Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System

Please read all instructions carefully, there are a lot of them. No plagiarism please. Final paper for this class. Please use my book, cite any and all references for this paper. NO audio clips, written only. My degree will be in criminal justice, but it will be your choice which topic you are comfortable with. Please hit distinguished marks in the scoring guide.

This week’s assignment focuses on institutional discrimination, so you may wish to review the previous readings that address this form of discrimination, particularly:

• Chapters 1, 4, and 5 in your text, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class.

Assignment Instructions

Public Information Piece

Your employer asks you to research and analyze the prevalence and persistence of institutionalized discrimination based on race and ethnicity. For this assignment, you will explore both the causes and consequences of institutionalized discrimination, from the perspective of the individuals it directly affects, the institution you have chosen, and society as a whole.

Prepare

1. Choose one major institution to use for this assignment:
   • Criminal justice system.
   • Health care system.
   • Educational system.
   • Workplace.
   • Housing market.
2. Research institutional discrimination in your chosen institution, locating reliable, scholarly sources. Find suggested sources in the Research Activity for this assignment.
3. Choose one of the following public information pieces in the list below. It is your job to create a public information piece that highlights your findings regarding racial and ethnic inequities within your chosen institution. You will need to support your conclusions with credible data and scholarly research, rather than relying on opinion, and demonstrate your ability to apply sociological thinking to your topic.
   • Information booklet targeted to the general public.
   • Position paper or brief targeted at state or federal legislators.
   • Mock website or blog.
   • Public service announcement (a script for a radio or television program).
   • PowerPoint presentation targeted to a specific audience, with a description of the audience and detailed speaker’s notes.

Write

Create a final, professional-quality product in which you accomplish the following:

1. Create a public information piece that effectively conveys the causes and consequences of the problem of institutional discrimination in one of society’s major institutions, with support from data and scholarly sources.
2. Describe factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within a specific institution.
3. Analyze data on the factors contributing racial and ethnic disparities in a specific institution.
   • Keep in mind that, to be accurate in your assessment, you will need to look at raw data and percentages as well as to consider the data in relation to each racial or ethnic group’s percentage within the overall U.S. population.
4. Explain ways in which public policies are linked to racial and ethnic disparities within a specific institution.
   • Consider any historical or contemporary influences that may have contributed the disparities you have identified.
   • Example: If you are studying institutional discrimination in the justice system, you would need to consider national policies such as the War on Drugs, as well as law enforcement policies.
5. Assess the impact on minorities and minority communities caused by institutional discrimination within a specific institution.
6. Describe policy strategies for reducing institutional discrimination.
   • These can be community based, legislative (at the local, state, or federal level), or law enforcement strategies.
   • These strategies should focus on reducing institutional discrimination within the institution itself.
7. Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate APA format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.

Additional Requirements

• Written communication: Ensure written communication is clear, organized, and free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• Length: Submit a completed public information piece of at least 1,500 words.
• Format: Cite your sources in current APA style and format, including a reference list at the end of your document or presentation, along with in-text citations of your sources.
• Sources: Cite a minimum of three scholarly sources.

Criteria	Non-performance	Basic	Proficient	Distinguished
Create a public information piece that conveys a central tenet regarding institutional inequality. 16%	Does not create a public information piece.	Creates a public information piece that does not convey a central tenet regarding institutional inequality or does so in a confusing or culturally inappropriate manner.	Creates a public information piece that conveys a central tenet regarding institutional inequality.	Creates a public information piece that effectively conveys a central tenet regarding institutional inequality and cites support from data and scholarly resources.
Describe factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within a specific institution. 14%	Does not list factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.	Lists factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.	Describes factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.	Analyzes factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.
Analyze data on the factors contributing to racial and ethnic disparities in a specific institution. 14%	Does not analyze data to make valid sociological inferences.	Analyzes data but makes unsupportable sociological inferences.	Analyzes data to make valid sociological inferences.	Analyzes data to make valid sociological inferences and cites specific instances of data to support them.
Explain ways in which public policies are linked to racial and ethnic disparities within a specific institution. 14%	Does not list ways in which public policies are linked to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.	Lists ways in which public policies are linked to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.	Explains ways in which public policies are linked to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution.	Analyzes ways in which public policies are linked to racial and ethnic disparities within an institution and describes these connections in detail using real-world examples.
Assess the impact that institutional discrimination within a specific institution has had on minorities and minority communities. 14%	Does not describe the impact that institutional discrimination within an institution has had on minorities and minority communities.	Describes the impact that institutional discrimination within an institution has had on minorities and minority communities.	Assesses the impact that institutional discrimination within an institution has had on minorities and minority communities.	Assesses the impact that institutional discrimination within an institution has had on minorities and minority communities using persuasive techniques and real-world examples.
Describe policy strategies for reducing institutional discrimination. 14%	Does not list policy strategies for reducing institutional discrimination.	Lists policy strategies for reducing institutional discrimination.	Describes policy strategies for reducing institutional discrimination.	Analyzes policy strategies for reducing institutional discrimination and gives specific examples of how to apply these strategies.
Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format and with few errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics. 14%	Does not write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format. Does not use correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.	Writes to support an idea. Format is inconsistent and contains major errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics.	Writes coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format and with few errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics.	Writes coherently, using evidence to support a central idea in a consistently appropriate format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics.