THE FAILURE OF MULTICULTURALISM & SOCIAL DIVERSITY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

THE FAILURE OF MULTICULTURALISM & SOCIAL DIVERSITY IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Diversity is a primary concern that seems to influence all the spheres of human lives significantly. Research has revealed that diversity in the social aspect, as well as differences in cultures, affects human social, cultural, and political spheres (Mishra, & Kumar, 2014). Multiculturalism and social diversity are facts of life that no human being can evade. The world is increasingly enhancing intercultural contact, which occurs as a result of easy communication as well as immigration. The primary effect of multiculturalism and social diversity is the influence that it has on how people view themselves in comparison with others (Benet-Martínez, 2012). One of the social spheres in human lives that feel the effect of multiculturalism and social diversity is the criminal justice system. This system encounters a great deal of the social difference and multicultural impact; the effect comes about as a result of diversity and ethics elements. This effect is more prevalent more so when compared to the rest of society.

Multiculturalism from the organizational perspective

Organizations are using social and multicultural diversity in a bid to ensure a competitive advantage while maintaining ethics. Today, most organizations, either corporate or social, are operating in a rapidly diversifying environment. Similarly, there are new trends that are occurring in the competition, which in turn call for the organizations to be competitively advantaged (Wijewantha, 2016). To ensure that an organization is competitive, it needs to conform to the emerging changes in the sector. In most nations’ local scenarios, there is a lot of multiculturalism; this may call for different approaches to the needs of the people. For those that do not face competition from the local setting, they may not evade competition from the global community. With this form of competition, these organizations may require to have their staff consisting of a set of culturally diverse individuals. The individuals must be willing to work within the ethical jurisdictions in their practice. This diversity helps in maximizing their intellectual and talents according to the needs of each clientele. It would be satisfying to have an organization equipped with staff that knows the needs of the socially diverse client in their service delivery (Wijewantha, 2016).

Individuals with different social and cultural diversity bring forth diversified ways on how to approach a critical task. In the same ways that the social and cultural diversification helps in solving problems, it may also encourage conflicts and disagreements. In a socially and culturally diversified organization, people may tend to bring forth different views on how things ought to go. In this process, there may not be guaranteed mutual satisfaction with each party’s opinions, which in turn leads to conflicts. This type of scenario is a relational issue that is as a result of multiculturalism (Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, Kogler, Springer, & Van Der Zee, 2013). Organizational leadership also has a role to play in managing a socially and culturally diverse society. It may decide to uphold social justice or practice discrimination in the way it makes a decision.

Multiculturalism from the team perspective

Multiculturalism is an essential part of organizations. The search for better economic opportunities pushes people to migrate from their place of origin to the economically developed areas. When such people meet, they form a multicultural team. Having a multicultural team is essential in satisfying the preferences and needs of the customers. The cultural diversity is profoundly affected by communication issues, the difference in attitudes, and cultural unawareness. In an instance that the above factors affect the management of the multicultural team, the leadership may experience problems in making decisions (Jayanthi, & Rajandran, 2014).

Multiculturalism from the individual perspective

Multiculturalism may also occur in an individual’s perspective. A single individual may have an understanding of two or more different cultures. Such people can interpret the requirements of people from a different culture and social background hence able to make informed decisions if need be. Individuals who have grown up in a social setting consisting of diverse cultures tend if developing diversified cultural identity. They can portray either of the cultures they possess, and each becomes cognitive upon activation (Lücke, Kostova, & Roth, 2014). However, individuals with multicultural knowledge may tend to treat people differently. They may be biased in their treatments as they may consider people from some cultures negatively. The biases for people based on their lifestyles may lead to injustices in treatment (Yılmaz, 2016).

In the same way that social diversity and multiculturalism affect the organizational, individual, and team terms, they also affect the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. The alienation of people based on their cultural disparities lowers their trust in the order. There is a need for people who work in the criminal justice system to understand that fact. There is also the need for those working in the multicultural criminal justice system to be aware that there are social differences. This awareness ensures a harmonious working environment.

Social diversity and multiculturalism in the criminal justice system

Most, if not all, nations in the world composed of people from different social and cultural backgrounds. Most of the people have learned how to coexist with their fellows. However, owing to the differences that come with their diversity, they ought to view each other differently. Cultural diversity and multiculturalism tend to bring out the exciting and most admirable part of human beings. Their diversified nature is something that ought to help bring them together in a way that they can share in their strengths and weaknesses (Anderson-Connolly, 2019). Diversity entails treating people of different cultures and social orientations with respect and dignity. Variety possesses in itself value, a value which one views by acknowledging the beauty endowed in different arrays of human beings. However, social diversity and multiculturalism have, at the time, faced failures in different contexts. Once people start having negative views of their fellows who do not come from their culture, the essence of diversification fails (Anderson-Connolly, 2019). One of the sectors that have been hard hit by the failure in social diversification is the criminal justice system.

The social diversity has negatively affected the decisions in criminal justice. The United States is made up of diverse cultures as a result of the different races present in the country. Among these different races include the whites, Hispanics, and African Americans. The criminal justice system seems to have its decisions profoundly affected by the diversity in the races. From most research findings, it is visible that the African Americans are the most affected by the bias in the criminal justice system. The black people in the United States represent the highest proportion of the prisoners, followed by the whites and the Hispanics (Nellis, 2016). In every a hundred thousand people, there are more than a thousand black Americans incarcerated in the United States. The number of whites and Hispanics incarcerated when combined do not even hit half of the blacks’ incarceration population (Nellis, 2016). Here it is arguably possible that the black community is a victim of the biases in the criminal justice system. Usually, it could be viewed as impossible for the black community to be the only social orientation that commits a high number of crimes in the country.

Further research shows a great deal of negative diversity in the criminal justice system. The black society in the United States, in conjunction with their Hispanic counterparts, experience the highest discretion in sentencing. When presented in courts with the same criminal cases, black people are more likely to be sentenced to prison as compared to the whites. Further, one in every three black men facing a criminal case has a higher possibility of spending their entire lifetime in jail (Davis, Lyubansky, & Schiff, 2015). Looking at the above data, it is visible that the criminal justice system in the United States has a lot of disparities based on one’s race. This disparity showcases a great deal of failure in the criminal justice system due to diversity in races.

The criminal justice system in the United States tends not adhering to the ethics that define its effectiveness and hence negatively affect the decision-making process. The observation of ethics in one’s professional practice is vital as it dramatically affects their service delivery. Criminal justice stakeholders ought to conduct their activities while ensuring that they follow the ethical stipulations that guide their practice. This adherence seems to be lacking in the United States criminal justice system. For instance, the judges that preside over the criminal cases that involve the black people tend to deprive the defendants of the chance of hiring a legal practitioner to represent them in court. The black defendants also suffer a lack of social resources and sometimes the required medical attention during trial. This deprivation of vital human requirements during cases does not provide a common playground for the defendant and the prosecution. It showcases a lack of ethics in judicial practice (Schrantz & McElro, 2008).

Further, there seems to be a predetermination of decisions for criminal cases. Nearly a third of the black youths born in the start of the new millennium a likely to get into prison at some point in their lives. The Hispanics youth and white youths born in the same period have seventeen and six percent probability of entering jail in their lifetime (Schrantz, & McElro, 2008). When the judges and other stakeholders in the criminal justice system know these statistics, they may, at one time, deviate from the ethical jurisdictions and make decisions in favor of the statistics. This act is ethically wrong and portrays a great deal of failure of ethics in the criminal judicial system.

The interracial collaborative and communication techniques have greatly affected relationships, alliances, and partnerships. When working with different cultures or people from diverse social orientations, one needs to put into place some collaborative and communication techniques. Some of the interracial collaborative and communication skill that the criminal justice system ought to undertake is embracing diversity and be ready to accept feedback from the people involved in any case. For instance, Swigart (2017), argues that courtrooms are faced with people from different cultures. The court operates based on the provided evidence. It must strive to ensure that it clearly understands the cross-cultural language from other cultures or races to get an understanding of the evidence. The provision of a person who understands the different cultures is essential for the court as far as it intends to make a sound judgment. In international courtrooms, for instance, many cases involve African conflicts. Some of the witnesses who are most important for investigation and provision of evidence only communicate through their vernacular languages. Swigart (2017) recommends there is a mix of culture in the courtroom. When a person presents the court from any culture, there needs to have a staff member to attend to them. This act ensures cultural competence.

The ability for the American as well as other courts to ensure effective communication from the defendant and the prosecution showcases a great deal of cultural competence. Since there is no single court that is set to deal with cases from a single culture or race, they need to ensure that they understand different cultures (Schrantz, & McElro, 2008). Cultural competence in the courtrooms may also deem important when communicating with the suspects on probation. There are some minorities on probation in the United States who usually go against the law as a result of failure to understand the probation requirements. They end up on logger’s heads with the courts. Still, on the issue of probation, the courts need to understand the community to which they send a person on probation as it showcases their cultural competence (Schrantz, & McElro, 2008). They need to investigate to ascertain how the community perceives a person under probation to ensure a healthy relationship with them.

References

Mishra, S., & Kumar, C. B. (2014). Understanding diversity: A multicultural perspective. IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 19(9).

Swigart, L. (2016). Linguistic and cultural diversity in international criminal justice: Toward bridging the divide. McGeorge L. Rev., 48, 197.

Schrantz, D., & McElroy, J. (2008). Reducing racial disparity in the criminal justice system: A manual for practitioners and policymakers. Washington, DC: Sentencing Project.

Davis, F. E., Lyubansky, M., & Schiff, M. (2015). Restoring racial justice. Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: An interdisciplinary, searchable, and linkable resource, 1-16.

Anderson-Connolly, R. (2019). A Leftist Critique of the Principles of Identity, Diversity, and Multiculturalism. Rowman & Littlefield.

Benet-Martínez, V. (2012). Multiculturalism: Cultural, social, and personality processes. The Oxford handbook of personality and social psychology, 623-648.

Wijewantha, P. (2016). Creating multicultural organizations for diversity management.

Podsiadlowski, A., Gröschke, D., Kogler, M., Springer, C., & Van Der Zee, K. (2013). Managing a culturally diverse workforce: diversity perspectives in organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), 159-175.

Lücke, G., Kostova, T., & Roth, K. (2014). Multiculturalism from a cognitive perspective: Patterns and implications. Journal of International Business Studies, 45(2), 169-190.

Yılmaz, F. (2016). Multiculturalism and multicultural education: A case study of teacher candidates’ perceptions. Cogent Education, 3(1), 1172394.

Jayanthi, M., & Rajandran, D. (2014). Diversity Challenges: From Multicultural Team Perspective.