Cultural Diversity: Historical Development of Policing in the Us
Crime and criminals had been transparent historical events since the beginning of the evolution of the human society. Policing existed since the early years in an attempt in keeping social control. The policing history in the US could be traced back to officially start about 900 A.D. The policing concepts were mainly influenced by the English law enforcement. The common citizens played the law enforcement roles guided by state-sanctioned force to keep social control prior to emergence of police officers (Uchida, 2004).
The office of justice was created in the mid-1300 A.D. to help in keeping peace in every territory. The emergence of prisons for punishing law offenders crudely begun in the 16th century. The prison system was established in 17th century and became part of policing as the numbers of criminals were on the rise. The US prison system was officially set up with the influences of European ideas attributed to the Christian body American Quakers, formally known as the Society of Friends (Johnston, 2012).
The city expansions and the emerging industrial revolution increased the disparity between the societal classes. The middle and high social classes may have advantages but the low classes faced intense pressures. The unfortunate members of the society were labeled no class who served as slaves with the slavery turning as a part of historical development of America. The increased needs of laborers brought the influx of the traded African slaves. The slavery may have successfully helped the industrialization of America but also fuelled bloody uprisings, aggressions, rebellions, and civil wars. Policing has since increased the concentration on those feared as threats to social harmony. The blacks and other minorities particularly those from the low class society started to suffer from prejudice and discrimination as they had been perceived not only threats to peaceful conditions but also pose as threats to economical development (Johnston, 2012).