UNEQUAL SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS & CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM OUTCOMES: A COMPARISON OF PALESTINIANS IN ISRAEL AND BLACK AMERICANS

Abstract

Palestinians in Israel and Black Americans face similar socioeconomic disparities. Thus, their subsequent involvement in the criminal justice system can be compared. The stability of housing, status of wage gaps and employment, quality of education systems, and modern condition of health outcomes are socioeconomic factors within Israel and the United States that reflect similar socioeconomic disparities. Parallel structures of inequalities as an outcome of disparate socioeconomic factors led to marginalization within the criminal justice system for Palestinians in Israel and Black people in the U.S. The modern state of crime and policing in Israel and the U.S. is undesirable in Palestinian and Black communities, respectively, as the rates of involvement and victimization in the criminal justice system are higher than that of the majority white population in the U.S. and majority Jewish population in Israel. In order to improve crime rates, policing policies, and gang and group crime influences, socioeconomic disparities within the Palestinian community in Israel and the Black community in the U.S. must be addressed.