Category: American Criminal Justice System

Intro

With 2.3 million people in jail and prisons, 7 million on probation or parole, the US is by far the most incarnated nation on the planet. With numbers like these, its safe to assume that we as a nation also spend the most on our criminal justice system with nearly 270 billion dollars in expenditures annually. These numbers have grown nearly 70 percent in the last 2 decades.

Numbers alone it is clear that our justice system is outdated, inefficient, and expensive.

Though, while these numbers reveal a lot about our criminal justice system, it fails to explicitly show the aspects of this system that disproportionately targets people of color, more specifically impoverished people of color. I will hopefully make many of you aware of the importance of criminal justice reform, a topic many of you will be made very aware of for the first time, as it doesn’t pertain to a lot of you so why care?

Body

The criminal justice system has been a recurring theme in my life for as long as I can possibly remember, and even before that. My father was incarcerated for the first two months of my life and every so often after that up until the last time when I was 8. I’ve sat in more courtrooms than I can count, watched my dad get thrown to the ground by police, and seen him miss crucial parts of my life due to incarceration. Why? Non violent drug charges. Cannabis. A drug that’s currently recreationally legal in the state of Michigan and 29 other states across the united states. Unfortunately this was and is a reality for millions of kids like me and millions of adults like my father. And like my father, and many in similar situations, after incarceration, as an overwhelming majority are released back into society , these people are ostracized from communities, housing, education, legal ways of earning income, and even the basic right of voting. This is the very cycle that defines our criminal justice system today. A cycle that dooms the incarcerated to further crime.

History has conditioned us to believe somehow the criminal justice system brings about accountability and public safety regardless of evidence to the contrary. The current system so blatantly favors this cycle of repeat offenders over the goal it strives for which is public safety. As explained above this is a cycle that has a terrible social cost on children, family, peers, and a terrible safety outcome for the rest of us, and is a cycle that leaks through generations and affects far more than the incarcerated. This current system is especially worrisome when one thinks of the reality that these lives are held in the far from cradling hands of police, judges, and most importantly prosecutors, many of which are wildly untrained in the practice of reintegration where it is necessary.

Now, the solution. How do we fix this? It starts with the reallocation of that 270 billion dollars. The reinvestment of the long term incarceration cost, preventing these crimes entirely in the first place. Its investing money in real solutions, education, mental health treatment, intervention, opportunity, support and empathy. It costs 109,000 dollars to lock up a teenager for 1 year, including a high chance that teen will return to the system later in life. Why not prevent that long term cost with an upfront cost of intervention and education, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars with just one case.

Conclusion

Overall, I think most of us can agree that educated and employed is better than condemned, and the importance of creating real solutions to real and unique issues, rather than wasting time and money in prosecution, court hearings, and incarceration just to name a few.

Modern psychology is based on the premise that people can and do change. Ancient, outdated, and unfortunately modern criminal justice is based on the assumption that people can’t change and never will. One of them is evolving how we see humanity and the other is hurting us and our communities.

There is no law, no justice system more powerful than people helping people.

In America’s Criminal Justice System there are many faults, from racism, sexism or mistreatment of the incarcerated, there is one issue stands prominent to others. That is the terrifying violence that affects our youth. From very young ages, children are put into situations where they have to fight for their own lives because of the color of their skin or where they live. This deeply affects the future of our country and further generations after. Sadly, the criminal justice system has not only failed these children but continues to let them suffer and become victims of murder and drug-related crimes. Though this issue is not new and has been going on for several decades. It has not only seemed to have gotten more violent but even more deathly for the poor victims put in this painful never-ending cycle.

Strong increases in juvenile aggression have boosted individual risk endured by those residing in urban environments and have made a serious contribution to the prevalent crime rate in general. This fear derives from the unpredictability and the seriousness of youth crime. Throughout 1985 to 1992, the frequency of victimization of juvenile homicides, and the rates of murders committed by 15/16 year-olds increased by more than 100%. Furthermore, the incarceration rate for drug-related offenses of non-white youths doubled. More often, public panic goes past safety worries and dives into an area of hateful stereotypes and actions towards the youth of color.

As previously mentioned, these crimes against involving young adults in America are not a new problem for our society, but there was a defining moment that destroyed the lives of many. In 1985, crack cocaine became popular in the streets of inner-city areas. It changed the behaviors of illicit drug buying and allocation. The number of transactions significantly increased as people bought and sold one ‘hit’ at a time, rather than larger doses.

To satisfy the growing volume of transactions, youths are drafted into the illegal drug trade, mainly African Americans. Since they could not receive help or protection from the police, the new ‘recruits’ wanted weapons to defend themselves and their ‘precious resources’. Their close communication by school systems and the streets resulted in a wider range of firearms into the greater youthful community, mainly for self-defense but also for status. These illegal crimes were made easier because of the federal courts and jury’s refusal to realize the problem they have to continue to let happen.

Many of the concepts on which the juvenile court process was based were invalidated by federal courts. Some criticized the whole juvenile justice system, accusing it of dealing primarily with the uncontrollable rather than any real danger to society. Massachusetts, for example, closed some institutions in the 1970s and replaced them with group homes. They believed that there would be a reduction in adult crime if troublemakers could be prevented from cultivating into criminals. Though are these juveniles truly to blame for their crimes? Where does the line get drawn between individual and social, how can the system, police and the government be held accountable for their part in these actions?

These crimes have social causations, that result from unemployment, poverty or high population in a small area. Very few times, a criminal might be put into rehabilitation and given a chance for a better future, though real changes come from social improvement. These can be removing people from the “ghetto” or “projects”, helping the poor and solving unemployment. Though governments and law enforcement do not agree with this way of change because it suggests that they are to blame and can do nothing but contain the issue, instead of actually solving it or protecting those affected.

In conclusion, America’s youth is largely affected by their surroundings. Simple parts of their lives, such as location and wealth, can change who and how they live their lives forever. While the government is to blame, they take no responsibility to help and the system of criminal justice has continuously failed them. Until they can admit their fault the blood of thousands of young children and adults will be on their hands.

According to Profiling and Criminal Justice in America by Jeff Bumganger criminal justice profiling occurs when criminal justice officials strategically take characteristics such as race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation as they make important decisions in the course of their job responsibilities. In considering such characteristics, criminal justice officials may select some actions over others, in part because of the profile of the suspect, convicted offender, victim, witness, or another relevant party under consideration. Profiling in America today is very controversial because in the use of profiling to gain further evidence to advance a case many people may believe that the strategy of profiling is extremely biased. Although factual evidence and criminal justice profiling go hand in hand to solve a case they might have conflicting concerns to the people. Disregarding the concerns, criminal justice profiling is an upcoming and efficient strategy used to solve the crime.

In 1994, the National Commission on Crime Control and Prevention created an act in order to better the criminal justice system. Located in South Carolina officers were ordered once stopped a citizen in traffic to record race, age, gender, cause of being stopped, etc. With this in place, law enforcement was able to categorize past crime history with additional factors. A list of mandates was also set in place and two of them included criminal justice profiling criteria. The profiling elements in the National Commission on Crime Control and Prevention were not always favored, but extraordinarily helpful. Pieces of profiling in the criminal justice system have been used for many years, but the wholesome idea might change crime prevention forever.

The most well-known type of profiling is racial. Racial profiling is a law enforcement infringement on a citizen’s liberty based only on their race. This is extremely concerning to the public because it is an illegal practice and easily exaggerated when published by the media. The source of the racial profiling issue comes from stereotyping. In 2011, an experiment was done testing drivers of different races and the cause of their pullover by law enforcement. Although African-Americans had the highest percentage of being pulled over, they also had the lowest percentage of understanding why. Data also tells that when an African-American is pulled over they are more likely to be searched than any other race. From the results of this experiment and many more, laws have been put made in over half the country in order to prevent racial profiling. The police departments have recently hired equal proportions of races as another way for racial profiling to be prevented. The criminal justice system is completely based on judgment, and many might say that the strategy of profiling causes law enforcement to perform racist acts. Law enforcement has a big responsibility to protect their people, many do not have the time to specifically go after one race or another, they are simply trying to do their job.

A more helpful category of profiling is DNA. Body substances such as hair, skin, blood, semen, and others are classified as DNA profiling. Technology is improving so rapidly that according to Criminal Justice by Ken Aud “DNA from a sample as small as a flake of dandruff will yield a positive, unique identification with no need to consider mathematical probabilities”. This meaning that the chances of a criminal successfully getting away with a crime will be slim to none. DNA profiling plays a major role in criminal identification, “cold hits” and clearing convicted criminals. The debate involving when and who DNA should be taken from will be argued until a certain rule is made. Some believe that only convicted criminal need to have their DNA in the database and other think it should be put in directly at birth. Obviously collecting DNA from birth would lower crime rates, but some may be offended by the invasion of privacy. All kinds of profiling have their pros and cons, but DNA profiling is the most beneficial when it comes to preventing crime.

While there are many arguments to be made against profiling, some of the greatest arrests have been caused by using criminal profiling. Most police officers feel it is foolish to ignore the statistical factors that go along with crime rates, race, and gender. 40 percent of weapon-related crimes are from African Americans, and that is double their population percentage in America. On the other hand, 80 percent of crimes are committed by males from any ethnicity. To complement the stats in crime rates, Maryland State Police Officer Johnny Hughes states that “criminal profiling is good, effective and a commonsensical law enforcement tool.” The way that society runs today makes police officers appear to be racists or bias when they are wisely using statistics to solve a case. The public is expecting law enforcement to keep them safe, but then they are shamed for using a statistical tool such as profiling.

In 2013, the trial for the murder of a teenager by the name of Trayvon Martin, the main suspect was George Zimmerman. Both are of the same African-American race. Statistics for same race killings are much higher than different racial killings, on top of the 40 percent of weapon-related crimes are committed by African-Americans. Law enforcement admitted that it was wrong to follow Zimmerman as a suspect base on his race but the facts were too obvious to ignore. By using the strategy of profiling the case was able to be closed and the families were able to receive closure.

On September 11, 2001, America suffered a horrifying tragedy. 3,000 lives were taken that day and the federal government was forced to look at factors in order to pinpoint a suspect. While being at war with Saudi Arabia, it would be considered negligence to ignore that part of the profile. By taking factors such as race, religion, gender, and how strategically the terrorist attack was planned out, the suspect pool was quickly narrowed. In 2003, suspecting someone based on their religion was banned, slowing down the process of arresting the terrorist behind September 11th. With the restrictions of racial profiling, the federal government was forced to patiently wait for the criminal to come to them. Bin Laden was finally caught in 2011, but if limitations were not given he would’ve been caught earlier with many lives saved.

Steve Halbert and Lisa Rose describe profiling as a “mind-reading machine”. They explain profiling as more than a tool for the criminal justice system. It even created the ability to know a person’s intentions within a simple conversation. This could make finding job candidates much easier, but it is most commonly used in law enforcement. The article Making sense of the data: the shortcomings of racial profiling data collection and analysis explains the science behind criminal justice profiling. It’s more than characters such as race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation as they make important decisions. They also use microexpressions which can show someone’s true emotions to a situation involuntarily. Unfortunately, these expressions last less than a second but if they are caught, it helps solve a crime.

Inside the courtroom is where the complications begin with profiling. Once a suspect is on trial there is already a stigma about them. While criminal profiling is being used as a tool on the streets, it can very well be used inside a courtroom. In order to prevent bias inside a courtroom, the due process law was written. The due process law is fair treatment through the justice system. When profiling is being talked about in relation to a court, it’s often mistaken to be used toward the defendant. In reality, the approach is used to pick a fair jury. Components such as gender, race, religion, social status, etc. are looked at in order to give the defendant a fair trial. There are countless stigmas made about criminal profiling, but with a little bit of research, one could realize it’s a beneficial utility.

Before profiling was used there was already discussion of creating limitations for law enforcement. These laws were police discretion, which is when an officer’s limits on their power leave them with the choice to make decisions in courses of action or inaction. Similar to profiling there are categories of discretion; organizational variables, neighborhood variables situational variables, and individual factors. Throughout history, laws have been created to limit officers’ resources to close cases. It is understandable to give everyone equal treatment, but when catching criminals is negatively affected rules should be looked over again.

Different forms of criminal profiling have developed over time. There are countless advantages and disadvantages, depending on how you look at it. Fortunately, it is an upcoming tool in law enforcement. As long as stereotypes and restrictions can be overlooked, profiling is extremely beneficial. Factual evidence and criminal justice profiling go hand if used properly criminals all over the country can be stopped once and for all.

The formation of the US Criminal Justice system dates back decades ago to the Colonial time period. At that time; the foundation, laws, and punishment all came from the tactics in which the British had used. Often times, the punishments that came with breaking laws were not always just and fair to the indiviual who broke them law; and needless to say some of the same laws and forms of punishment is still used in the modern day Criminal Justice world. The Criminal Justice system is known to be a set of agencies and proccesses put in place by the governement to control crimal and to impose penalties on those who violet and continously violate the law. In the United States, we are known to have individual systems. How each indiviual system works is continguante upon not only the state in which the law was broken in but also the nature of the crime- and whether it can be cateorgized as a state crime or a federal crime.

As stated earlier, the US criminal justice system is compromised by many different indivdiual systems within each jurisdiction: city, county, state, federal, and military. The criminal justice systems are composed of three major branches: law enforment, courts (prosecutors, defense, judges, etc.), and corrections. Each brand is set up to be able to function independently and/or in collabration with one another- even across different jurisdictions and state lines. Acorss the board, the main goal of the crimial justice field would be to prevent crime, protect the public, support victims of crime, hold perpetrators accountable, and lastly to help offernderes return to society as law-abiding citizens.

But in recent years, many citizens have been questioning if the practies and the punishments used in today’s society are just and fair to treatment as well as punishment while going through the criminal justice system. The current form of the criminal justice system in the United States typically involves a police foruce, a court and/or prison system, and some form of Rehabilitation measures. An offender is first introducd to the system by having some form of run in with a police officer, next the offender is booked and jailed and then brough to an appearance in the courts; where disputes are brought to a settlement and justice is adminsitered here. (US Legal, 2017). Following is the prison system; although it was not adopted until the late 19th century and early 20th century, according to (US Legal, 2017) the American prison system was the first system to offer the option for courts to imprison criminals on the state and federal level.

According to the book, Understanding Public Policy (Dye, Thomas R.) crime is known to be the central problem confronting our society today. One way that the criminal justice system is known as “detterence”. The main goal of detterence is to make the cost of commiting crimes far greater than any benefits potential cirminals might derieve from their acts. It is also stated that currently in 2019, the rate of crime has decreased but the incareration rate has increased. It is stated in the book that it is unclear whether the stricter sentencing policies are responsible for the Nations recente delcime in crime rates. Many believe that the recent decline in crime rate is based off the fact that the econonmy is booming right now due to the low unemployement rates.

Police and Law Enforcement is one of the big three branches in the United States criminal justice system. It is often the first interaction an individual has that introduces them to the system. According to the book, Understanding Public Policy (Dye, Thomas R.) the principal responsibility for law enforcement in America continues to rest upon state and local governments. Although the role of the federal governement in law enforcement is growing, state and local goverments continue to carry the major burdens of police protection, judical systems, and prisons and parole programs. On a larger scale, the Federal Department of Justice employs about 115,000 people in all law enforcement activities, combined with about 1.6 million state and local government law enforcement and corrections personnel.

In today’s society it is no secret that there is room for improvement when it comes to the process of the criminal justice system. But the question is how do we go about making these improvements? here will always be crimes committed in the world. According to the textbook (Dye, Thomas R. ) crime is measured on a general scale by the FBI crime report program. So in a way crime in inevitable, there is no real way to prevent crime. But I do believe that one way to improve the criminal justice system is to improve the standard of living. Poverty is one of the biggest reasons why crime is committed. In the American criminal justice system, wealth shapes mmajority of the outcomes. Minorities are usually the citizens that struggle from poverty; giving them an unfair disadvantage at every step in the system- that was built to the rich and guilt better than the poor and the innocent.

According to the article, “US: Criminal Justice System Fuels Poverty Cycle”, the governement at all levels should act to prevent the criminal justice system from punishing those who are in poverty and futhering impoverishing the poor, but instead it does the exact opposite. ThThe United Nations special rapporteur (Alston, Phillip), reported that the criminal justice system is effectively a system for keeping the poor in poverty while generating the revenue. The United States is made up of many jurisdictions that rely on the fees and fines for revenues for the criminal justice system and for other programs. As a result, this has led to an increase in fees across the country and a more aggressive tactic to collect such fees, which may or may not result in undeserved jail time. Needless to say, with the size of the United States of the criminal justice system, and the race that makes up the majority of the criminal justice system, this puts an unfair burden on the large numbers of communities of color and people who suffer from the criminal justice system.

Another problem that the criminal justice system faces is the money bail system- which is used in almost every US state. The money bail system requires people to pay to secure their release from jail prior to trial. Throughout the nation, almost half a million innocent citizens sit in a cell becuase they cannot afford bail. As a result of sitting in jail because one can not afford bail the consequences of that are loss of employement which leads to an inability to pay rent, a criminal record, and maybe a deeper desitution. In addition to the money bond system, there are bail bond corportation that charge high fees and interest; as well as private supervision and collection companies. Even woth the US most widely used alternative to money bail system- this still leads to a path of concern. Pretrail risk assessment tools that rely on formulas may replicate existing societal racial as well as class biases, that projects a false venner of objectivity. With the lack of transparency this opens a door for political manipulation as well as an open of concerns for the process of due process.

According to a study held in 2018 by the Brookings Institution, half of the people in prison had no income, and less than 10% made $25,000 or more in one year over the same period. In another study that was conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the results that were conducted from this study confirmed 83% of the formely incarcerated people are more than likely to be repeat offenders within 9 years following their release date from the state or federal prison and that four years after being relased, little more than half of the formerly incarcerated people have no income- just how they did not have any income prior to being incarcertated.

It is without a doubt that poverty is one of the leading causes of the increase of incarcertation across the nation. But the real question remains at large; how can we take what we know about the effects of poverty and apply it to the improvement of the criminal justice system? What policies could be put in place to stop those who are stuck in poverty to be victims of criminilzation. The first solution to putting an end to the criminilization of povety is to first create a policy that is put in place to elimiates the wrongful jailing of not being able to pay court fee’s and fines and excessive bail. Those who can’t pay court fee’s are more than likely in the same predicment for paying their bail, so generally speaking, what would be the point of making them pay?

Another solution to eliminate the criminilzation of court poverty would be to consider “time served” as time served and put an end to private probation. By definition, private probation is known as the contacting on probation; which includes rehabilitation services, supervision, . In some states, more particulary, Georgia and Alabama, people are placed on probation that are often under for-profit companies, as a result of failure to pay traffic fines or misdemanors. Though this is saving administrators cost, this is hurting those of the lower economic class because they are exspected to may excessively high fee’s or face being reincarcirated.When courts fail to afford counsel to people facing jail time for nonpayment, they may face the violations of constitutional rights. As a result of privatization of misdemeanor probation, it has allowed for-profit companies to act essentially as collection agencies for law enforcement authority. Needless to say, these companies main focus is on profit rather than the public’s safety or rehabilitatio; they also provide no case management and little to no supervision of the offender. The underlying issues of unemployment, poverty, lack of housing, and family instability more than likely go undressed.

When individuals hear terms such as valorous, venturesome, dauntless, or lionhearted one of the professionals people think of are Police officers. Police officers are appreciated in society because people know they are the primary reason for people being able to sleep peacefully at night. They are the ones who risk their lives to protect us from threatening individuals. Police officers are always at risk. For instance, during this pandemic police officers are now one of the first responders and throughout this pandemic, their duties have been increased, such as imposing social distancing and shelter-in-place measures. There are numerous reasons why police officers are considered one of the major functionaries in the criminal justice system. This paper will review the role Police officers play in our criminal justice system.

In order to be the risk-takers that police officers are, they have to go through various types of training and meet hiring requirements. According to Schlosser, there are five primary parts of training for Police in the academy. The first one is operations and the average hours of training for this are about two hundred thirteen hours. The next two are firearms, self-defense, and the use of force. This training lasts about a hundred and sixty- eight hours. Self-improvement is about eighty-nine hours, legal education approximately eighty-six hours, and finally, training for mental illness is about ten hours. In the section for self-improvement, more than half of the curriculum pays attention to the trainee’s health and fitness (2019). Schlosser also stated the U.S. Department of Justice released an analysis of the nation’s six hundred and sixty- four state and local law enforcement academies for Police officers, which provides a rundown of the content of the academy’s pieces of training. There are different formats for academies, such as full-time training for six months, part-time training for about twelve months, and residential academies. These academies are very similar to military boot camps. Even though academy training varies by state, the average duration of these training programs in the United States is about eight hundred and forty hours (Schlosser, 2019).

A police officer has to also meet the hiring requirements. In the New York Police Department (NYPD,) for instance, the starting age is 21 years old. However, candidates are allowed to take the Entrance Exam starting at seventeen years of age (NYPD, 2020). According to the NYPD, the person should have received 60 college credits and at least have a 2.0 GPA from a two-year institution or have completed active military service in the United States Armed Forces to be eligible to become a Police Officer. Also, the individual must be a United States citizen, have a New York driver license, and live in one of the city’s five boroughs or the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Rockland, Orange, Westchester or Duchess within thirty days of being in the position. However, the individual will not be qualified if they have been convicted in crimes such as domestic violence or received a disorderly dishonorable discharge from the military. Candidates may also not be qualified if they see the person broke the law in some way, and they have a likelihood of violence, poor behavior, or issue with being properly disciplined (NYPD, 2020). These requirements show how strict the New York Police Department is. This is how perfect they want their police officers to be which might be the reason behind the NYPD is one of the best police agencies in the United States.

In some agencies in the US, in order to be hired individuals have to pass examinations. For the NYPD, candidates have to pass a written exam which is offered by the Department of Citywide Administrative Services in order to move on in the process. They also have to take a medical exam and an oral psychological exam. One of the significant exams candidates have to take is the JST test also known as the Job Standard test. In order to pass this test, candidates have to finish the physical test in four minutes and twenty-eight seconds. The exam also includes: running fifty yards and climbing stairs, defeating barriers, and also demonstrating the skill to restrain an individual. The test includes pulling a hundred and seventy-six-pound mannequin thirty-five feet. The candidates are also tested on pulling the trigger of an unloaded weapon. Candidates are also required to pass a drug and alcohol exam (NYPD, 2020). This conveys the difficult examinations candidates have to pass in order to become a police officer.

After going through the difficult requirement to become a police officer, their day to day duties start from there. According to the US Department of Labor, a police officer’s regular duties are to answer to emergency or nonemergency calls, patrol assigned areas and areas which may be considered dangerous for people, control traffic stops and issues tickets for individuals who fail to follow the correct protocol for driving a vehicle. They also search for vehicle records and warrants using technology, and obtain warrants and arrest people who are suspected of committing a crime. They collect evidence and preserve the evidence from crime scenes so there is no issue while presenting the evidence in court. One of their duties is to also observe the activities of the suspects and write accurate reports and fill out forms. And one of their significant duties is to prepare cases for trial as well as testify in court (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020). The article also stated that police officers are required to wear a uniform which allows the public to easily identify them as police officers. They also have to regularly patrol and respond to emergency calls. During their patrols, officers lookout for signs of illegal activity and may do searches that allow them to arrest suspected offenders. However, some police officers only work on specific kinds of crimes, for instance, narcotics. Officers who work in large departments may work in special sections, like horseback, special weapons, motorcycle, and canine corps along with tactics. However, police officers must work as a patrol officer for a certain number of years before they are scheduled to work with a special unit (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020).

The profession of a police officer might seem less problematic since officers protect society; however, it seems their career has to face the most problems. One of the obstacles police officers have been facing is using their force in the community. According to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the relationship between law enforcement and many communities in the U.S. is becoming more challenging over the years, especially for people who experience violent crimes which are linked to extreme police appearance and surveillance (The United States Commission on Civil Rights, 2018, p.1). This conveys that the community is starting to turn against police officers because people in the community feel the police officer’s use of force is doing an injustice to them although the article also stated the data does not report the seriousness of this issue. The researchers have found a lack of national data and a shortage of required police reporting of using critical force has made it difficult to understand if there are structured patterns of police using excessive force against the community (The United States Commission of Civil Rights, 2018, p.21-22). There is a lack of reporting in this case; however, the community still blames police officers of using excessive force.

Another problem that police officers face is women being less accepted in the law enforcement field. According to the National Institute of Justice, female law enforcement officers experienced many obstacles in their profession as a female police officer, such as the “boys club,” disadvantageous or aggressive atmosphere, harassment, sexism, unnecessary physical fitness requirements, double standards, and a shortage of support and opportunities (National Institute of Justice, 2019, p.4). This shows that women in law enforcement are looked down on and do not receive the mental, physical, and emotional support they deserve inside their workplace. One officer discussed how individuals would ask her when the “real police” will be arriving when she and her female teammate answered an emergency call (National Institute of Justice, 2019, p.4). This shows that not only have to overcome barriers in their workplace but they also have to tolerate insulting reactions and comments from citizens. However, individuals do not realize the female police officer they are degrading can have positive impacts on society. According to Fristvold, one of the benefits of having female officers is that hiring more women for positions in criminal justice can prevent the community from complaining about the police officer’s use of excessive force. “Women officers are less likely to use excessive force or pull their weapon. They are defendants in lawsuits far less often than men, saving municipalities millions in legal fees” (Fritsvold,2020). This shows that women officers tend to use less force than men which may help to improve the relations between police officers and the community. Another reason why more women should be in law enforcement is that they can help women and prevent crimes that women experience. Fristvold states “with sexual assault cases, the victim might want to talk to a woman. But that can’t always happen because there aren’t enough females in the department and it ends up affecting the mission” ( 2020). Having more female officers they can decrease the number of cases such as rapes, sexual harassment, and human trafficking of women around the world.

To close, Police officers are considered one of the major functionaries in the criminal justice system. Their daily activities, training, education along with the requirements of the examination prove how difficult it is to become a Police officer. The most inspiring part of this profession is that they face challenges in their jobs and in society but they keep maintaining the role of a protector which is the definition of a hero.

Introduction

In today’s society, the topic of racism is a sensitive subject to touch on, as it affects more than just African-Americans, it effects all minorities living in America such as: Hispanics, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, Canadians, and people who are put purely, “White.” In many cases, such as the young man, Emantic Bradford, who was killed on Thanksgiving night by police and an outrage of racism and discrimination was frowned upon officers, but the whole story was never actually “seen,” by family and friends of Bradford (Sanchez, 2019). As Americans, people should believe there is always two sides to every shooting and every situation an officer of the law is in, but the general public refuses to compare both sides and give sympathy towards both sides. As a result, in unethical attitudes and outcomes from both the police and citizens of America. America tends to use the topics of racial profiling, discrimination, and police shootings as huge negatives, but both sides is actually never seen.

Racial Profiling

In the eyes of the media and such, officers of the law are seen as “racist,” or seek to spread hate if the individual they are apprehending is of color. The public believes that officers of the law receive too much of a bad rap, when it comes to doing their job. Racial profiling seems to be a huge discussion around people on social media. For the most part, people tend to make the officers seem hateful towards people of color or uphold the title of, “bad guy.” In the book, Multiculturalism and the Criminal Justice System, racial profiling is used as a method of identifying suspects, not to express racism (Hanser & Gomilia, 2015). In the event of a fairly recent, horrible situation of a man assaulting a woman of seventy-five years; Metropolitan police department of Las Vegas, Nevada is seeking help from the public of identifying the man (Eggen, 2019). In needing to identify the man, simple characteristics are needed to help the public and it lists that he is a black man, ranging from the ages of late twenties to early thirties (Eggen, 2019). To the family of the elderly woman who was assaulted, they are going to seek out and most likely be very defensive when a man of African-American descent is around them and will probably question who they really are. Now, it isn’t racism, racial profiling is a tool that the police must use to identify and locate suspects to bring into custody in situations of this extent. Although the tool is useful and rational even in today’s society, the public must realize that there is two sides to every event, different opinions and conflicts will arise due to this event; Specifically, African-Americans who fit the description of the black man who actually did injure and assault the elderly woman, will reap in despair and weariness will be brought to the surface due to fear of police. On the other hand, police need this tool because it helps solve crimes and gives the public a way of identifying suspects out in the open.

Discrimination

In America, many tend to use the word, “Discrimination,” but never fully understand what it means. The true definition of the word discrimination is the unjust treatment of people usually depending on their race. Hispanics and African-Americans are usually the groups of being accused for crimes across America and the stats show, statistics off the federal bureau of prisons show that 37.2% of all races in prison are of black (Inmate Race, 2018). Going off ethnicity, 32.3% are of Hispanic descent, the other 67.7% are under non-Hispanic (Inmate Ethnicity, 2018). Although, officers do often discriminate in most situations due to the fact of minorities representing most of the prison population; Officers should not and should always assume that every person that they see is more than capable of carrying out a crime. In a recent situation, a black man was profiled and discriminated, and a gun was pointed at him after he was picking up trash on his own yard, after displaying his identification and stated that he lived at the property in which he was cleaning (Willingham, 2019). The first officer at the scene noticed a black man on a property in which a sign saying, “Private Property,” and the officer went to go investigate and questioned the man if he was allowed to be there. In doing so the man was holding a tool for picking up trash and was not listening to the officer after questions were being asked (Willingham, 2019), and of course in this situation the officer decided to discriminate this man, and probably would not have done the same thing if he were white. To put it differently, that does not always mean that the police officer is a racist or decides to treat groups of people in unjust ways; The officer is using her or her training and events to understand what could be going on in their communities. Furthermore, discrimination can often lead to violence and that is when the topic of police shootings is very often brought to the surface for the pubic eye.

Police Shootings

Due to multiple social media outlets, police violence and more so, shootings, are correlated as the, “usual,” with police officers. Above all, the public must realize the truth behind police shootings. A page, dedicated to mapping all, “police violence,” states that over 1,166 people were killed by police in 2018 (Mapping Police Violence, 2019). The website, in a very biased way, talks about how police officers shoot to kill mainly blacks and then questions their ways of detaining suspects (Mapping Police Violence, 2019). In recent news, a Hispanic male, Stevie Garcia, was shot and killed by four officers of Metro (Newberg, 2019). A total of eighteen bullets was fired into Mr. Garcia, one fatally ending his life as it landed in the head, and many believe that it was unnecessary to fire that many bullets and killing him for the conflict at hand (Newberg, 2019). To many people, just to clear certain things up and to provide a defense for the police officers doing their job plainly, the four officers arrived on scene to a man, Stevie Garcia, who was waving around a pistol, threatening family members that he was going to kill them and was not abiding by the orders that was given to him by the officers (Newberg, 2019); Body cameras worn on the officers showed that Mr. Garcia was clearly in a different state of mind, although the gun was not loaded, the officers used their discretion and experience as best they could and decided to use deadly force to put an end to Stevie Garcia’s reign of terror on his family. That is to say, with the clip being empty in Mr. Garcia’s gun and if the cops hadn’t taken action in a different situation with a gun being loaded; More people including citizens and officers could be seriously hurt and even more so killed. Officers of the law do what they are taught, and people believe officers shoot to kill anyone that walks up and down the street for fun (Newberg, 2019).

Conclusion

Racism is still very alive in America but when the idea that all officers of the law are, “racist pigs,” that claim is false. Police officers use their training and discretion to the best of their ability but situations occur, and their mind and training is put to test, even in the most extreme events. In the event of Mr. Bradford’s last day on Earth, he was shot and killed by the uniformed men of law; Many pointed the blame on the police, assigning the title of cold, blooded, killers to their name (Sanchez, 2019). Both sides of the story were never raised to the surface for the public to put their input on the event, instead, the side of Mr. Bradford was supposedly helping people in the shooting at the mall, while wielding a pistol. In other words, when an officer shoots and kills a minority in the public eye, never do people assume good, they always assume the worse of everything. Officers use racial profiling as a tool to identify suspects, the word discrimination is never the full idea of officers as they are hired to be ethically profound in their careers, and police shootings are more blown up than anything as stats show they do not kill every single person they lay their eyes on.

In history, African Americans have grieved from rejection because of their race through the scheme of slavery. From the past, slaves were depicted as assertions to their masters, and they had no right to question their actions. As a result, the slaves were prohibited from owning any right to freedom. The pattern took over the with exclusion and segregation in the society being a continuous process to date. The criminal justice of America has majorly been affected by the practice, especially when making the arrest charges and through court decisions. The African American youth have suffered a lot through the criminal justice system, primarily through discretion. As a result, the race has suffered been faced with unfair and unjust treatment based on their race. Therefore, this research paper will discuss racism and discrimination in the criminal justice scheme in America.

​Today, the black people are diverse in America, covering the Latinos and other origins such as Jamaicans, West Africans, and West Indies communities. Also, the racial discrimination has taken a new notch with the Whites discriminating the people based on their skin color. Hence, a person might be discriminated against if they are black without necessarily having a black origin. Racism and discrimination in the criminal justice system started in 1986 when the black was depicted as lazy, sneaky, and thieves (Yu et al. 6). As a result, the blacks were accused of being violent, and they were mostly involved in mass gun shoot out. Also, the criminal offenses were mainly related to the teenagers who formed the criminal gangs. Though the black is working to sustain themselves after the burn of slavery, the white people in the criminal justice system have the same perspectives towards the black people.

Furthermore, based on criminal victimization, the black people are victimized by violent crimes. According to studies, seven times, a white person is likely to be killed and double that they will be raped, mugged, or sexually attacked (Paixão et al. 49). Though the black population in America is approximately 13%, police arrest has shown inconsistency. For instance, in 2017, the blacks committed 47% of murders, 54% of robberies with violence, 30% of rapes, and 33% of assaults (Yu et al. 12). Besides, the studies have shown that black people occupy 46% of the population imprisoned in the state-federal penitentiaries. From police discretion statics, the black people have a higher chance to be suspected and frisked than the white person. Also, there are higher chances that a black teenager would be arrested when found in the street at night than a white kid. These statistical disparities are a clear demonstration that racism and discrimination exist in the police arrest and criminal justice system.

​Moreover, their different methods that have shown racism and discrimination in the criminal justice systems. The most common is through police arrest. Studies have shown that there is unnecessary use of strength by the LAPD police, compounded by racism and bias (Paixão, 45). In a recent case study, George Floyd, a black man, died after the four US police pinned him to the ground (Rigby et al. 18). According to the reports, the four Minneapolis officers were fired after the act based on the ground that they exercised racism against Floyd. However, there are no charges that have been passed against four making the people demonstrate seeking justice (Rigby et al. 20). Also, the people have shown their anger through social media, especially twitter. According to one tweet, being black in America is probably a death sentence (Rigby et al. 21). Such use of excessive force in police arrest shown racism and discrimination.

​Nevertheless, the Judicial system in America is biased, based on race and discrimination. Initially, laws have made an effort to entrench racial discrimination during jury selection (Rigby et al. 24). For instance, since 1930, the high court has taken over the jury assortment practice to ensure there is no racial discrimination. Such methods include the Fourteen Amendment of the constitution. Despite the regulation, racism and prejudice have taken over the jury selection exercise. For instance, Rigby et al. (25) asserts that potential white people put their name on white cards and black people on yellow cards them decide who would be summoned for jury duty. Besides, racism and discrimination are rampant in conviction and sentencing. Research shows that the black Americans are given a harsh sentence in the court while the white people are offered alternatives such as bails (Yu et al. 9). Also, research has shown that black Americans are likely to be given a capital punishment compared to white Americas. Therefore, racial discrimination in America in the criminal justice system has created alert.

In conclusion, racism and discrimination is rampant in America since the history of slavery. Black Americans have been depicted to be violent and lazy. As a result, there have been disparities in police arrest, jury selection, conviction, and sentencing. Black people have been accused of murder cases, rape, robbery, assault, and drug peddling. As a result, the arrest against black people has been rampant, increasing the numbers in prisons compared to white people. Nevertheless, black people have been given harsh sentences such as the death penalty, while white people are given lenient choices such as bails. Therefore, there is clear evidence of racism and discrimination in the criminal justice system.

Today’s criminal justice system is overwhelmingly disproportionate in race in relation to the general population. Minorities out in public are now the majority in the prison systems. What causes this and how can it be changed? Is this the result of discrimination to non-whites, or is it justified? “…and justice for all”. That’s what the Pledge of Allegiance states. We all know it, but how true is it really? It seems today that the prison system in America is becoming unbalanced with unequal amounts of each race. Blacks and Hispanics make up over 50% of the prison population but less than half of that out in the general population of the United States (Coke, T. 2013). Why is the number of minorities so high in prison? Some may argue that racial profiling is a major contributing factor.

Racial profiling is a scary but real thing that occurs in today’s society. Everyone, not just law enforcement is guilty of it in some way or another. Have you ever been walking down the street and saw someone different from yourself and immediately thought of something stereotypical of them based on their appearance? I have, and so have you. We all do it at some point. It’s human nature to be judgmental. According to research by the Justice Department, on average cars that were pulled over were generally equal in race. However, 11.2% of all Hispanics, 10.2% of all Blacks and 3.5% of all Whites were searched after being pulled over (Glater, J. 2007). Does this prove racial profiling? Perhaps, but all of the circumstances of the traffic stops were not revealed in the research. The race of the Officers conducting the stops could be a major factor. Racial profiling does exist and it can very easily contribute to the large amounts of minorities in prison.

Within this country, the larger the city, the more police are needed to maintain order. Stricter punishments are given for similar crimes in different areas. For example, one could expect a bigger sentence for selling drugs near a school rather than a non-school area. Minorities such as African American can get caught up in this scenario due to the fact that they are more likely to populate urban areas than Caucasians (Maurer, M. 2010). Also with more police in such a densely populated area, more people are likely to be charged with crimes.

There are ways to control the diversity within the criminal justice system but is it fair? One way is to run an analysis on the outcome of incarcerating someone of a specific race as it is done in Iowa and Connecticut (Maurer, M. 2010). This would give an idea of what would happen to the ethnic diversity within the prison system if someone was sentenced. This should not be used as a deciding actor but more as a reference tool.

Another option is to lower offenses. People are getting arrested for smaller and smaller crimes every day. If certain misdemeanors could be reduced to infraction, such as driving with a suspended license or possession of a very small amount of marijuana, this can drastically cut down on not only ethnic disparity but also inmate population in general (Coke, T. 2013). I believe this is a great way to start but it doesn’t solve all the problems.

Sentences are currently being served on average for about 85% depending on good behavior. If sentences could be reduced even more and based on behavior and over population, this could help bring down the inmate population as well.

Perhaps there is nothing that we can ultimately do to reduce the disparity of ethnicity within the criminal justice system. Maybe it is not racial profile or the demographics of the area. Is it possible that certain races really act out more than others and therefore get arrested more? Hard to believe I know. But with 40% of the death row population being African American while only 12.5 % in the total United States (Glater, J. 2007) is it possible that African Americans are more prone to violence that Caucasians? Or is the criminal justice system profiling them simply because they are black? It’s hard to say. Every criminal case is different. I would like to believe that our country is fair and just to all races. But is it really?

There is significant evidence supporting racial inequalities dealing with incarceration and the mass effects of discrimination against minority communities. There is also evidence supporting negative effects to these communities, contributing more greatly into incarceration, unemployment, and educational systems.

Things that will be looked at are as follows. How discrimination tie into incarceration rates. Why minorities are more likely to receive longer and harsher sentencing and punishments than non-minorities. How false accusations tie into discrimination of minorities. How the criminal justice system is stacked against minorities. Lastly, how are communities both directly and indirectly effected by the results of incarcerations.According to the United States Sentencing Commission, it is said that “As long as the individuals in each group are treated fairly, average group differences simply reflect differences in the characteristics of the individuals who comprise each group.” (USSC, 2004) From this I see it to be if the individuals being charged are receiving the same sentencing that similar others of that group or race are, that it is fair on that standard, however this has no correlation between different groups or races. This doesn’t justify difference between races receiving similar sentencing for the same charges. Continuing this, the USSC looks at the differences between the “three major racial and ethnic groups from 1984 to 2001” (USSC, 2004) They then states that “While the majority of federal offenders were White, minorities dominate the federal criminal docket” (USSC, 2004) There are more Caucasian federal offenders, but minorities are more likely to receive sentencing, more likely to receive harsher sentencing.

USSC leads into ‘Fair Differentiation’ in which it said, ‘Discrimination’ being “Offenders receive different treatment based on their race, ethnicity, gender and other forbidden factors” as well as ‘Unsupportable adverse impact’ being “Offenders receive different treatment based on sentencing rules that are not clearly needed to achieve the purposes of sentencing” (USSC, 2004) That being said, minority groups are more likely to receive bias sentencing (more likely to be convicted) compared to that of non-minority groups. There are data misinterpretations due to mandatory minimum statutes. According to USSCs research, “conviction under a mandatory minimum statute has no effect in cases above minimum penalty but forces judges to impose higher penalties required” (USSC, 2004) Due to minimum sentencing, a judge can only go so low when sentencing individuals. Many of these cases are against minorities. “mandatory minimum penalties disproportionately apply to minority offenders” (USSC, 2004) This effectively stacking the odds against minorities when sentencing.

Based on some statistics that USSC have displayed, dealing with drug charges, “The odds of a black offender being sentenced to imprisonment are about 20 percent higher than that of a White offender, and the odds of a Hispanic offender are about 40 percent higher” (USSC, 2004) This could directly be related to the previous paragraph where minimum penalties are applied to offenders. In similar correlations, “Findings indicate that all types of Hispanic [and Black] offenders are placed above the minimum required sentence more frequently than similar White offenders or receive lesser reductions.” (USSC, 2004) Overall minorities receive longer sentencing above that of minimum more often than that of non-minorities. In the sentencing of drug trafficking, “Whites receive reductions three percent larger than blacks and five percent larger than Hispanics” (USSC, 2004) This is one of many indications that prove there is bias racial sentencing.

In specific cases dealing with certain contraband, drug trafficking for instance, there is a great difference in sentencing. That being said, “the current gap is 92.1 months for blacks compared to the 57.9 months for whites with a reduction of 17.8 months” (USSC, 2004) There is a 34.2 month difference between black and white offenders based on the same crimes. According to The Sentencing Project, “African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested; more likely to be convicted; and more likely to experience lengthy prison sentences,” in which they lead into “African-American adults are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated and Hispanics 3.1 times as likely than whites” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) That being said, the differences dealing with incarceration between the different races is disproportional.

It is suspected that it’s more than just racial discrimination factors into these longer sentencings. The Sentencing Project says that “there are two distinct criminal justice systems, that of the rich and that of the poor and people of color.” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) Looking at the differences between annual incomes of races, and the prison population, we can infer that lower income races directly relate to incarceration. “[The average income for white individuals is that of 1.7 times more than that of African Americans, and 1.22 that of Hispanics.]” (RaceIncomeMedian), however, “[those of African American decent make up around 62% of the prison population, followed by Hispanics at 27% and whites at just around 11%]” (DOJ, 2011) While minorities tend to make less income, they also make up the majority of the prison population. It’s also put that “the prison population is overwhelmingly poor and disproportionately black” (The Sentencing Project, 2018)

As of 2016, “The United States spends more than $80 billion annually on corrections” (DOE, 2016) how does this fair with the education system? “State and Local spending on prisons and jails triple that of funding for public education” (DOE, 2016) There is more funding tied up with individuals incarcerated than is being used to fund public education. Looking at average grades, it also shows that ‘less educated’ individuals tend to be those of minority groups. It may be a stretch, however the correlation between minorities, public education, and incarceration could be directly related with each other. Due to lower income families tending to be minority, which also tend to make up the majority of the prison population, who also tend to have overall lower GPAs, we can see that the ‘system’ is clearly targeting a group of people.

Public education funding gets cut, which leads to individuals not learning the material as they should or have teachers that don’t care to help those who need it due to lack of funding. These teachers don’t care because they aren’t paid enough for that job, which tends to leave individuals overall going down paths which lead to incarceration. Because these individuals are incarcerated, more state and local funding is required to keep these individuals in prison. Cycle continues, which is why the “United States criminal justice system is the largest in the world,” as well as “The U.S. is the world leader in its rate of incarceration” (The Sentencing Project, 2018)

According to the Sentencing Project, “[the linkage between race and crime is urban poverty, which is far more common for African Americans that for other racial groups]” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) This links back to African Americans making less income than that of other races, as well as generally living is less than suitable conditions such as location and access to more or better public sectors. Because African Americans are more likely subjected to urban poverty, the criminal justice system tends to fail these individuals due to biases such as “overlooking communities of color being disproportionately victims of crime,” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) leaving Americans to overestimate the crimes and their rates towards these individuals.

“The rise of mass incarceration begins with disproportionate levels of police contact with African Americans” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) this is called racial profiling, however with racial profiling being illegal, Louis Dekmar, who is the president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, cannot state that police are stopping people of color based on profiling. In his words, according to the Sentencing Project, “Crime is often significantly higher in minority neighborhoods than elsewhere. And that is where we allocate our resources” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) While the police resources are being allocated in neighborhoods of minorities, these other neighborhoods that aren’t being monitored, or not being monitored as often are basically getting free passes to conduct criminal activities (such as drug trafficking and consumptions). In this aspect, these neighborhoods of minorities are being more closely looked at because of racial discrimination and racial profiling.

How high does racial discrimination and racial profiling go? Continuing with previous statements, there are “High officials in New York City that have ‘turned blind eyes to the evidence of stops based on racial discrimination’” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) ACLU according to the Sentencing Project have “found that blacks were 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than whites in 2010, even though the rate of usage was comparable” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) White people aren’t being stopped as much because officers tend to be looking for minorities because that’s where the resources are needed used for. Yet we have two difference groups of races, if we were to go by law, both of these individuals should have been arrested and tried in very similar ways (because marijuana is not legalized and is illegal).

“Police are more likely to stop black and Hispanic drivers for discretionary reasons over that of white drivers… Once pulled over, black and Hispanic drivers were three times as likely as whites to be searched (that being 6% and 7%)” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) Which is quite funny because while officers were stopping these drivers, “police officers generally had a lower ‘contraband hit rate’ when they searched black drivers than that of white drives” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) So even though people of color were being searched more, there were more white drivers that had contraband.

“African Americans were incarcerated in local jails at a rate 3.5 times that of non-Hispanic whites” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) People of color are jailed more often than white people. The Sentencing Project also states that “people were being detained prior to trial, policies and decisions influencing pretrial detention play a key role in driving the disparity in the jail population and beyond” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) People of color were being detained before being on trial. This could greatly affect the results in which the outcome from the trial would end. “People who are detained awaiting trial are also more likely to accept less favorable plea deals, being sentenced to prison, and receiving longer sentences” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) These people are being detained, and because they are being detained, the individuals are somewhat suckered into accepting plea deals that are unfavorable to these individuals. Usually when someone is taking a plea deal, it is supposed to help the court systems, as well as help over population in prisons and allows the individuals to receive less harsh sentences but ends up receive harsher sentencing.

Another problem with these pretrial deals is that the individuals “require money bond, an especially high hurdle for low-income defendants” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) The problem with this is that usually the individuals who are arrested come from low-income areas. Places that are generally in poverty since that is where most of the resources are allocated, and these individuals usually cannot afford to pay these bonds. They end up being detained because they cannot pay their bonds which is “often assessed to be higher safety and flight risks because they have a higher chance to experience socioeconomic disadvantage and to have criminal records” (The Sentencing Project, 2018) All of a sudden, people of color are being judged socially because they cannot afford to pay bonds, and because they were picked up, they might end up having a criminal record (unless the charges get cleared) which can be backed up in court. This would prevent individuals from getting jobs, which generally leads to lower income problems.

¨The death is not closer in ancient that in a recent born, neither life¨. The capital punishment in the world have many delicate things, a lot of types of it, reflective, scary and traumatized. The purpose of this essay is to teach you more about this polemics topics, that is some cases the decision are not the best, but need to be in controlled, for the benefit of the human’s life and to take conscient that before to apply it they need to investigate to be shure about the decision.

Until the pass of the year our world is in constant evolution, in the culture, people, resistance and others. However, the capital punishment is a process hat consist in a penalty of the person and the solution for it is the death. It is also call death penalty. The death of the person is decided by the state, you need to do a big crime or a several break of laws. The countries that is it apply are Afghanistan, United States, Malaysia, Irak, Iran, Tillandsia and others … But away are some other countries that are disagree with this method such as Panama, Nicaragua, Mexico, Germany and others. This is because of savage of this method.

In addition, let’s see some types of method to kill that the State use. The first method is the lethal injection, that consist in injecting a big amount of drugs, cause the person paralyze, difficulty the Respiratory System and the worse cause a heart attack. Another one is the electrocution, this method is very savage, consist to put a person in a modified chair and then condemn the person in a heavy charge of electric current. One of the most terrific method is the lethal gas, the person is expose with a lot of toxic gas, they put him in a room call gas chamber, some gases that they use are carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide. This method is very commonly, is the hanging method, that consist in put e person in suspension using a ligature around the neck. This method was very common in the past to condemn the people. The last method that I will mention is the firing squad execution, this consist input he person in the place to practice the shooting, the shoot the person a lot in all his body parts, this method is common in the pas and in the war. In the past was called fusillading.

In the other hand, I want to teach you about one particular case of capital punishment, but first the 4,1% of the death condemn in United Stated are mistake by the state. There was one case in United Stated, on December 7, 1989 the authorities of the state of Texas were agreeing to apply the capital punishment to Carlos DeLuna. The method that the state decided was the lethal injection, that person suffer a lot of pain, was like an internal born. But fifteen years later the investigation of the Chicago tribune’s revel to us that Carlos DeLuna was not the murder of Wanda Lopez. The real murder was Carlos Hernandez. This is making the people dude about the capacity of the state to apply the capital punishment. The studies say that in one thousand three hundred twenty person fifty people are innocent. This is a prove that the state needs to be more conscient in the decision of the capital punishment because a life is at stake.

In conclusion the capital punishment is effective method that makes the persons see and comply with the laws but is true that to apply it the state need to be very shure about the decision and investigate a lot of the case. Talking about Panama is better that we do not have the capital punishment, we just need to have more discipline have more strong laws and make the people comply it.