Annotated Bibliography

              Christopher Carbuccia

    John Jay College of Criminal Justice

  The topic I will be choosing is criminal justice. The google definition of Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have committed a crime. To me, when I first think of the term “criminal justice,” I think about cops, lawyers, and just anything that has to do with you going to jail or being arrested. I have numerous amount of questions but for this assignment, I am going to focus on three.

   My first question is, how does the criminal justice system go through choosing the jury during specific cases and are they prejudice on choosing people depending on the person being convicted.  I think that the jury just chooses whoever to go to the jury but if they see the person come in and they are the same color race as the person in the trial they send them home because they don’t want the jury to be biased. I choose this question because I feel like it is unfair that if for example an African male is being convicted and an African American lady is called to the jury, but then just because of her race, she is sent home. I wonder where in the criminal justice is this fair, I feel like if you just put white people in that jury that person is bound to be convicted of a crime. 

The second question I plan to investigate is what is the process of someone becoming a cop or being in law enforcement. Do race and background play a part? I think that the way you look can definitely play a part. I also feel like your background and the things you have in your past may affect your process of being in law enforcement. The reason I think this is because one of my cousin’s friends is in the FBI, and when he saw me he had told me I’d be perfect. When I had asked him why he had told me I’d be perfect to go undercover. At first, I took it as a compliment and an advantage but then I realized I’d was because I looked like a young boy who would most likely be smoking and dealing. This question is worth investigating because is someone who looks more like a person who would cause trouble have a better chance at getting into a law enforcement program or is it the opposite where someone who looks quote on quote “nerdy” more liable to get the position to be in law enforcement. Also to clarify by law enforcement I mean cop, detective, FBI, CSI, bomb squad, and etc.

  I choose the topic of criminal justice because this is my major currently and I plan on pursuing a career in the FBI. I also have a variety of questions that I hear a lot of mixed questions, emotions, and thoughts on and I never bothered to look the answers up so I feel like this assignment is perfect because it gives me the chance to do so. 

The inquiry question I will most likely as of now answer is “What is the process of selecting a juror to be a part of the jury and does race play a part in selecting the juror depending on what race the person being convicted is?”. The reason I chose this question is that I have no idea at all if race plays a part, and if it does it would be really unfair. I also have no idea how anyone becomes a juror, all I know is that you get a slip in the mail saying you have jury duty and if you don’t go you become fined. 
  In order to research my inquiry question, there is a numerous amount of options I have. My first option would, of course, be the internet, and just researching the process of becoming a juror. The information that is important to find first would be just how does someone gets selected to be a juror and then I can research if race plays a part in becoming one during specific trials where your race resembles the same as the person who is being convicted or trialed. The stumbling blocks that I anticipate during this research process are different opinions and experiences in being selected to become a juror and etc.