Should we impose tougher laws to combat the inequality within our law Research Paper

Should we impose tougher laws to combat the inequality within our law enforcement agencies - Research Paper Example In the discussion it is revealed that the implementation of tough laws have made it even harder to reduce inequalities. The issue cannot be overcome by implementation of a single law and recommendations are made on how the discrepancies can be corrected. Introduction Inequalities in the American justice system continue to be rampant. This has mostly been displayed in dealing with the drug problem. It has been observed that when it comes to drug related crimes, the law treats races differently. There was a survey that was conducted in 1991 that reveals that the prison population mostly consists of poorly educated, young and poor people who were mostly from the minority ethnic groups. It also showed that there only 4% of the whole jail population was female despite the two genders being equally represented in the normal population. It also found that 40% of the population of the male was between the ages of 18-25 despite them being only 16% in the general population. 40% of the males u nder age of 25 were reported to have dropped out of school before the age of 16 and in the general population this group consists of 16% only (Garland, D. (2001: 120). For instance, only 14% of the African Americans use drugs but 38% of people convicted of breaking the drug laws are African American. Moreover, people who break drug laws of equal magnitude are given different sentences. Person who is convicted of being in possession of powder cocaine get a sentence that is 100 times lesser than those convicted of powder cocaine. These inequalities in the justice problem have been slowing down the efforts to overcome ethnic inequalities among other inequalities found in the society. It is not possible to completely eradicate racism in the population if the justice system which is supposed to safeguards the rights of all people regardless of their color, age or gender continues to practice these inequalities (Tonry, 2008: 238). This paper discusses whether having tougher laws would be successful in dealing with the existing inequalities. Literature review Different surveys have shown that the criminal justice system in American has continued to be structurally discriminative against the poor, minority and poorly educated persons. The Home office national survey conducted in 1991 show that the prison population is very different from the normal population. Another survey has also shown an overrepresentation of people with drug problems and mental disorders. This research showed that 38% of the prison population had a problem related to drug dependency while 25% were reported to have a mental problem. It is good to understand whether these discrepancies are as a result of there being inequalities in operations of the criminal system or that it originates from somewhere else. This can be done by conducting self reporting studies. In one recent survey conducted by the home security on youth and crime reveals that there was a widespread criminal activity among the you ng people. A self-reporting survey was conducted to investigate into this issue and it was found that the gender difference in offense was very small and did not reflect the conviction rates. It is thus evident that more young males got convicted for crimes while the females were not hunted down by the law despite the fact that they also committed the same