Miranda Rights: Theory and Practice The Intersection of Miranda and Race
Abstract
The focus of this thesis is to show the importance of individuals knowing their Miranda rights and the problems within law enforcement. The landmark United States Supreme Court case of Miranda v. Arizona and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution give criminal suspects a number of rights when being questioned by officers. The law states that whenever a person is taken into police custody and before being questioned, he or she must be told of the Fifth Amendment right not to make any self-incriminating statements and their Miranda rights. In my thesis, I showed that the criminal justice system does not enforce giving criminal suspects their Miranda rights. Furthermore, a large part of my study involved research that explore why one’s education or the lack of it, race, and one’s class seems to be the most important factors for the Court to decide whom goes to jail, which group to label as criminals and necessary to be incarcerated. I found that individuals who live in underprivileged neighborhoods where jobs are scarce, education is not valued, crime is high and have limited facilities look for other ways to make ends meet and to provide for themselves. The purpose of my thesis is to let all individuals know no matter what race you are that all people should be treated equally. It is not okay to treat the poor, people of color, Blacks and Hispanics without any respect, remove their identity and individuality just because of their economic class and the color of their skin. I want to shed light on the bigotry and biases that are within law enforcement and show that this can only be stopped if there is a way to get cameras inside precincts. Truly no one will ever know what occurs within an interrogation until a judge and jury can see what actually occurred.
Subject Area
Law|Sociology|Criminology|Ethnic studies
Recommended Citation
Thevenin, Mirabelle Flore, "Miranda Rights: Theory and Practice The Intersection of Miranda and Race" (2016). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI10016487.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI10016487
