CLJ 220 Lecture 5: Ch. 5 Racial Politics and Disparities
16 Aug 2016
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Document Summary
Racial disparity steadily worsened after 1980, and this disparity is linked to 2 particular political developments: conservative republicans in national elections used anti-crime slogans which depicted african. Doing this was an attempt to appeal to anti-black sentiments of white voters in order to win national elections: conservative politicians of both parties promoted and voted for harsh crime control. Drug policies were created that exacerbated existing racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The war on drugs that was launched by the bush and reagan administration. By vast increases in arrests and imprisonment of street-level drug dealers, and a continuous movement towards harsher penalties. Penalties for drug crimes were made harsher since the mid-1980"s and were biased against black people. Most obvious example of this is seen in federal penalties for cocaine violations. Suppliers and users of crack cocaine, a drug used then primarily by poor urban blacks and. Hispanics, were punished far more severely than sellers of powdered cocaine.
