African Americans and Caucasians live in completely different worlds when it comes to the perception of the criminal justice system and the role the police play in society. The overall findings highlight the deep distrust of a sizable majority of African Americans toward the police, as well as doubts about the treatment of blacks following the decision not to prosecute officers involved in the killings of unarmed black men in Ferguson and New York City. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It is a well-known principle in social psychology that people define themselves in terms of social groupings and are quick to disparage others who do not appear to fit into those groups. Those who share our particular qualities are our "in-group" and those who do not share them are our "outgroup". Sometimes these groupings are determined by factors intrinsic to who we include; gender, age, race/ethnicity, but in this case, like many others happening today, it comes down to the issue of racial equality in the criminal justice system. In the following scenario, the American criminal justice system is described as the in-group, while African Americans are perceived as the outgroup. According to Psychology Today, Susan Krauss Whitbourne states: “It is precisely these fences that prevent us from bonding with our peers and, in this way, undermine our true security.” (Whitbourne, 2010). African Americans consciously express their fear of interacting with the police, even in times of emergency due to the considerable risks. The very real possibility of causing disrespect, even physical harm. Most have seen witnesses treated as suspects and know how quickly African Americans who ask the police for help could end up in handcuffs in the back of a police car. Some even know of black professionals who have had guns pointed at them needlessly. “We feared what might happen if the police rushed a group of people who, by virtue of the color of our skin, might be mistaken for suspects.” (Hannah-Jones, 2015). Nikole further states, “We are not criminals because we are black. Nor are we somehow the only people in America who don't want to live in safe neighborhoods. Yet many of us cannot fundamentally trust the people tasked with keeping us and our communities safe.” (Hannah-Jones, 2015). Racially biased messages from the culture around you have shaped the very wiring of your brain. Most of the police officers involved in the recent murders have Caucasian skin, which determines the culture they are surrounded by. Whites believe that blacks have only themselves to blame for the presence and behavior of police officers. If African Americans were serious about solving problems in their communities, Caucasians believe police would not arrest or kill so many black people. One reason police have a disproportionate number of interactions with African American males is because these men commit a disproportionate number of crimes. Steve Chapman explains: “The gist of the message is that blacks created the problem and blacks need to solve it.” (Chapman, 2014). One method in action to measure the stereotypes that the criminal justice system believes about their current outgroup, would be the implicit association test which measures racial bias that we cannot consciously control. The test asks you to quickly classify face images as“African Americans” or “European Americans” while categorizing words like bad, happy, terrible, and peace. This version would be given to Caucasians, just as a similar version of "Caucasian American" and "European American" would be given to African Americans. Faces and words flash on the screen and you tap a button, as quickly as possible, to indicate which category is appropriate. “A particular way of categorizing can be imprecise and these false categories can lead to prejudice and stereotypes. Much of the psychological research on bias has focused on how people “essentialize” certain categories, which boils down to assuming that these categories have an underlying nature tied to intrinsic, immutable qualities. (Mooney, 2014). Social conflict theorists argue that the state functions as a tool of the ruling class, such as whites and wealthy elites. Government institutions, including police departments, are the product of political processes that reveal the interests of the powerful in society. The main function of the police is to preserve the status quo of inequality and help the powerful exploit the powerless. According to JiHyun Kwon, “Holmes and his colleagues (2008) found that, along with rational choice logic, Minority Threat Perspectives (a branch of social conflict theory) “capture important external political influences on the allocation of police resources.” (p. 148 ).” (Kwon). They argue that the intersection of race and class together determine the dynamics of police-civilian interaction. The economically marginalized and politically powerless people in today's society are more likely to file complaints about police misconduct, and to experience more of it, than those with more power and resources. Jacobs and Britt also found that the conflict hypothesis holds up when tested against the number of police killing incidents; Police officers were more likely to use deadly force in more unequal states, supporting the idea that police act as enforcement agents disproportionately in minority communities. (Jacobs and Britt, 1979). Numerous scholars have also argued that police-citizen contact is influenced by the race of the citizen, regardless of the race of the officers. The control relationship is one of the cognitive factors of police brutality. This variable is made up of personal and social controlling factors that an individual seeks to maximize. Tittle argues that the determining factor is strongest when interfaced with the fact of imbalance, as it predisposes a person or social entity to become motivated towards deviance. (Tittle, 2004). One of the biggest problems with police abuse is physical brutality. The primary goal should be to get police departments to adopt and enforce a written policy regulating the use of physical force. Policy should limit physical force to the narrowest possible range of specific situations. For example, there should be limitations on the use of hand-to-hand combat, batons, clubs, stun guns, and firearms. However, limiting police actions will spark much debate, especially from police officers and administrators themselves. Many believe their firepower is already too weak to combat the weapons criminals have on the streets, and limiting the legality of gun use will not only endanger them, but also the innocent bystanders who must endure the hierarchy that the power of weapons creates to the advantage of criminals. For example, not only should officers use brutality in very limited situations, to help limit the use.