Reference no: EM133333043

The main focus of chapter seven was identifying how race and ethnicity impact criminal sentencing. Through sentencing, oftentimes people of color are the ones who receive the more harsh and serve forms of punishment. As mentioned in the book, discretion is one of the key facts behind sentencing. The power in which discretion holds within police, prosecutors, and judges is excessive. The ability to make a decision by freedom of judgement can be problematic, especially within a color blind society and government. I really liked how the chapter acknowledged the purposes of sentencing, specifically the reasons behind justifying punishment. The first point of view being just deserts, where punishment is deserved through a moral ideology. On the other hand, utilitarianism is the explanation for punishment in hopes of society benefiting. It is evident that race and ethnicity impacts sentencing within this country. While reading this book, I connected back to the War on Drugs where mandatory sentencing was implemented. This mandatory sentencing established prison sentences of 15 years to life for drug dealers and addicts, as well as various policies which were initially intended to apprehend drug lords and king pins. These mandatory sentences portrayed an unfair justice decision, by preventing judges from taking into account the individual's background and the circumstances, but rather administering a prison sentence. Mandatory prison sentencing was a huge turning point for the drug war, as it made an obvious statement about the war and its seriousness of targeting people of color. The fact that the War on Drugs happened over 30 years ago, but still today people of color face the same discrepancy in prison sentencing. As stated in the book, "Racial impacts on sentencing outcomes may manifest through indirect and interaction effects" (Robinson, 195). This statement holds to highlight the reasoning of impact on sentencing. Overall, I enjoyed this chapter and how it brought awareness to how a persons race and ethnicity impact their sentencing.