Race and Inequality

In society today, the relationship race and crime has been an extremely controversial topic. The United States has had a long history of racial inequality that is statistically supported. Race affects crime in a very negative way. In the United States, twenty-seven percent of arrests are of African Americans while African Americans only represent twelve percent of the population. Minorities are more likely to be victims of police brutality and thus hold more negative views of the police than do whites. It has been suggested by criminologists that such statistics may be off due to racial profiling. This is the act of using race to determine whether a person is likely to have committed a crime. Race can also sadly, increase the likelihood that one is arrested. A Florida county conducted a report in which ninety-five percent of residents were white, but seventy percent of drivers stopped by the police were African-American or Latino. Punishment may also be strongly influenced by race. The price of lawyers plays a part in the fate of sentencing for criminals and poorer criminals cannot afford great