Verified Document

Human Behavior And Social Environment Article Review

¶ … eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander and Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black Americans (13th January, 2012). The show is a discussion between Tran Africa founder Randall Robinson and author Michelle Alexander about the disproportionate number of African-Americans that are represented in American correctional facilities that include prisons, jails, or that are on probation, or on parole. According to both founder and author, there are more African-Americans currently incarcerated in the American system than were enslaved in 1850 and more Americans disenfranchised now than they were with the Jim Crow laws in 1870. Both presenters call for a greater emphasis on providing African-Americans with dignity, education, and jobs rather than casting them into jail.

Rationale

The topic, presented on Martin Luther King Day, is of concern to Americans interested in social justice, since the jail system does show disproportionate statistics of incarcerated minorities to White and most of these individuals are Black.

Americans celebrate MLK day as articulation that they have recognized the problems of the past and have endeavored to treat them. Indicative in the premise is the inference that these problems no longer exist, or that Americans have made huge strides to ameliorate these issues. This perspective needs to be corrected; therefore attention was drawn to this show as one means of doing so.

Issue...

Both authors have the following qualifications that enable them to deal with the topic. Alexander is a civil rights advocate and lawyer and the author of a book that describes the phenomena of the disproportionate number of African-Americans who are jailed in the American system ("The new Jim Crow: Mass incarceration in the age of color-blindedness"). Robinson is the founder of a nationalist movement, TransAfrica, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University, and the author of several books that detail American discrimination towards African-Americans and African-American attachment to their homeland.
Critique

At fade-value, both presenters seem to have a lot of points going in their favor.

Statistics released by the Human Rights Watch, for instance, indicate that "African-Americans adults have been arrested at a rate of 2.8 to 5.5 times higher than white adults in every year from 1980 to 2007" despite the fact that both Whites and African-Americans engage in similar rates of drug use and dealing. In New York alone, approximately 600,000 people are arbitrarily frisked per year, 90% of them being black, whilst record of the death sentence shows that 75% of those executed are Black and Hispanic.

Ramifications of incarceration are…

Sources used in this document:
Nagin, D. & Pogarsky, G. (2001) Integrating celerity, impulsivity, and extralegal sanction threats into a model of general deterrence. Criminology, 39 (4).

Robinson, R. & Alexander, M. (13th January, 2012). "On eve of MLK Day, Michelle Alexander and Randall Robinson on the Mass Incarceration of Black Americans"

www.democracynow.org
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Social Influences on Behavior Human Behavior Depends
Words: 1180 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Social Influences on Behavior Human behavior depends on feedback from the environment consisting of climatic, material and human factors. Feedback from individuals in the environment is a crucial factor in determining human behavior. The extent to which behavior is shaped by the presence or feedback of others varies from person to person. Certain individuals, such as those living in collectivistic societies, tend to be more sensitive to social influences, whereas others

Social Work Theories Human Behavior Is Very
Words: 1534 Length: 6 Document Type: Creative Writing

Social Work Theories Human behavior is very difficult to predict on a consistent basis. The amount of stimuli that the human mind intakes causes an infinite amount of possibilities that the person can choose from. Luckily for professional social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists conducting many experiments have developed certain theories that can explain human behavior. These models are tools that healers and doctors can use to help identify and eventually treat

Human Behavior Psychopathology Human Behavior
Words: 949 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Case Study Modified Gestalt theory would support the idea that Chris has a strong genetic predisposition for developing schizophrenia, given his brother's illness. He was raised in an unstable home environment, because of his father's alcoholism that may have exacerbated the young Chris' sense of constant stress and his difficulty to perceive the world in a hostile, non-threatening fashion. Chris is rational at times, other times he is paranoid, and goes

Human Behavior, Physiology and Freedom What Determines
Words: 2063 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Human Behavior, Physiology and Freedom What determines exactly where human behavior comes from? Who is the ultimate authority that in effect, evaluates the appropriateness of such behavior? What is freedom and to what extent does behavior influence freedom? What physiological and environmental factors contribute to the assessment of such factors? Is cultural design and the control of freedom and behavior the answer to solving behavioral issues? The answers to these questions are

Human Behavior and Relationships in
Words: 1075 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

The roles that males and females may also vary -- although a woman biologically gives birth to a child, a man may assume more or less care for the child, depending upon the situation of a couple. A man who loses his job and has a wife who must support the family temporarily may care for his child, even though a biological explanation for human behavior might theorize that

Human Behavior: Values, Cultural Design, and Control
Words: 1943 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

Human Behavior: Values, Cultural Design, And Control We are all controlled by the world in which we live, and part of the world has been and will be constructed by men. The question is this: Are we to be controlled by accidents, by tyrants, or by ourselves in effective cultural design?" - B.F. Skinner Cultural Design is much like "instrumental conditioning," where people are conditioned to respond favorably to a situation or

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now