Discussion 1: Criminal Justice Outcomes for Special Populations

Criminal Justice Outcomes for Special Populations
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Institution
Criminal Justice Outcomes for Special Populations
The media has always been at the center of various new stories and in several occasions, it has played a key role in shaping the perception of the public. These sentiments were echoed by Kenneth Dowler (2003) who said that the public often derives “knowledge of crime and justice largely from the media.” The media has indeed helped to shape the public’s perception especially with regards to race and crime. In his study, Nazgol Ghandnoosh (2014) says that “skewed racial perceptions of crim – particularly, white Americans’ strong associations of crime with racial minorities – have bolstered harsh and biased criminal justice policies.” He continues to say that “many media outlets reinforce the public’s racial misconceptions about crime by presenting African Americans and the Latinos differently than whites – both quantitatively and qualitatively.” With results such as this, one is able to swiftly connect the dots and agree with Possley, Stephens, and Gross whose study revealed that “Africans Americans are only 13% of the American population but a majority of innocent defendants wrongfully convicted of crimes later exonerated.” In all these cases, race plays a big role here but one cannot fail to point out the fact that the media has also contributed to some of these convictions.
By virtue of being black, illiterate, and poor, one ca...