Discrimination or Disparity in Policing: Gender, Class, Race Issues

Running Head : Discrimination or Disparity in Policing

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Discrimination or Disparity in Policing : Gender , Class , Race Issues

Discrimination refers to a difference in the kind of treatment given to individuals based on the race , ethnic background , social class , gender and so forth . Disparity on the other hand refers to a difference in outcomes of a situation which is not necessarily as a result of differential treatment or any kind of biased treatment . According to Wrobleski (2005 , discrimination can be defined as a differential unequal treatment exhibited by

a person when dealing with an individual from a certain race , sex , religion or ethnic origin

In policing , all citizens in a country are entitled to equal amount of protection under the state laws as a sign of democracy . Discrimination in policing occurs when police officers in a given state fail to practice fair treatment when dealing with their workmates and members of the public due to race , gender , ethnic origin , skin color or religion biases and it is a bit different from disparity . For instance , many traffic policemen are known to easily forgive women drivers who violate traffic rules but the same policemen become very strict when dealing with male drivers . On the other hand , women are known to be more careful drivers than their male counterparts and thus , not many women drivers violate traffic rules . The fact that there are many male traffic rules violators than women might lead to some difference in the number of traffic tickets given to women as opposed to those given to men . This kind of difference will be referred to as disparity and not discrimination

The police force has in the recent past being highly associated with cases of discrimination and favoritism . This seeks top identify the types of discrimination and disparity in policing mainly based on gender , race and class

Racial discrimination and disparity

The issue of racial and ethnic discrimination and disparity in policing has been widely researched and most studies indicate that there is a common pattern of systematic discrimination and disparity related to factors such as involvement in criminal activities , drug abuse and so forth . Systematic discrimination in policing can be defined as the type of differential treatment which is always present in a state 's justice system regardless of the time or place . Most of racial discrimination in the justice systems exists in form of racial profiling (Wrobleski 2005

Racial profiling refers to a situation whereby members of a certain race or ethnic origin are subjected to extensive surveillance , police force and criminal justice than others . For instance , law enforcement officers in the U . S have been accused of using the authority given to them in a discretionary way when dealing with minority motorists . The word minority here refers to the blacks , Hispanics or native Americans (Walker , Cassia Miriam , 2000 . This is a case of racial profiling and such cases have brought so much controversy in the American policing with many people claiming that the high rates...