Assignment: Premise Paper

Personal Interest

My personal interest is to uncover the reasons behind why most police officers decide to violate their work ethics and policies when it comes to dealing with African American arrests. I would like to understand what goes through in the mind of a white police officer, when spotting an African American crime suspect, when they make a move to arrest them, and what happens when they arrest them (Kovera, 2019). I decided to pick this research topic to provide more insights and to cover the gaps in literature that do not address the dynamics of a Caucasian police arresting an African American person.

Problem that makes it Worth Studying

The main problem that makes this topic worth studying is that most researches is that there is gaps in literatures that aim to explain the effects of racial stereotypes on how non-white police officers made arrests on African Americans (Kovera, 2019). This research would also study literatures concerning the history of the police force and attempt to identify and understand whether there are policies that motivate police officers to be brutal towards African Americans. It is worth studying this topic because the rate of police brutality towards African Americans is getting out of hand and a solution that addresses the root cause of the problem needs to be realized.

Significance

Conducting a study on police brutality towards African Americans is worth studying because it is a social issue that needs to be addressed to the core (Kovera, 2019). We need to understand why after the implementation of policies that rally for racial equality there are still instances of racial inequality and racial stereotypes particularly in the United States.

Relation of the Topic to Criminal Justice

The issue of police brutality against the African American population evidences the racial inequalities and racial stereotypes present in the criminal justice system. Not only do the African Americans experience brutality and even meet their deaths on the hands of the law enforcers, some of them get wrongly convicted for a crime they did not commit due to the racial inequalities present in the criminal justice system (Chaney & Robertson, 2013). The issue of police brutality towards the African American population cripples the delivery of justice towards the victims and the offenders. While the African Americans being arrested may be truly guilty of committing a crime, being brutal towards them is not delivering justice to the victims. The role of the police in the society is to enforce law and order and not to administer justice. Administering justice is the role of the criminal courts (Sigelman et al., 2017). This topic aims to uncover the racial disparities and stereotypes about African Americans and how it affects the delivery of justice towards the said population.

References

Chaney, C., & Robertson, R. V. (2013). Racism and police brutality in America. Journal of African American Studies, 17(4), 480-505.

Kovera, M. B. (2019). Racial disparities in the criminal justice system: Prevalence, causes, and a search for solutions. Journal of Social Issues, 75(4), 1139-1164.

Sigelman, L., Welch, S., Bledsoe, T., & Combs, M. (2017). Police brutality and public perceptions of racial discrimination: A tale of two beatings. Political Research Quarterly, 50(4), 777-791.