Criminology & Criminal Justice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Criminology & Criminal Justice - Essay Example White citizens receive satisfactory services from police in comparison to other ethnic groups. It was found out that: One of the most controversial areas of police targeting relates to the policing of immigration and the people who are defined as ‘immigrants’. During the 1960s and 1970s ‘coloured immigration’ was not only a potent political issue but also one that framed black and Asian people’s experiences of policing. Many research studies uncovered evidence that ordinary policing often involved checking immigration status (asking, for instance, for passports) when people from ethnic minorities reported crimes of which they had been the victim (Newburn 2007) The criminal justice system should be the epitome of fairness and equity. Police should be fair and just in the execution of their mandate. In the United Kingdom, there have been cases of unfair policing especially towards the ethnic minorities such as blacks. Newburn (200) indicated that sometimes â€Å"a black person reporting a crime is first subject to a background check†. This should not happen since profiling of citizens based on their background is unconstitutional. Public policing should be reformed to ensure that the police do not discriminate citizens based on their ethnic background. The police should be trained to serve citizens equally irrespective of where they come from. Also, any police officer who engages in ethnic profiling should be punished and held criminally liable. The Chicago School proposes that socialization is a core factor in the evaluation of criminal activity in the society. Unlike other theories that focused on an individual’s characteristics to explain crime, the Chicago School postulates that the environment influences people. In essence, there are no people who are born as good or bad. Rather, the external influences of people and social situations play an important role in determining the behavior of a person. The