- 18 Mar, 2021
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- 7 Mins Read
Boston Demographics and the Criminal Justice System
Introduction to Criminal Justice research project
This research project has the purpose to get you started so that you begin to gain the necessary skills that will allow you to:
- Create a thesis statement
- research and write successful research papers
- understand different types of sources available
- evaluate source during your research process
- Use technology and the library sources to help with your research
- Cite your references in APA format
Topic:
Your research topic for this project will be: Diversity and the Criminal Justice System, more explicitly you will be researching the:
- Boston police department
- Diversity in the department
- City of Boston demographics
- Diversity and bias in the Criminal Justice system in regards to police and community relationship
As you can see from your assigned topic, a research paper is not a ‘yes or no’ simple question, but instead, the main topic can be narrowed down into multiple sub-topics.
ALL THAT NEEDS TO BE ANSWERED ARE THESE QUESTIONS:
- Describe the demographics for the Boston Police Department to include the following:
- Race
- Gender
- Ethinicity
- Age
- Using the information from your answers in questions 1 and 2 compare the demographics between the police department and the city; is the Boston Police department reflective of the community they serve. Support your opinion by providing 3 examples.
- Does the race or/and ethnic background of Boston residents affect their perception of the fairness of the justice system. Explain and provide at least 3 examples.
After doing additional research, using at least an academic journal and a book, answer the following two questions.**
- Based on your research for this project, is there a need to further diversify the Boston Police department? Support your view with 3 examples.
- Based on your research for this project, is the justice system fair to all people? Support your view with at least 3 examples from your research.
For this project, you are required to use the following sources: I have provided the sources and the APA format of the sources below that need to be mentioned (some already have bullet points explaining them to make it easier
- Website
- News article
- Book
- Academic journal
- Academic Journal: Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in International Criminal Justice: Toward Bridging the Divide by Leigh Swigart.
Swigart, L. (2017). Linguistic and Cultural Diversity in International Criminal Justice: Toward Bridging the Divide. University of the Pacific Law Review, 48(2), 197–217. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=122658392&site=ehost-live&scope=site
- Book: Human Rights and the Criminal Justice System, by Anthony Amatrudo and
Leslie William Blake.
Amatrudo, A., & Blake, L. W. (2015). Human Rights and the Criminal Justice System. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=846745&site=ehost-live&scope=site
- Website Source
-City of Boston 2015 Workforce report
News Article
-Written: March 5, 2017
– Efforts to diversify the Boston Police Department’s specialized units have had mixed success, with some units achieving diversity that far surpasses the rest of the department. But in many of the elite squads, women remain underrepresented.
– After initially saying it could not provide information on diversity in the specialized units, the department provided data last week that show four of 11 of the department’s most popular elite squads have a higher percentage of people of color, compared with the department overall. For example, 81 percent of the school police unit are people of color, and 33 percent are women.
– Overall, the Boston Police Department is 33 percent minority.
– Under Evans, the command staff is the most diverse it has ever been, according to the department, and last month, Evans hired a diversity officer to focus on recruiting and promotions. In 2015, Evans revived the police cadet program, a training initiative designed to get minorities into the department.
– Women make up 13 percent of the department but remain underrepresented on all but two of the most popular specialized units: the school police unit and the crime scene unit. The number of women in the gang, K-9, and academy units has dropped since 2012, which Espinoza-Madrigal called “equally concerning.”
– “Boston is a majority-minority city, but the Police Department has maintained an anemic level of diversity and a range that remains substantially unchanged over time,” Espinoza-Madrigal said. “If the Boston Police Department professes to have a public commitment to diversity, they need to make sure it is manifested in improving the recruitment and promotion of minorities and women.”
- News Article
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/09/01/massachusetts-police-forces-lag-racial-diversity/RnEIJW5TuVki4ndotvl2GK/story.html
Note: To fully load the graphs, you must disable the protective shield in the search bar of your browser.
- Written: September 2nd, 2014, 5 years ago
- The state’s eight most ethnically and racially diverse communities are still policed by a predominantly white corps of officers, despite years of efforts to dispel perceptions of racism and diversify their ranks.
- law enforcement officials say they have worked to forge relationships with community groups that would quell the type of outrage that exploded in Ferguson following the Aug. 9 fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager by a white officer.
- local officials acknowledge that they have struggled for years to diversify police department ranks, a challenge they attribute to failed recruitment efforts and obstructive state Civil Service rules that govern hiring.
- “Ferguson brought this to the forefront, but we’ve always been having this conversation,” said Mayor Daniel Rivera of Lawrence, acknowledging a disparity in his city of 76,331, where white residents make up only about 20 percent of the population, but account for nearly 77 percent of the police force. He sent a letter to the state Human Resources Division earlier this year highlighting concerns with decades-old rules that govern the department’s hiring process.
- The Globe examined eight Massachusetts communities where a majority of the population is neither white nor Hispanic.
- Randolph, for example, was forced by the US Department of Justice a decade ago to provide cultural training for officers and build better community partnerships after two high-profile allegations of racial profiling: In one case, a black off-duty Boston police officer said he was harassed and mistaken for a shooting suspect as he was leaving a sandwich shop. In another case, officers allegedly used racial slurs and roughhoused young black men during an altercation at a fast-food restaurant.
- The population of black residents in Randolph, a town of 32,383, nearly doubled between 2000 and 2010, according to Census figures, but the police force remains 81 percent white. The town is 38.4 percent white.
- Of the state’s most diverse municipalities, Boston’s police department is by far the most representative of its city’s demographics, though the department has struggled to diversify its upper ranks. Black residents make up just over a quarter of the city’s population and make up 23.2 percent of the police force.
- while it is important for police departments to better reflect their communities, particularly in their upper ranks, it is equally important that the department creates positive relationships with the community.
- “Is that equal? No. But we’re making our way,” the chief said. “We are over time getting to the point where we’re reflecting the community we serve, not in the sense where we look like the community we serve, but where we can at least communicate with the community we serve.”
- Website Source
https://www.cityofboston.gov/diversity/
Note: You will need to change the filter to the right of the page to identify only the data for the police department.
-shows race and gender employee demographics in Boston for Boston Public Schools and the City of Boston
-54.1% Female workers overall and 45.9% male
-males make more of a higher pay annually than women; women make more of a lower pay than men
-women and men working are almost even for white ethnicity (men over at 50.3 but women at 49.7) whereas other ethnicities show women working more than men
-50.8% overall working are white while; only 29.3% are African American
-Annually, white workers make up most of the highest pay out of other ethnicities (68.4% make over 100k). African American workers make up most of the lowest pay out of other ethnicities (42.6% make 0–20k)
The project: (this is what I started so far but feel free to rewrite it!!!)
Throughout history, people were never treated equally when it came to race or ethnicity. Being that the world is ever-changing, people continue to push for more equality. The many court events that have occurred, like Plessy vs. Ferguson for example, paved the way our society has transformed thus far. However, there are still many ongoing efforts to diversify and connect the gap between communities and law enforcement. Boston has displayed continuous work efforts in order to bridge that gap between diversity and the Criminal Justice System through community outreach, various programs to seek out and hire minorities, and, most importantly, building trust.
After extensive research, I noticed that the Boston police department has shown little positive improvement when it comes to its efforts in working to create more diversity over the years.
Now that we know the demographics for Boston, we can look into the demographics for the Boston Police Department.