Essay on Justice System in Southern Gothic and To Kill a Mockingbird

Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex. This is not a topic that is widely talked about in society, and it is almost expected, especially in the justice system. Discrimination is not something that is hidden and in some ways, it's normalized. "Though it is its function to be blind to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, the criminal justice system is affected; from the way individual police officers handle detainees to jury selection, from jury members' preconceived notions to how judges hand down sentences, discrimination has the potential to play a role in any case"(Discrimination). Minorities are often let down by the justice system; this is displayed in Harper Lee's Southern Gothic To Kill a Mockingbird through the Tom Robinson trial. We all know that there is unfairness in the justice system, and we need to work to stop it. The injustice in the system widely affects the young minorities growing up and witnessing the ill-treatment. Lastly, the Justice system still contains discriminatory ways from its past. The U.S justice system is subject to the pitfalls of discrimination and needs reform.

The justice system was built to be a fair place sightless to race, but unfortunately with all of the factors playing a role in the system, it has been a hard thing to obtain. They are obvious faults in the justice system, and there hasn’t been much done to fix them. “Top-down legislation hasn’t succeeded in fixing these problems. The legislative process is laborious and moves at a snail’s pace; even the best intentions are inevitably diluted by partisanship and politics” (Mcdougall). This issue has been put to the side for a long time, and there needs to change. It is unbelievable to even think about, but there was not a Hate Crime Prevention Act until October 2009. In addition, lynching just recently this month, March 2022, became a hate crime. “Access to justice is tragically unequal depending on one’s race. The list of injustices is long and includes inequitable attorney and judicial behaviors, unfair bail practices, and legal outcomes decided by arbitrary factors like the defendant’s income” (Mcdougall). Without the funds, minorities get public defenders who are very likely to do little to nothing about their case other than telling them to plead guilty. Sometimes the problem needs to stop at the root it came from. “Racial profiling is a form of racism in which (a suspect is under more suspicion, because of their race)” (Racial). Most of the discrimination in the system has been normalized. From a young age, minorities are taught to fear the justice system because the reality is that they are treated unfairly, “blacks are still six times more likely to be stopped by police under stop-and-search laws than whites. Asians and mixed-race youths are twice as likely as whites to be stopped” (Hennessy). Some people are trying to make a change in the legal system,“ There is no single road towards eliminating racism in the legal system. Approaching this problem from multiple angles will accelerate change. Targeted strategies, training, technology, and collaboration can provide the collective power to break down the barriers of systemic racism in the legal system, once and for all”(Mcdougall). Others might be completely fine with how the system runs because they don't have to deal with the injustices. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, there was evident racism that still exists. People give hate to each other without thinking, but white people give hate to minorities without even stopping to think they are people too (Lee 269). Discrimination in the system affects not only adults but the youth that grow up dealing with it.

Minority youth is majorly affected by the racism present in the justice system. The way juveniles are handled in the justice system harshly affects and shapes the future. Children who grow up in violent high-crime neighborhoods are extremely likely to fall into the wrong crowds and be pressured into committing crimes. Minority youth who then commit crimes, or are suspected to have done a crime are sentenced harsher than others. “Inequality in juvenile justice outcomes often results when African Americans and ethnic minorities are judged (rightly or wrongly) by various juvenile justice decision-makers as relatively needy, at-risk, or blameworthy. The school experiences I've discussed are among many factors that affect such judgments” (Hirschfield).  Schooling environments are also a major problem for at-risk students. “ For example, research shows that black students who violate school rules are more often subject to out-of-school suspensions, (this heightens their risk for arrests and also increases their odds of being charged, processed, and put in a juvenile detention center) (Hirschfield) Many problems need to be contained at the root. The main problem of discrimination in the justice system is racial profiling and the mistreatment of underprivileged youth. African American youth are more likely to be suspected than any other race. “Studies of Pittsburgh and Chicago later in the 1990s also found that black juvenile offenders are more likely to be arrested than whites (and Latinos in Chicago), even after taking into account frequency of offending and other risk factors” (Hirschfield). As the last quote shows, Arrest rates and racial profiling for African American youth are at an extreme high. Growing up in an unfair system African American youth will witness how biased the system is and will never trust it, this is why there is a need for reform. “The document, Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2012, shows that black criminals are less likely than others to receive police cautions, but they are more likely to be prosecuted than any other ethnic group”(Hennessy). When minority youth are arrested it can mess up their entire future, including ruining their chances of college and getting out of horrible situations. Unfortunately when funds aren’t available, “individuals charged with misdemeanors attempt to represent themselves, the attempt to save costs works against them. They are far more likely to plead guilty. The fallout can have a lasting impact on the rest of their lives, including their ability to secure housing, employment, or federal funding for upper-level education”(Mcdougall). Chances of getting into college, having a good job, and an overall good future could be destroyed by one arrest made on suspicion because of one's race.  In 2000, black youth made up only 15 percent of the US population, but 26 percent of arrested youth and 44 percent of detained youth (Schlesinger). Racism affects minority youth and how it shapes our Justice system in the future, and the Justice System in the past shaped how it is today.

Discrimination from the past still lingers in the Justice system today. The way African Americans were treated in the past affects how they are treated today. In To Kill a Mockingbird the Tom Robinson trial was one of the main plots. The treatment of Tom Robinson in a predominantly white court still happens in today's society. “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box"(Lee 295). There are many trials with unfair bias and ill-treatment against African Americans. Like the Tom Robinson trial, there are lots of white v. black trials today. This is where discrimination is mainly witnessed. For example in To Kill a Mockingbird, the noble Atticus Finch says, “In our courts when it’s a white man's word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly but those are the facts of life”(Lee 295). There are major differences and reforms today than there were during the depression, but some ideals still linger. In the courts, all men are created equal, but not treated completely equally (Lee 274). This is an unfortunate statement but it is evidently without a doubt true. This has been proved time and time throughout history and is continuously proved today. Minority treatment in the past has similarities and differences today. “There are a variety of ways that African American youth can fall through the cracks of the unruly justice system. This could be through prior records, poverty, or even lack of parental supervision”(Hirschfield). Not including the environmental and family factors. Minorities will be mistreated until there is a movement for reform that will prevent it. While there have been laws and changed morality since the twentieth century some of the unfairness remains the same. Many people even believe that the injustice in the system leads back to slavery in America, “The answer lies in a centuries-old system of white supremacy that has rarely punished state assaults on Black bodies. And the key to this system has been the Supreme Court's insistence on shielding government actors who harm Black people from liability” (Wright). A main similarity between the past and today is that discrimination is extremely present in the system. All races can commit crimes, but depending on which race committing the crime the consequences can differ (Hirschfield). Either way past or present the Justice system has evident bias.

There are many faults that African Americans have to face in an unruly justice system; Harper Lee helps us understand that through the esteemed novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The justice system needs reform. With petitions and new movements, average citizens can help with this issue. Hundreds of years of discrimination cannot be solved in one day, but if we work little by little to achieve this goal it is not impossible.