One night in 2011, Serethea Reid, an African American resident of Chicago’s Austin neighborhood, heard screaming outside her home. Reid called the police, who took three hours to respond. They were too late to stop the beating that had been taking place. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a civil liberty lawsuit against the city of Chicago, claiming that the police response to 911 calls placed from African American or Latino neighborhoods was longer than their response to calls from predominantly White neighborhoods (Gorner & Mack, 2011).

Regardless of the police response, people of color in the US are victimized in greater proportion than White Americans, in almost all categories of violent crime. In 2010, the rate of violent victimization for White Americans was 13.6 per 1000 , while the violent victimization rate for African Americans was 20.8 per 1000, and for Latinos 15.6 per 1000 (Truman, 2011). Victimization rates vary by type of crime. For example, the homicide rate for African Americans has been estimated at 7 times the rate for White Americans (Miller, 2010), while the differences among ethnicities in victimization rates for simple assault are very small (Harrell, 2007).

For this Assignment, you select one of the victims you have previously reviewed in the media and consider the victim’s vulnerability to crime, based on his or her race or ethnic identity. You also analyze the influence of race or ethnicity on the type of crime committed and on the victim’s experiences with the criminal justice system.

The Assignment (2–3 pages):

• Explain which factors related to race or ethnicity might have contributed to the vulnerability of the victim.
• Explain which factors related to race or ethnicity might have contributed to the type of crime committed against the victim.
• Explain how the victim’s experiences with the criminal justice system might differ based on the race or ethnicity of the victim.