As quoted by Emile Durkheim, a society without crime is impossible.1 Even if the standard of determining criminal acts is set high, less severe acts will still be considered as crime. As there is no chance of eliminating crime out of society, punishment is an essential tool to create a fair society for it having 4 main goals: deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation and incapacitation. Setting a fixed standard and guideline of punishment aims to convince potential criminals that the crime is not worth the time (general deterrence), to equally and fairly distribute punishment among similar illegal acts (retribution), to help and not just punish the criminals in order to remove further threat to society (rehabilitation), and to detain criminals to eliminate risk of a repeated offence (incapacitation).2.
According to UN declaration article 7, the United Nations, all are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of the Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. Ever since the Congress of the United States passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the United States has achieved a significant progress on the subject of establishing equal treatment for all citizens under the law.3 Many laws and theories aim for fair and equal rights among people despite their race, gender or age and discrimination has been seemingly disappeared from society. However in the arena of criminal justice, racial disparity is not receding, but yet growing. Current criminal justice system and criminal laws in the United States are biased, even though it facially displays neutrality.4 This essay will provide examples and following analysis of the cases of minority groups getting disadvantages from racial discrimination under criminal law.
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I. Disparity in Profiling on the Streets.