CJS Equality Essay - 59 PDF

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Question: With reference to examples, discuss the view that the criminal justice system doesn’t treat all users equally.
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With reference to examples, discuss the view that the criminal justice system doesn’t treat all users equally. The criminal justice system is a complex system which in theory should allow its members to be treated fairly and equally. Whether they are an offender and a victim the idea is that everyone should have the same rights and go through the same processes. However, this is not always the case, there are many biases in the criminal justice system, stemming from stereotypes and prejudices ingrained into our culture and society. One theory that suggests men and women are treated differently by the courts is the ‘chivalry theory’ first suggested by Otto Pollak (1950) “Women receive more lenient disposals than men as a result of the chivalrous or paternalistic attitudes of prosecutors and judges” (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2013). Although this is not the case in all situations, according to the double deviance theory if everything else, for example crime is equal then women can be treated more harshly than men. This is because not only have women violated the criminal law but stereotypes about what behaviour is appropriate and tolerable in society. There have been conflicting conclusions about the favourability of women in the criminal justice system. When looking at the factors involved in women’s convictions such as seriousness of the offence and previous convictions there is greater evidence of leniency towards women convicted of certain offences, for example shoplifting (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2013). Hedderman and Dowds (1997) found that the picture tends to be more complex; where for one account of shoplifting women could be treated more leniently than men, however on accounts of drug offences they were as likely to receive a custodial sentence. Pat Carlen has suggested that women receive more lenient treatment than men because they conform to “conventional stereotypes of femininity and victimisation” (Carlen, 2002a) where as non-conforming females will tend to face unduly harsh treatment. Women ‘on the margins’ who do not live up to the conventional idea of respectability, for example those not living in conventional domestic circumstances of those of minority ethnic groups are more likely to be processed in the criminal justice system and end up in prison. Over the past fifteen years there has been evidence to suggest that there has been a dramatic increase in female imprisonment. The ministry of Justice statistics indicates that

“women convicted of indictable offences are more likely to receive an absolute of conditional discharge, community sentence or suspended sentence” (Ministry of Justice, 2010) whereas men tend to be sentenced to immediate custody. This is trend continuing over to Scotland where women are also more likely than men to be admonished and were less likely than men to be given community service or to be fined. Although women continue to only represent a small proportion of around 5% of the prison population women have tended to outstrip increases in the imprisonment of men. Gender differences in criminal sentencing give rise to the question of whether women should be sentenced according to the same criteria as men. In the past women, have been subjected to ‘justice with a vengeance’ when receiving a harsher treatment by the courts. The Equality Act (2006) tries to promote gender equality in the criminal justice system. It requires that public bodies such as prosecutors undertake assessments on the impact of policy and legislation on gender. However, an issue with this is that equality does not necessarily imply the same treatment, rather it requires certain circumstances of each individual regardless of gender to be taken into consideration and hand out sentences which are likely to impact them. When looking at gender differences and punishment; specifically, community sentences it has been suggested that traditionally women have been under-represented on community service orders and over-represented on probation (Gelsthorpe and McIvor, 2007). There are still notable gender differences and some community sentences are not very female friendly. For example, Patel and Stanley (2008) researched and concluded that it was more likely for women to have supervision and drug treatment requirements whilst serving their community orders than men. Also, they were less likely to receive requirements to do with unpaid work and participation at accredited programmes. There is some evidence to suggest that women have been given community sentences as an alternative to a lesser sentence, this is a concern as this might indirectly contribute to the imprisonment of women who have been deemed to have exhausted all available non-custodial options. Along with sexism in the criminal justice system, racism is one of the most outstanding prejudges that leads researchers to believe that the criminal justice system does not treat all its users equally. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 allows the police to stop and search any individual. Although the rate at which they stop and search minority ethnic

groups is much higher than Caucasian members. Black people have been shown disproportionately in statistics when it comes to stop and searches, over the last 10 years, they have been between six and eight times more likely to be stopped and searched by any white group (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2013). There are discrepancies when looking at these figures though; 43% of the searches were done by Metropolitan Police Services and this would explain the high numbers of black people in the statistics as more black ethnic groups live and work in London. The results of police custody have been disproptortionalty experienced by minority ethnic groups also, in 1996-7, black people were six times more likely to die in police custody (Bowling and Phillips, 2002). Consequently, the Police Reform Act 2002 places duty on the police to refer cases involving a death of a detained offender to the Police Complaints Commission to be independently assessed. Although black people are more likely to be stopped and searched the actual number of arrests is low, therefore they do not directly influence sentencing and imprisonment rates (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2013). When considering sentencing in court offenders from ethnic minority groups are more likely to be placed into immediate custody. In 2010 only 23 per cent of white offenders compared with 27 per cent of black offenders received a custodial sentence (Ministry of Justice, 2011). Similarly, when looking at sentences minority ethnic groups receive longer sentences on average. For example, in 2010, the average length of custodial sentences for white offenders was 14.9 months whereas for black offenders it was 20.8 months (Ministry of Justice, 2011). The only sentence in which white people received slightly longer sentences is in the case of fraud or forgery. Official reports continue to provide research to suggest that minority ethnic groups are treated unfairly by parole officers and services. As late as 2000, it was found by the Probation Inspectorate that probation when considering minority ethnic groups was mechanistic, when it was supposed to be a meaningful exercise for reformation (HMIP, 2000). Language and perceptions of probation staff was monitored, it was found that they tended to look at ethnic groups as difficult or threatening, whilst white offenders were treated more sympathetically. Racism and ethnicity are a direct feature in the incarceration process. Over one quarter of the prison population were from minority ethnic backgrounds in 2012, with black people making up 13.4% of the prison population. An example of an issue that can arise from racism

in the incarceration process is that case of Zahd Mubarek, an Asain Pakistani man who was sharing a cell with a psychotic prisoner who had exhibited racist threats and behaviour. No one acted upon this and so Mubarek was murdered by his cellmate. If there had been proper policies in place to deal with exhibited racism and racial threats, then this might not have happened. It was found in court that Mubarek’s murder could have been prevented if proper precautions were exercised (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2013). Linking the two of these inequalities together is the number of minority ethnic incarcerated women. In December 2011 the number of women in prisons was 4,211, and approximately 650 of these were foreign nationals (Hucklesby and Wahidin, 2013). The most common explanation for this is that most of these foreign women are incarcerated due to illegal importation and exportation of drugs. Followed by this is fraud and forgery; this mainly relates to women seeking entry to the UK as asylum seekers and forging fake passports to get through traffickers. In conclusion both sexism and racism are the main two issues that the criminal justice system comes to face when considering equality. There are now more policies and legislations to prevent these prejudices impacting on sentencings and behaviours. Although it will always be hard to eliminate individual biases, for example, judges who pass sentences will always have to be watched for racial or sexual biases. Word Count: 1,396 Bowling, B. and Phillips, C. (2002) Racism, Crime and Criminal Justice. Harlow: Longman Carlen, P. (ed) (2002a) Women and Punishment: The Struggle for Justice. Cullompton: willan Gelsthorpe, L. and McIvor, G. ‘Difference and Diversity in Probation’ in Gelsthorpe,L. and Morgan, R. (eds) Handbook of Probation. Cullompton, Willian. Hedderman, C. and Dowds, L. (1997) ‘The Sentencing of Men and Women’ in Hedderman, C. and Gelsthorpe, L. (eds) Understanding the Sentencing of Women: Home Office Research Study 170. London: Home Office. HMIP (2000) Thematic Inspection Report: Towards Race Equality. London: Home Office

Hucklesby, A. and Wahidin, A. (2013) Criminal Justice. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ministry of Justice (2010) Statistics on Women in the Criminal Justice System. London: Ministry of Justice Ministry of Justice (2011) Statistics on Race and the criminal Justice System. A ministry of Justice publication under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. London: Crown Copyright Patel, S. and Stanely, S. (2008) The Use of the Community Order and the Suspended Sentence Order for Women. London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies Pollak, O. (1950) The Criminality of Women. , Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press....