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Huffington Post: Blacks in Prison: Perception and Punishment

Źródło: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/blacks-in-prison-percepti_b_5461762.html?utm_hp_ref=science

Tłumaczenie słówek na końcu artykułu:

Everyone has heard the statistics on the incarceration of black Americans,

but they bear repeating. Blacks make up nearly 40 percent of the inmates in

the nation's prisons, although they are only 12 percent of the U.S. population.

Some experts estimate that one in every four black men will spend some time

behind bars during his lifetime. There is no explanation for this disparity that is

okay.

There are many theories about these shameful numbers, and punitive criminal

justice policies certainly contribute. About half the states have some kind of

habitual offender law that mandates harsh sentences for repeat offenders. In

California, where blacks make up less than 7 percent of the population and a

quarter of the prison population, they make up a whopping 45 percent of those

imprisoned under the state's Three Strikes Law.

There has been a lot of debate about the psychological roots of this disparity,

but not nearly so much on the psychological and social consequences of this

injustice. One would expect such patently unfair statistics to cause outrage, and

calls for more leniency in penal laws, but is it possible that the opposite occurs?

Might the blackness of the prisons lead to more, not less, punitive attitudes

and policies?

That's the question that two Stanford University psychological scientists have

been exploring. Rebecca Hetey and Jennifer Eberhardt knew from past research

on individual stereotyping that people link blackness with violent crime. Also,

the "blacker" defendants look, they more likely people are to punish them harshly.

The scientists wondered if the same dynamic might be at work with institutions.

That is, might the perceived blackness of the prisons increase acceptance of

punitive laws and policies?

They tested this provocative idea by taking advantage of a live political issue

in California. In the spring of 2012, there was a petition for a statewide ballot

initiative to lessen the severity of the Three Strikes Law. California at the time

had the most punitive such law in the country, a 1994 law mandating

25-years-to-life for anyone convicted of a third felony following two violent or

serious felony convictions. The amendment would have allowed a life sentence

only when the defendant's third strike crime was also serious or violent. In spring

2012, activists were gathering signatures needed to get the proposed amendment

on the November ballot.

So as part of the study, a white experimenter approached registered California

voters in a San Francisco area train station, ostensibly to take part in a study of

social views. The participants watched a short video about the state prison

system,showing actual mug shots of black and white inmates as they flashed

across the screen. But the scientists manipulated the ratio of black-to-white

inmates: Some saw a prison population that was 25 percent black (the actual

percentage of blacks in the state prisons), while others saw a 45 percent ratio

(the percentage of black inmates in the state's three-strike population).

So some voters saw a "more black" prison population and others saw a

"less black" population. The scientists then asked all the participants how

they felt about the Three Strike Law. Was it too punitive? Not punitive enough?

Fair as written? Finally, the voters were given the chance to look at the actual

petition and, if they chose to, sign it.

Proszę czytać dalej tutaj (please, carry on reading here): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wray-herbert/blacks-in-prison-percepti_b_5461762.html?utm_hp_ref=science

Vocabulary:

incarceration - uwięzienie

inmates - więźniowie

behind bars – za kratkami

make up - stanowić

disparity – różnica, rozziew

harsh - surowy

punitive – karny

policies – zasady, reguły

habitual offender - recydywista

leniency - złagodzenie

severity – poważny stan, zaciętość

felony - przestępstwo

amendment - poprawka

ballot – tajne głosowanie

ostensibly - rzekomo

mug shots – zdjęcie twarzy

array – zbiór, plejada

nudge – trącać, torować

jettison – porzucić

self-perpetuating - samonapędzający się

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Stop and Frisk

The situation in which a police officer who is suspicious of an individual detains

the person and runs his hands lightly over the suspect's outer garments to

determine if the person is carrying a concealed weapon.

One of the most controversial police procedures is the stop and frisk search.

This type of limited search occurs when police confront a suspicious person

in an effort to prevent a crime from taking place. The police frisk (pat down)

the person for weapons and question the person.

frisk - rewidować

suspicious - podejrzliwy

detain - zatrzymać

determine - określić

conceal - ukryty

occur - mieć miejsce

prevent - powstrzymać

weapon - broń

Żródło definicji 'stop and frisk': http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Stop+and+Frisk

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