americans remain, more  often than not, the primary targets of a criminal justice policy which has less to do with justice than with surveillance, disruption, and systemic racism" (Szykowny and OSullivan, 1994; p.