Deck 8: Race, Ethnicity, and Justice

Question 1

The greatest racial disparities in arrest statistics are for the crime of

A) homicide.
B) rape.
C) arson.
D) robbery.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Why are minority youth (and their adult counterparts) detained at rates higher than whites?

A) Truancy
B) Racist judges
C) Certain cultural or structural influences and priors
D) Biologically predisposition

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The idea that some racial or ethnic groups are being stopped at a rate disproportionate to their representation in the local population is called

A) racial targeting.
B) selective prosecution.
C) reductive prosecution.
D) racial profiling.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The standard of "Equal Justice Under Law" is violated when

A) a police officer pulls over a member of a minority community over.
B) an offender targets a member of his or her community.
C) minority offenders are more likely to be charged or prosecuted than whites.
D) minority offenders commit heinous crimes.

Question 5

Legal factors are crucial when the decision is made to whether prosecute a case and what the appropriate charges should be. Which one of these is a legal factor?

A) The suspect's employment status
B) The suspect's history of drug or alcohol use
C) The suspect's criminal history
D) Mitigating circumstances

Question 6

The decision on __________ is outside a prosecutor's discretionary power.

A) whether to charge a suspect
B) what the charges will be
C) whether to plea bargain with a defendant
D) whether to arrest a suspect

Question 7

In which of the following cases did the U.S. Supreme Court rule that prosecutors may not use their peremptory challenges in a racially discriminatory fashion?

A) United States v. Armstrong (1996)
B) Rita v. United States (2007)
C) Booker and Fanfan (2005)
D) Batson v. Kentucky (1986)

Question 8

What percentage of defendants who are arraigned in state courts actually go to trial.

A) 12 percent
B) 20 percent
C) 22 percent
D) 2 percent

Question 9

Public defenders are often inexperienced and overworked, Why?

A) Prosecutors can outwit them every time.
B) Legislators are unwilling to better fund indigent defense.
C) Judges will not increase their pay.
D) They lack passion about their work.

Question 10

Sentencing practices enacted in 1986 equated possession of 1 ounce of crack cocaine to 100 ounces of powder cocaine. When did the law change and the ratio dropped from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1?

A) The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010
B) The Drugs Reform Act of 2001
C) The court decision in Kimbrough v. United States (2007)
D) Obama Equitable and Fair Policies Act 2016

Question 11

For many Americans, fear of crime is an expression of racial fears.

Question 12

Members of the African-American racial/ethnic community are overrepresented at all points in the criminal justice system (i.e., arrest, convictions, incarceration).

Question 13

The six steps in the processing of suspected offenders are (a) arrest, (b) prosecution, (c) adjudication, (d) plea bargain, (e) sentencing, and punishment.

Question 14

Young black males show a high propensity to adopt the "code of the streets," which leads to an inflated sense of manhood and involvement in criminal behaviors that ultimately lead to violence.

Question 15

Prosecutors operate with a great deal of unchecked and unreviewable discretion.

Question 16

In U.S. vs. Armstrong (1996), the defendents were able to successfully prove selective procecution.

Question 17

Poor members of minority group members often have the least access to justice.

Question 18

The process of empaneling a jury is called venire.

Question 19

While many states have introduced sentencing guidelines since the mid-1980s, the federal government has resisted this trend.

Question 20

The net effect of changes in sentencing practices was that sanctions for offenders often became less severe.