Many who observe the trends between race and crime seek to explain these differences without involving discrimination, and it can be done. The facts are there, but most believe they facts are outweighed by the many conflicting statistics. There are many scholars who believe the difference between the arrests for blacks and their population is simply because blacks commit more crime. While that may be true, the extent of the inequalities is difficult to ignore. Maybe blacks do commit more crime and we should just throw them all in jail. That is ignorant and unjust thinking, and that is the mindset of the people who believe that blacks can truly be worse than whites. This sort of thinking leads to blaming and labeling a “dangerous class”. People begin to believe that a person who is black has criminal potential just by seeing them, the way some may see a lower class citizen as a potential threat. Americans do not support this way of thinking with their words, but many do by their actions.

American justice has always been based on equality, but it has always been full of double standards as well. We have come from a point where blacks did not count as people to where they have rights just as any other American does. But we have not come far enough. Solutions must be found for our justice system, and then corrections must be made. Possible solutions include cultural training for police officers and citizens, re-examining minimum and maximum sentencing, and increasing studies into the bias that has enveloped our justice system. While most Americans say they want to see an end to racism and bias and want true equality, these same people look on while doing nothing. Until everyone becomes involved in finding a solution, our nation will never live up to it’s true potential and more importantly the ideals our nation was founded upon.

Works Cited

Ide III, R. William. “Eradicating Bias in the Justice System.” ABA Journal. March.

1994: 8.

Miller, Jerome G. Search and Destroy: African-American Males in the Criminal Justice

System. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

“November 2000 Census Estimates by Race.” http://eire.census.gov/popest/data/race.php

Tonry, Michael. Malign Neglect: Race, Crime and Punishment in America. New York:

Oxford University Press, 1995.

“Uniform Crime Report.” http://www.fbi.gov/ucr.

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