Attitudes About the Criminal Justice System and Punishment

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

The current research considered the origin of the justice system as a potential factor of bias and discrimination among courts and law enforcement agencies. This study was guided by the Social Control Theory. The criminal justice system’s origin in patrolling slaves and the development of historical policies such as the War on Drugs and the Three Strikes Laws have caused minorities, specifically Black people, to have an extremely negative perception of the Criminal Justice System. Research shows that in times of trouble, Black people are less likely to call the police for fear of what could happen to them. Research also shows that Black people serve sentences that are 19.1 percent longer than those served by White people convicted of the same crime. Incarceration is the most common punishment in the criminal justice system today. However, it did not become a punishment until the eighteenth century. Now, in 2022, there are five times more Black inmates than White inmates. In fact, Black people only account for 13.40 percent of the total U.S. population but are forty percent of the prison population.

Authors

• Jocelyn Gabriel-Ayala, Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University

• Kennedy Freeman, Alabama A&M University