9.3. Final Submission of P2 Rhetorical Analysis

Steven Duron

English 102

10/24/15

How to go about writing a controversial topic

Controversial topics are great ideas to write about because there are so many different angles that the article can base its information from. Many professionals have discussed the controversial topic of how our criminal justice system can be unjust. Cassia Spohn agrees with most professionals as she writes "Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries” published by Crime and Justice. In her article, Spohn describes how the criminal justice system discriminates against minorities. She reaches out to her audience, readers who are aware of the controversy and have an interest in the field of study, about these issues. Spohn’s reasoning is enforced by different rhetorical strategies such as credibility, emotion, and logic.

To summarize what Spohn argues in her article, she claims that discrimination is experienced at all the levels of the criminal justice system. This discrimination from the police force creates a harmful environment for minorities. Also, she believes that the police force has discriminated against minorities, targeting blacks more than any other race. While the War on Drugs was going on throughout the nation, “the proportion of blacks arrested for serious violent crimes has declined but the proportion of blacks arrested for drug offenses has skyrocketed” (Spohn, 2015). She believes that the judicial system had discriminated against African Americans, which enforces her argument. For example, statistics show that blacks are stopped more often than any other race. This has led to the “overt discrimination directed against black criminal defendants” (Spohn, 2015). The argument illustrates that blacks were given harsher punishments for crimes compared to white people who commit the same crime. Another example she made was that in the prison systems, blacks are disproportionately represented when it comes to imprisonment comparisons. “Eighty years after the Census Bureau issued its report and posed its question about discrimination in punishment, the percentage of prisoners who were black had more than doubled” (Spohn, 2015). The statistics she uses enforces her claim that the percent of black people in prison were much higher than it should be compared to the amount of black citizens in the U.S.

Throughout her article, Spohn keeps her audience in mind, which is comprised of people who are interested in criminal justice and have a general knowledge of the subject. The way she presents her article suggests that it was designed for criminal justice enthusiasts. Her argument is strengthened by the usage of graphs and citing other professionals work who have contributed to the criminal justice community. A big part of the author’s message is that she pushes for change within the criminal justice system. “Reducing the racial disproportionality in prison and eliminating racial bias in non capital and capital sentencing should be high-priority goals of policy makers and politicians” (Spohn, 2015). Not only by reducing racial discrimination within the system, but she also wants to abolish the death penalty. Her entire article is designed to inform her audience on the topic of discrimination by criminal justice organizations. Another important aspect of her article is to suggest to readers a possible solution; abolish the death penalty.

The author uses multiple strategies to strengthen her article, one of these being the use of credibility. Her article is published within the journal Crime and Justice, which has multiple volumes and hundreds of issues that presents international research about core issues within criminology. Spohn cites several different authors and professionals to help strengthen her work and add to her credibility. The professionals that she cites within her article are all very informed and have written numerous scholarly articles, which indicates they are familiar in the field of study. She also brings up multiple past cases that have impacted our nation. Examples of these cases are Powell vs. Alabama, Brown vs. Board of Education, and Furman vs. Georgia. These cases were crucial to our growth as a nation and she uses them to enhance her credibility.  By the use of court cases, it implies that she has completed a fair amount of research for her paper in order to display strong facts.

Another strategy that she touches upon is the use of emotion. The topic she writes about is a very controversial topic that can bring about an emotional response. So many people are passionate about their opinions, and she uses that to her advantage. In her article, she explains “There is irrefutable evidence that blacks make up a disproportionate share of the US prison population" (Spohn, 2015). She uses sentences like this one to appeal to emotion as the reader reads her work. Since this topic is so controversial, after reading that blacks are constantly discriminated across the nation, readers should feel heightened opinions about the topic whether they agree with her or not.

The use of logic is another strategy that she uses throughout her article. Logic helps enforce an author's opinion by using facts and other tools. In her article, she cites several statistics about the unfair treatment of black citizens throughout the different levels of the criminal justice system. “The “unexplained disparity” in 2004 was 38.4 percent for violent crimes, 38.3 percent for property crimes, and 57.4 percent for drug offenses” (Spohn, 2015). The use of statistics is effective within this sort of topic because it can provide an estimate of how the system unfairly treats black citizens. Besides the use of statistics, she provides multiple graphs that show either the rise or decline of incarcerations of black citizens compared to other races. These statistics gives the readers a better analysis of the topic, making what she is saying more logical instead of being opinionated.

Cassia Spohn’s article “Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries” is a good example of how professionals within the field of Criminal Justice write scholarly articles. By identifying the right audience and writing to get her message across to her readers, she is able to accurately display her argument. Spohn enforces her argument by using multiple strategies credibility, emotion, and logic that help strengthen the idea that there is discrimination at multiple levels of the criminal justice system throughout the nation.

References

Spohn, C. (2015). Race, Crime, and Punishment in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. Crime and Justice. Retrieved from: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy2.library.arizona.edu/stable/10.1086/681550?Search=yes&resultItemClick=true&searchText=Race,&searchText=Crime,&searchText=and&searchText=Punishment&searchText=in&searchText=the&searchText=Twentieth&searchText=and&searchText=Twenty-First&searchText=Centuries.&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DRace%252C%2BCrime%252C%2Band%2BPunishment%2Bin%2Bthe%2BTwentieth%2Band%2BTwenty-First%2BCenturies.%2B%26amp%3Bprq%3DIntroduction%253A%2BAfrican%2BAmericans%252C%2BPolice%2BBrutality%252C%2Band%2Bthe%2BU.S.%2BCriminal%2BJustice%2BSystem.%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Don


REFLECTION:

When revising my drafts, the difference between my rough draft and my final draft is my intro and conclusion. They are less wordy and I tried to adjust them to get the main idea across better. As a big picture, I thought my thesis was good but needed to adjust some paragraphs that were confusing. Reflections are helpful because they give the author the ability to take another look at their mistakes to help give them a better paper next time.