Racial Bias
Racial bias refers to the difference in a person’s behaviors that are mainly attributable to another individual’s ethnicity or race. Racial bias case may occur in a situation whereby a law enforcement officer decides to frisk individual A but fails to frisk individual B as a result of basing his or her decision specifically on race. Some of the common causes of racial bias include statistical prediction and racial animus (Ross, 2015). In most cases, racial bias is considered to be an ethical issue due to various reasons that include first. Racial bias creates conflicts within the society moral principles. Some of the moral principles that are affected or violated include justice, which refers to be treating people equally but in specific proportion to the existing relative differences. Racial bias violates this principle, mainly when a certain individual, such as a police officer, treats and handles people unequally due to their race. Nonmaleficence, this is considered to be the concept or principle of not creating harm on other people. This principle is violated when a person of a certain race is subjected to a particular situation that causes harm, for instance, receiving severe punishment. Beneficence refers to the counselor’s responsibility to contribute to the client’s welfares. These principles are violated when the person in charge responds to a situation in a manner that creates harm to a certain person instead of trying to improve his or her condition. In most cases, the conflicts that are caused by racial bias tend to be legally dangerous mainly because implementing an alternative to solve the conflict may at some point violate a specific law (Todd et al., 2011). However, on other occasions, addressing the issue may not trigger serious legal consequences or impacts but may negatively affect the third parties involved.
Secondly, it is difficult to deal with or solve racial bias if no precedent or guidelines are known. For example, if a judge is handling a case whereby a white police officer has been biased on an African American, the judge can decide to turn a blind eye on the police officer so that he or she cannot be punished. However, since there are specific laws that outline what needs to be done to individuals who are racial bias, the judge will have to prosecute the police officer for the act. Racial bias can, therefore, be termed as an ethical issue since it is usually based on the option of deciding which side one should take to handle or solve a particular situation. Therefore, to solve cases of racial bias, the governments should set clear laws and policies that will help to solve and deal with any case of racial bias that arises within the society. Due to the increasing cases of racial bias in different settings, for instance, in the workplace, most industries and professional associates have also developed ethical codes that are usually approved and discussed by the key participants (LaFollette, 2020). These codes are used to create a useful framework that helps individuals and companies to make informed decisions when faced by certain conflicts that are caused by racial bias.
The Link between Racial Bias as an Ethical Issue and the Criminal Justice System in the United States
The criminal justice system refers to the government institution and agencies whose main role is to rehabilitee offenders, offer moral support to the victims, and prevent crimes. Some of the criminal justice system institutions include the prisons and courts, police, and the defense and prosecution lawyers. Racial bias as an ethical issue relates to the American criminal justice system in that most decisions concerning racial bias as an ethical issue are usually made in the criminal justice system. Therefore, this tends to be a key and sensitive area in preventing the rising cases of racial bias within the society. Some of the common areas were cases of racial bias are present in the criminal justice system include, first, jury selection, in most cases, incidences of jury selection are usually faced by increased cases of racial bias. The people in charge of selecting the jury usually choose to eliminate certain individuals from the jury due to their race.
Secondly, racial profiling refers to the act of targeting a certain individual based on the assumptions of a certain behavior or characteristic portrayed by an ethnic group. In most cases, the law enforcement officers usually profile their suspects depending on their perception towards a certain ethnic community instead of adhering to the facts of the case. Thirdly, capital punishment, this is considered to be the act of punishing a certain individual for a certain crime using a proper or legal trial. The American criminal justice system has been racial bias to criminals by subjecting them to harsh capital punishments due to their ethnicity or race (Rachlinski et al., 2008). Therefore, to ensure racial bias cases are prevented and eliminated, the government should focus on the criminal justice system where these cases are rampant. The government should ensure that people can make ethical decisions that adhere to the set laws.
Conclusion
Racial bias is a serious issue affecting most people, particularly in the minority communities within the United States. In most cases, racial bias usually occurs as a result of failing to make ethical decisions that adhere to the law. The proprietors of racial bias usually base their thought on the specific behaviors and characteristics of a certain ethnic community or race. Currently, most racial bias cases are being reordered in the criminal justice system, where different parties are involved in deciding the fate of criminals.
References
LaFollette, H. (Ed.). (2020). Ethics in practice: an anthology. John Wiley & Sons. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=FdjNDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP10&dq=LaFollette,+H.+(2020),+Ethics+of+Practice:+An+Anthology+(5th+edition),+Hoboken,+NJ:+Wiley.&ots=mGaJWgbevX&sig=2ClCrSEEt9HNd2NZWoiL2trlfGc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rachlinski, J. J., Johnson, S. L., Wistrich, A. J., & Guthrie, C. (2008). Does unconscious racial bias affect trial judges. Notre Dame L. Rev., 84, 1195. https://ir.vanderbilt.edu/bitstream/handle/1803/5732/Does_Unconscious_Racial_Bias.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Ross, C. T. (2015). A multi-level Bayesian analysis of racial bias in police shootings at the county-level in the United States, 2011–2014. PloS one, 10(11), e0141854. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0141854&xid=17259,15700023,15700186,15700191,15700256,15700259,15700262,15700265
Todd, A. R., Bodenhausen, G. V., Richeson, J. A., & Galinsky, A. D. (2011). Perspective taking combats automatic expressions of racial bias. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100(6), 1027. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.470.8388&rep=rep1&type=pdf