Minority Groups and the Court System Paper

MINORITY GROUPS & COURT THE SYSTEM
Name
Institution
Abstract
Due to the substantial research and knowledge accumulated from implicit bias, implicit and explicit stereotypes and attitudes. “The moment has come to face the big question of how we will overcome all this in our society. The paper will seek to explain the differences between implicit bias and stereotypes and explicit stereotypes and attitudes. The paper will also show and elaborate on the effects of biases in the courtroom and how the racial disparity in sentencing affects the criminal judicial justice system, this will lead to the identification of the causes of racial disparity and ways they are frequently manifested in the day to day activities of the criminal justice system.” As we can gather, a lot of people working in the criminal justice are very on point with the problem of racial disparity and are highly willing to find measures to repel the adverse effects it has. We can readily come to facts that, racial disparity is a disease in the society as a whole, but nevertheless, actions can be taken to cure or reduce its spread.
Introduction
In the American society, “people have different views and opinions concerning various matters.” Hence, the need to acquire and gain from economic prosperity is not a view shared uniformly in the society. Due to this, whole sectors of the society have become marginalized. This is seen through the indifferent treatment of persons of different color through the entire division of the criminal justice system.

This racial and ethnic disparity bring about mistrust from the public on the criminal justice system, leading to difficulties for the system to promote public safety.
“Explain the difference between implicit bias and implicit stereotypes.”
Implicit bias also referred to as implicit social cognition, refers to the attitudes that cause an effect on our daily actions and understanding of various situations and events and also to the decisions that we make in an unconscious state. That is, without vividly expressing ourselves. These biases bring forth both favorable and unfavorable conclusions and judgments which are triggered and activated without the control or knowledge of an individual. Hence making them unintentional. These implicit biases, harbored in our subconscious make us portray attitudes and feelings about other people based on their age, race, experience, and ethnicity. These associations tend to grow in us over a span of a very long time from a tender age through the exposure from various medias of information.
Unlike implicit bias, implicit stereotype (“considered an aspect of implicit social cognition”) is the assigning of certain qualities to an individual of a particular group in an unconscious manner. These implicit stereotypes are very much influenced by experience which is centered on learning the relationship of various qualities and certain social groups, which include; “race, gender, and age.” “An individual’s behavior and way of perceiving the world and everything around it can be affected by these implicit stereotypes, even without the person’s control, intention or awareness.”
Explain the difference between explicit stereotyping and explicit attitudes
As mentioned above, the implicit stereotype is assigning certain qualities to individuals or groups in an unconscious manner, whereas explicit stereotyping can be described as the opposite. That is, being explicit can be defined as being fully expressed, demonstrated or outspoken, therefore is an explicit stereotype, an expressed or outspoken generalization of an individual or a certain group. An explicit stereotype can be, one person telling a friend that all Chinese people are smart or that most crimes are committed by immigrants, the person is thereby aware of the generalization and out spoke it, which made it explicit. The most common explicit stereotypes usually revolve around race, gender, culture, and groups.
An explicit attitude is somehow similar to the explicit stereotype; the difference comes in the definition of attitude and stereotype. As said before a stereotype is about associating individuals or groups with certain qualities or traits. An attitude is not about generalization; it is about evaluating what you experience and thereby make a judgment and form a view about a person, group or object. An explicit attitude can, therefore, be defined as an individual who is expressing their view on an individual, object or a social group.
“How biases might affect courtroom proceedings.”
Even though the effects of intentional discrimination have received numerous attention from people participating in courtroom proceedings, that is, judges, lawyers, academics and policymakers, their effects have been less felt compared to the more prominent ones from “implicit biases—attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, decision making and behavior, without even realizing it”, which have raised numerous questions. As for a long time, people have trusted their guts and personal experiences to make decisions, which did not bore fruits. Researchers have come up with ways and tactics to show the existence of implicit biases. They are huge and have real-world effects. These incredible findings have reshaped the “law’s fundamental understandings and fairness.”
As such, “the appreciation for implicit biases and their effects on courtroom behavior is very important in understanding the eventual verdict of courtroom proceedings. In the event of a trial, jurors see evidence and testimonies through their attitudes and beliefs.” “During the early stages of a court proceeding, jurors are given conditions that they should follow. One of them is being told to refrain from coming to any conclusions at the onset and also not to show any bias during the court proceedings, thus increasing the volatility in the way they react to a certain court case or sides involved.  The higher the level of spontaneity in response, the more implicit actions arise.”(Leibold, 2009)
But during normal conditions, jurors’ decisions are very fruitful, and thus they are less subjected to the influences of the non- conscious process.
“How racial disparity in sentencing affects the judicial system.”
The Statistics at the community level and nation as a whole gives a clear indication of the effects racial disparity has on the justice system. This is by way of each decision made at one point in time, results to subsequent disparities at different future stages in the system. For example, if bail practices make it a point to put high rates on the detaining of minorities in the society compared to the residence whites, then during trial and sentencing process, the same minorities will be at a disadvantage of having little or no access to a defense attorney, treatment options, and community resources.
“Racial disparity challenges the core values under which the criminal justice system operates with.” This represents a clear rejection of the principle of having equal justice due to discrimination based on race (Mann, 1993). A sense of upholding fairness in the system is very vital to its functioning.
Summary of the article
The article describes the ongoing disparity in the criminal justice; its primary focus is to describe “what it’s like to be black in the criminal justice system.” It states that “social science research shows striking racial disparities at nearly every level—from arrest rates, to bail amounts, to sentence lengths, to probation hearing outcomes.”  This article is sectioned into eight paragraphs; each paragraph gives a statement that is then proven true by statistics. One of the statements states, “Black Americans are more likely to serve longer sentences than white Americans for the same offense.” This is proven to be true by a 2012 working paper, which found evidence that black men who had committed the same crime as a white person were on average sentenced ten more years than a white person. (Kahn & Kirk, 2015)
If the statement is, in fact, true, then it proves that the justice system is affected by disparities. It should be equal for all citizens, and no biases or racial discrimination should apply as this reduces the public trust of the “criminal justice system” hence encouraging unfairness.
References
Mann, C. R. (1993). Unequal Justice. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Kahn, A., K. & Kirk, C. (2015, Aug 9). “What It’s Like to Be Black in the Criminal Justice System.” Retrieved from “http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2015/08/racial_disparities_in_the_criminal_justice_system_eight_charts_illustrating.html.”
Leibold, J. (2009, Jul 31). Implicit and explicit effects of bias in the courtroom. Retrieved from http://www.litigationinsights.com/case-strategies/part-i-implicit-and-explicit-effects-of-bias-in-the-courtroom/