Crime Reports for Washington State - Essay Example

al., 2004). This is significant because the number of arrests for both whites and blacks have a dramatic inverse ratio; nearly twice the number of white arrests were for DUI, yet 33% more blacks were arrested for drug abuse than for DUI, making blacks the only minority with more arrests for drug abuse than the other two minorities. The state of Washington has taken dramatic steps to end racism and gang violence by implementing strict laws in schools to end sex and race discrimination. This law was enacted in 1975 (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction website, n.d.), enacted and bolstered by the OSPI through the construction and publication of guidelines, which were put into place in 1984.

This reflects the success through education intervention that discrimination and racism can be discouraged through education. That is not to say that these problems do not exist in Washington State; a recent study conducted by George Bridges of the University Of Washington found disturbing news regarding the treatment of black youth in the juvenile justice system (Joel Schwartz, 1999). According to Bridges' findings, black juveniles received more severe punishment than their white counterparts.

Moreover, Bridges says that "the reports tend to depict crimes committed by blacks as being caused by internal attributes or aspects of their character, such as being disrespectful toward authority or condoning criminal behavior, while white juvenile crime was more likely to be blamed on negative environmental factors, such as being exposed to excessive family conflict or hanging out with other delinquents." In the areas making enormous efforts to educate their way out of racism, we now have the problem of "unconscious racism" and stereotyping.

Bridges goes on to explain that while the Washington State probation and corrections officials do seem to truly care for the state's youth, they carry the same type of concerns about blacks being more likely to re-offend than whites, just as civilians do, hence the harsher punishments. Since no real research has been conducted in Washington State in regard to racism