CRM J 205 1st Edition Lecture 3 Outline of Last Lecture I Politics II Politics and crime III Quick facts IV Immigration crime V Racial profiling VI American Civil Liberties Union ACLU Outline of Current Lecture I Muslims and Terrorism II The innocence project III Essential information IV Discrimination V Race and Ethnicity VI Arab Americans VII Primitive cultures VIII Geographic justice Current Lecture I Muslims and Terrorism These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute a American Muslims In 2007 19 percent of American Muslims claimed that they had experienced some form of discrimination 15 percent of Muslims claimed that they felt as if American s viewed them as terrorists b Are all Muslims terrorists Although the attacks against the United States on 9 11 were committed by members of al Qaeda a middle eastern radical group that was led by Muslims not all Muslims can be classified as terrorists c Timothy McVeigh Domestic terrorist from the U S Responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing April 19 1995 Over 10 years later he was executed Killed 168 people d Terrorists II Impossible to profile due to the fact that they can be of any ethnicity or religious affiliation We can t predict criminality based upon physical appearance When this occurs justice is undermined Consequences of being involved in the criminal justice system can be severe including execution The innocence project a Nationwide organization b Concerned with litigation and public policy c Goal Exonerate individuals who have been wrongfully convicted of criminal acts d Primary tool is DNA evidence e Over 300 people in the U S have been exonerated due to DNA evidence Some of these individuals were on death row f III Founded in 1922 Essential information a Crime has a heavy influence on politics in the United States throughout history b Many white American s report they are fearful that they will be victimized by African Americans c Some white individuals report that they fear neighborhood integration with African Americans IV Discrimination a Is discrimination a myth It is according to Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan institute MacDonald suggests that the high incarceration rate of African Americans is due to higher involvement in criminal activity not discrimination MacDonald s research is based on imperial findings and careful statistical analysis therefore must be taken seriously However statistics can be interpreted differently Experts disagree on how data should be interpreted b Is MacDonald right or wrong V In the field of criminal justice or any other social science research methodology is essential She neglected several important points which she should have listed as limitations of her research Race and Ethnicity a What is Race Traditionally race was defined by biological differences such as skin color and physical features Intermarriage and evolution have caused the definition to change Many regard race as being a social construct Politically culturally dominant groups define race The U S census bureau allows individuals to self identify their race ethnic group b Book The Bell Curve Herrnstein and Murray 1994 Argued that success is measured by IQ Suggested that race is inherited and that there are significant differences in intelligence between races Argued that programs that are designed to help low income families such as head start should be abolished c What is ethnicity VI Defined as differences between groups of people based on cultural customs such as language religion food preferences family patterns and other characteristics Arab Americans The Arabic community is extremely diverse VII VIII They do not fit into any category utilized by the U S census bureau therefore most Arab Americans are classified as Caucasian The term Arab Americans is a social construct that includes people of many different nations ethnics and religions Arab Americans come from many different national origins including Lebanon Syria Iraq Kuwait Morocco Algeria Other countries Primitive cultures Many cultures in the U S today have evolved from primitive cultures Some of these cultures originated here in the U S others in other countries We must not assume that primitive means low functioning excelled at many things such as group and family cohesiveness Geographic justice a The U S federal government plays a very small role in the criminal justice system b Primary responsibility from criminal justice lies with city country and state government