Criminal Justice Essay Questions. Discuss the documentary bowling for Columbine in the context of violence in America. According to the video, why are our murder rates higher than any otherfirst world nation? What is the relationship between the United States and violence in other countries? Please speak specificafly to examples from the documentary.
2. Please explain “the Black Box” (Alexander’s book pages 151-154) and how it works to keep the already disadvantaged black male even more at a disadvantage as a black male with a felony conviction on his record. How does this lack of credentials to get ajob impact their employment opportunities? And even more importantly,how does it impact their
3. Why does Michelle Alexander call this area of mass incarceration of Blacks the new Jim Crow? Please refer to her comments in Chapter 5 of her book.
4. Please discuss Michelle Alexander’s thoughts on “Rethinking Denial-or,where are Civil Rights Advocates when you need them?” (pages 223-229).
5. Please discuss the documentary American Drug War and how itis related to Race and Incarceration Trends in the U.S. How has race been utilized by people in positions of power to criminalize people of color and discuss who benefits from the war on drugs.
Criminal Justice Essay Questions
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Criminal Justice Essay Questions
Bowling for columbine was documentary which provided interesting information on the context of violence in America. The documentary also represented the a critical purpose on the need for gun control for them to provoke the response of the need for gun control through the techniques created to interfere with the audience emotionally. The producer of the film indicated that murder rates were increasing in America more than other nations because there was extreme poverty, shootings in schools, and international war crimes (David, 2018). During this period, the United States of America had bias relationships with other nations where they favoured some states and even offered them donations and left others behind. They argued that they were not of the same level and had not established their stand on the gun debate between the liberal anti-gun protestors, pro-gun lobbyists and conservatives.
In explanation to the ‘black box’ Alexander was trying to show how targeting the black males through war on drugs and destroying groups of color in the U.S. This was through the unlawful justice system roles which act as modern system of racial mechanism with the adherence of colorblindness (Sarah, 2014). According to Alexander’s book, the use of criminal justice was associated with criminality where black men were engaged in prejudiced practices which were meant to be left behind which is not the case today as it is illegal to discriminate against the African American.
They were exempted because they lacked the credentials to work as the Americans and were involved in the mass incarceration in the US. Since they were not educated and lacked some skills, they were excluded from the black box affair and that affected their employment since the white people were educated and had the expertise to run specific programs (Sarah, 2014). They then lacked enough capital to contribute to the economy and some were adopted as slaves. The actions were befalling some communities especially people of colour until Alexander noted the discrimination among males and other minorities and stepped in to intervene.
In chapter five, Michelle Alexander refers to this area of mass confinement of blacks the new Jim Crow where she closely relates with racist system. When referring it, she stated that mass incarceration existed for it to achieve black persons as black people, where they used a discriminatory structure that was established due to Jim Crow’s laws (Alexander & West, 2012). After a long time of adoption and implementation, it was one of the accomplishments of the civil rights association. On the same context, Michelle stated of rethinking denial where one lacked civil rights advocates when they needed them. The denial elaborated was inconvenient and limited one the opportunity for total transformation as collective actions. In this, the denial they experienced was because it was acquainted with ignorance.
The documentary on American drug war related to mass incarceration through racial disparities in the US. The activities undertaken were part of the trends since they intended to reduce production, distribution and abuse of drugs. There was a proposal of improving the racial motivation since the war was becoming controversial and penalties were applied. Additionally, the people in power criminalized the people of colour by relating them with economic crisis and demonized some communities. From these trends, they faced devastating effects like immigration and customs enforcement and even unfair arrests and mandatory sentencing to policies for non-violent offences (Kelly, 2012). When the war on drugs is effective, almost everyone benefits apart from the drug dealers. On this context, the communities’ way of life improves, the government expenditure on drugs is minimized thus improving their economy and the community escapes the dangers brought by drugs.
References
Alexander, M., & West, C. (2012). The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness. New York, N.Y: New Press.
David E. (2018). Michelle Moore on ‘Bowling for Columbine’ in the Trump Era: Tm Seriously fed up with having to make this moves. https://www.indiewire.com/2018/06/michael-moore-interview-bowling-for-columbine-donald-trump-1201977069/
Kelly T. (2012). Who benefits from the war on drugs> https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/benefits-war-drugs/ Sarah C. (2014). Michelle Alexander: “A System of Racial and Social Control”. Frontline. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/michelle-alexander-a-system-of-racial-and-social-control/