Respond to this post : The report, “Felony-Murder: An On Ramp for…

Question Answered step-by-step Respond to this post : The report, “Felony-Murder: An On Ramp for… Respond to this post :  The report, “Felony-Murder: An On Ramp for Extreme Sentencing”, written by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, Ph.D, Emma Stammen, and Connie Budaci, gave statics and data on the impact of race and social class in the criminal justice system. In the report, it illustrates that felony murder laws are much more intense and longer for people of color, the youth community, and women. The report states that, “In Pennsylvania in 2020, 80% of imprisoned individuals with a felony murder conviction were people of color and 70% were African American” and that, “Felony murder laws ignore the cognitive vulnerabilities of youth and emerging adults by assuming that they recognize the remote consequences of their own actions—and those of others in their group.” From this article, it is apparent that the criminal justice system is biased toward race and gender. Although there are guidelines for how long a criminal should serve in prison, it is not equal for everyone. The article stated that people of color and the youth face more serious consequences than others. These statistics and reports are on the topic of murder, in my opinion, the most serious conviction there is. I can’t imagine what charges and years criminals serve for crimes less serious.    When it comes to drug crimes, the article, “The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons”, written by Ashely Nellis, states, “Subsequent studies have replicated this work with newer datasets and found even higher amounts of unexplained disparity, particularly in the category of drug arrests. In a study on arrest outcomes for felonies, multivariate analysis of court records between 2017 and 2018 in Denver showed that felony drug cases The Color of Justice against white defendants were statistically significantly more likely to be moved to drug court than similarly situated cases against Black defendants, holding all other factors constant.”    In Chapter 12 of the book, The Integration Debate, written by Marc Mauer, it touches on the policies of race, class, and crime. Mauer stated, “The growing race and economic divide also exacerbated the scale of incarceration. All nations have prison systems, but these vary enormously in the degree to which they employ incarceration. Some research suggests that the scale of incarceration is related to the degree of inequality in a society (Wilkins and Pease 1987). That is, the greater the inequality, the higher the overall rate of incarceration. The theory behind this is that societies provide a variety of positive and negative rewards to their population.” This statement really touches on the topic of the inequality in prison systems. In lower income areas there are higher crime rates. The  article,”Shadow Report”, states that a percentage of African Americans live in lower income communities which, statistically, lead to higher crime rates. This goes hand in hand with Mauer’s statement about the ongoing inequality in the criminal justice system. If a crime is committed, more serious consequences will follow if part of a minority group or a poor social class of living. This is trickled down to the youth because, like stated before, there is an assumption that the youth community is completely educated on the consequences of their own actions. Although they necessarily know right from wrong, they may not think far into the future and think about what will happen if they go about a certain task.  Social Science Sociology SOC 201 Share QuestionEmailCopy link Comments (0)