Modern correctional institutions indeed need significant changes. Now prisons and colonies are overcrowded, while not all criminals leave these places better than they were before committing crimes. On the contrary, prison culture often educates people who are even more full of hatred and desire to do evil. Therefore, first, it is necessary to revise the models of education in correctional institutions. This could truly change the perception of the prisoners and bring benefits to society. In addition, the justice system itself, unfortunately, often forces innocent people to get to corrections (Stohr and Walsh, 2019). Corruption or other illegal actions of the rival parties lead to this. Therefore, it is essential to avoid situations where decent citizens go to prison for no reason to prevent problems with the law and mental disorders.
The concept of selective incapacitation can be partly a beneficial development in the field of justice. On the one hand, it will allow some people to escape jail. Therefore, they will not be negatively influenced by other criminals and they will not take the places of those who need to be placed in a correctional institution. On the other hand, it will reduce the crime rate since people will not be able to commit crimes. This will also reduce prison occupancy and allow the government to focus on the most severe crimes. However, in this situation, the issue of morality is acute. By depriving people of their capacity, the state not only prevents them from committing crimes but also prevents them from living an ordinary, full-fledged life. It is necessary to determine the criteria by which a person will be considered such a dangerous criminal that this measure can be applied. With this approach, indeed, it is possible to reduce the crime rate and competently approach the law’s violators.
References
Stohr, M. K. & Walsh, A. (2019). Corrections: From research, to policy, to practice. SAGE Publications.
Social Stereotypes: Unconscious Biases
Definition and Meaning
Every person may have prejudices during their life – both negative and positive. These biases affect how people see the world, and many of them are conscious or explicit, but many unconscious or hidden biases affect our thoughts, decisions, and actions, while individuals are not aware of it. Prejudice refers to ideas and opinions that arise and strengthen throughout a person’s life through interactions with family and other people, as well as under the influence of the media, cultural phenomena, and historical concepts (Fiarman, 2016). Even everyday language and images prevalent in specific communities in which people live are carriers of prejudice.
In this regard, identifying and then overcoming unconscious biases is by no means an easy task. In other words, unconscious bias is feelings that individuals unwittingly experience and that influence our judgments about individuals or their groups in different areas of life, as opposed to a balanced, rational approach. Bias is often characterized as stereotypes about people based on the group to which they belong or based on invariable physical characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation (Fiarman, 2016). Such a trait in human nature has harmful consequences in the real world since a person may not be aware of the fact that they have prejudices and biases in themselves.
Where Unconscious Biases Are Present
Unconscious biases can be found in many spheres and aspects of life. For example, they more often shape negative workplace behavior than open, conscious attitudes (Noon, 2018). It makes it easier to predict discriminatory hiring decisions, lack of trust in people outside the group, and hostile body language toward people outside the group. This happens even in cases where they are consciously tuned in to impartial communication.
The results of various studies show the presence of all different implicit stereotypes present in the workplace. It can be the dependence of salaries from gender and even hair color, bodyweight, the chances of being hired due to appearance, unusual names, and many other examples (Grogan, 2019; Madsen & Andrade, 2018).
The workplace is not the only sphere wherein implicit biases are present. The attention of the media to the phenomenon called AI bias has noticeably sharpened. In the same way that bias is manifested in humans, artificial intelligence can be biased at many different levels. Artificial intelligence bias tends to reflect the bias of the people who create it (Lee, 2018). Essentially, an algorithm is a sequence of instructions to solve a specific problem.
Artificial intelligence designers can introduce bias by setting some parameters and instructions when creating a particular algorithm. For example, if developers choose income level as a parameter in their algorithm, this could well lead to an outcome that makes racial bias (albeit unintentional) that could harm a particular minority group. Coded Bias (2020) is a documentary film that explores this topic. When MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini discovered that an AI system for facial recognition could be biased against dark-skinned people and women, he began to study algorithms that violate human rights. Buolamvini concluded that AI is not neutral, and its distribution needs legislative and public control.
There are plenty of examples of implicit bias implementation in the criminal justice system. For instance, legal systems at both the national and international levels are firmly entrenched in unequal treatment of women. Some of the barriers to women’s access to justice are not due to gender but rather to the fact that women belong to marginalized groups of the population. They are particularly vulnerable to discrimination and most often do not have information about their rights and available remedies (Hetey & Eberhardt, 2018).
The justice system reflects the inherent imbalance of power in society, strengthening the privileges and defending the interests of an influential class whose particular position is based on wealth, ethnicity, race, religion, or gender. The law does not protect women who do not have equal rights and privileges with men to the same extent as men; however, several factors exclusively affect women. Moreover, of course, the criminal system is subject to the institutionalized, systemic racism that has permeated many justice structures. Hidden stereotypes in this regard lead to discriminatory or non-racial legal frameworks.
Impact on World Today
Harmful stereotypes contribute to inequality, even though they can be both hostile (for example, that women are unreasonable) and seemingly harmless (for example, women are called upon to bring up children). Complex implicit biases can have a disproportionately negative impact on specific groups of people, such as minority and indigenous people, people with disabilities, people with low economic status, migrants, and many others.
Unconscious biases reproduce and reinforce the existing inequality and social gaps between people, allowing privileged groups to remain in their places and denying opportunities and rights to discriminated groups. The formation of implicit stereotypes implies the practice of assigning specific properties, qualities, or roles to individuals only based on their belonging to a social group. In the first place, justice is evident when it leads to the violation or violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
References
Coded Bias. (2020). Netflix. Web.
Fiarman, S. E. (2016). Unconscious bias: When good intentions aren’t enough. Educational Leadership, 74(3), 10-15.
Grogan, K. E. (2019). How the entire scientific community can confront gender bias in the workplace. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 3(1), 3-6.
Hetey, R. C., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2018). The numbers don’t speak for themselves: Racial disparities and the persistence of inequality in the criminal justice system. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(3), 183-187.
Lee, N. T. (2018). Detecting racial bias in algorithms and machine learning. Journal of Information, Communication, and Ethics in Society, 16(3): 252-260. Web.
Madsen, S. R., & Andrade, M. S. (2018). Unconscious gender bias: Implications for women’s leadership development. Journal of Leadership Studies, 12(1), 62-67.
Noon, M. (2018). Pointless diversity training: Unconscious bias, new racism, and agency. Work, employment and society, 32(1), 198-209.
Digital Blackface: The Popular Fashion
The Internet gives us plenty of opportunities to pretend to be somebody we are not. Most people live relatively unremarkable, generic lives, consisting of everyday human events — studies, work, maybe some time with family and friends. There is nothing shameful in it; however, a wish of fulfillment causes people to put on masks. For them, social media provides a chance to show that they are something special and their lives are not boring. The masks may vary, from posting the pictures of exotic food and luxury items as “evidence” of a successful life to partaking in discussions as some sort of arrogant expert who knows everything better.
The Digital Blackface is a modern example of wearing the mask on the Internet. Imitating the behavior and culture of black people was a thing even in the 20th century. In their song Pretty Fly (For a White Guy), the punk-rock band The Offspring mocked white youth who acted like stereotypical black people in an attempt to look cool instead of being themselves. The modern TikTok creators described by Jason Parham follow the same pattern, except they are trying to attract the audience and make money. I have not met the “digital blackface”; however, I can see where it comes from and why black people are offended.
I would describe this interest in “Blackness” and blackface minstrelsy as a popular fashion, which will probably pass by as the black culture becomes less mainstream. The embodiment of black culture by TikTok creators probably makes blacks think that the whites are stealing their culture. However, I doubt that white TikTok creators even think in these categories. They are simply exploiting stereotypical Blackness to become famous, and the video-first platform allows the creation of more vivid and successful masks. Black people can find it offensive, but that is the price of Blackness becoming a popular discourse in recent years.