NCJ Number
87740
Journal
Police Journal Volume: 56 Issue: 1 Dated: (January-March 1983) Pages: 71-80
Date Published
1983
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Laws are necessary to control outward forms of discrimination, and education and social influences are required to change and form attitudes so as to reduce subtle forms of racial and other types of discrimination in Britain and the United States.
Abstract
The U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the 14th and 15th amendments provide a legal base of equality for all U.S. nationals, but lawyers have resorted to technicalities and tricks of interpretation that have often prevented their application to combat discrimination. In addition, three classes of legislation have protected minorities: civil rights laws, group libel laws, and employment laws. Britain also has legislation intended to counter discrimination, notably the Race Relations Act of 1976 and the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975. While laws cannot ultimately control the discriminatory behavior of the compulsive bigot, they do provide a structure of legal process for dealing with discriminatory behavior and deterring such behavior by significant numbers of people. Also, the changing of outward action can in the long term affect inner habits of thought. Law, however, does not do enough by itself to create socioeconomic equality. Other methods include mass media support of patterns of equality, the establishment of social programs that bring minorities into regular informal contact with dominant groups, group training methods, exhortation, and individual therapy. The police and community and social workers who deal with the problems of urban society must also be trained to be educators and role models for nondiscriminatory behavior and dealing with racial conflict.