It talks about the importance of a positive self-image to the individual, and how they feel their social identity is enhanced by categorising people into groups, in and out cast groups. Although mostly small at each point, the cumulative effect is likely to be sufficient to justify closer examination and investigation of options to reduce disproportionate representation of Māori. The respondents were then asked about their opinions about the leniency of the sentences that ethnic minorities received for certain crimes (robbery, drug offences and crime offences). 13th Apr 2017 Crenshaw (1991). To be able to find out whether sentencing is affected by race and if discrimination does exist it would have to be evident that when all relevant legal variables are taken into account, a higher number of ethnic minorities are given a custodial sentence and/or a longer sentence (Marian, 1991). An individual is then most likely to follow the attitudes of their preferred groups just so they could be rewarded in the case of judges for example for promotions and higher pay rolls. The topic being researched is a complex one, the questionnaire failed to touch upon these complexities of the topic. If the opportunity was to arise, this study would be taken a step further; it would be expanded to include a larger and more representative sample. 2. Participation was voluntary, this meant that informed consent was obtained and so participants understood the research and its intentions, and they were not being deceived in any way. Different welfare states lead to different levels of inequality. proposed ‘justice reinvestment’ as a possible solution to the over representation of Indigenous people in the criminal justice system. This was largely because people from these ethnic groups made up a disproportionate share of people arrested, and this carried through to the prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment stages. Overrepresentation in criminal justice systems, computer generated “predictive policing,”, Globalisation and State Sovereignty: A Mixed Bag, Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics. The research explored public opinions on the role that race plays in the sentencing stages of the Criminal Justice System. The research question that will be investigated will then be: Does racial discrimination exist in the sentencing stages of the Criminal Justice System? Robbery had the highest estimates of individuals ending up in prison (45 out every 50), drug offences were not far off with estimates of 43 of every 50 and drug offences falling behind but not far off with estimates of 40 out of every 50 (see appendix 9). Cunneen, C. (2006), ‘Racism, Discrimination and the Over-Representation of Indigenous People in the Criminal Justice System: Some Conceptual and Explanatory Issues’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice… The estimates about imprisonment also seemed to be related to the leniency of the sentences the offenders received. They are less likely to be given unconditional bail, and more likely to be remanded in custody than white offenders. It is important for researcher’s to maintain their distance from what they study. We've received widespread press coverage since 2003, Your UKEssays purchase is secure and we're rated 4.4/5 on reviews.co.uk. Volunteer sampling was used, a type of non-probability sampling, through this the volunteers self-selected themselves into the questionnaire (Bryman, 2008). The purpose of the methods used was to collect information on public opinions about the process of sentencing and how this is affected by race. When we take a closer look at the criminal data statistics, we notice that socio-economically deprived groups are more likely to be perpetrators, but also victims of crime : “New York City and the North Country have very little in common. In the questionnaires conducted, race was used in terms of being a system in which categories are created for humans based on their ethnic background’ (spalek, 2008).