Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Solutions to racial profiling
Racial profiling and the criminal justice system
Racial profiling and the criminal justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Solutions to racial profiling
There has been the hubbub surrounding racial and ethnic discrimination around traffic stops by the police. The police have been accused of stopping a particular group of people frequently fronting the argument that that group is likely to commit a crime likeillegal possession of drugs or even unlicensed weapons. Most of the scholars who have discussed racial profiling do not deny its existence. In this paper, the definition of racial profiling will be elucidated. In addition, the overall effects of racial profiling will be looked into. This paper will contrast the arguments for and against racial profiling and from this juxtaposition a summary of findings will be made. From the review, a well-reasoned conclusion on whether it is appropriate to ban racial profiling altogether will be postulated. Empirical evidence will be relied from various States will be relied on. Essentially this paper is supposed to draw conversation towards elimination of racial profiling in the context of street level crime.
Racial Profiling By Police Officers in a Bid to Eradicate Crime in the Streets
Introduction
In the late 1990s evidence of racial profiling started to emerge. States such as California, Maryland and New Jersey acknowledged the existence of racial profiling in their jurisdictions. It was only after acts of terrorism escalated in 2001 that the attitude towards racial profiling changed for good. These acts led to the reduction of racial profiling but even to date, police still practice it in many jurisdictions.
Studies were conducted in Texas in 2005. The study revealed differences in traffic stops and searches among the residents. An interesting fact that emerged
SEE PAPER INSTRUCTIONS3 is that the police were mo...
... middle of paper ...
...WHY RACIAL PROFILING IS HARD TO JUSTIFY: A RESPONSE TO RISSE AND ZECKHAUSER RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.ALEVER.NET/DOCS/WHY%20RACIAL%20PROFILING%20IS%20HARD%20TO%20JUSTIFY.PDF
RAMIREZ, D., MCDEVITT, J., & FARRELL, A. (2000). A RESOURCE GUIDE ON RACIAL PROFILING DATA COLLECTION SYSTEMS. U.S DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE. RETRIEVED FROM
RISSE, M. ZECKHAUSER, R., RACIAL PROFILING. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.HKSHARVARD.EDU/FS/RZECKHAU/RACIAL_PROFILING.PDF
SCHUCK. H. (2012). RACIAL PROFILING. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://GSPP.BERKELEY.EDU/ASSETS/UPLOADS/RESEARCH/PDF/MARTIN_GLASER-_RACIAL_PROFILING-DEBATES_IMMIGRATION_2012.PDF
THE LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE ON CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS (2011) RESTORING
SEE PAPER INSTRUCTIONS15
A NATIONAL CONSENSUS: THE NEED TO END RACIAL PROFILING IN AMERICA RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.CIVILRIGHTS.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/REPORTS/RACIALPROFILING2011/RACIAL_PROFILING2011.PDF
In the United States of America today, racial profiling is a deeply troubling national problem. Many people, usually minorities, experience it every day, as they suffer the humiliation of being stopped by police while driving, flying, or even walking for no other reason than their color, religion, or ethnicity. Racial profiling is a law enforcement practice steeped in racial stereotypes and different assumptions about the inclination of African-American, Latino, Asian, Native American or Arab people to commit particular types of crimes. The idea that people stay silent because they live in fear of being judged based on their race, allows racial profiling to live on.
People of color are being pursued on the highways in the land of the free. In Bob Herbert’s “Hounding the innocent” acts of racial profiling are displayed flagrantly. Racial profiling should be illegal, since it is unfair to its victims, demoralizing, and it breaks the trust between the public and the police.
The judicial system in America has always endured much skepticism as to whether or not there is racial profiling amongst arrests. The stop and frisk policy of the NYPD has caused much controversy and publicity since being applied because of the clear racial disparity in stops. Now the question remains; Are cops being racially biased when choosing whom to stop or are they just targeting “high crime” neighborhoods, thus choosing minorities by default? This paper will examine the history behind stop and frisk policies. Along with referenced facts about the Stop and Frisk Policy, this paper will include and discuss methods and findings of my own personal field research.
At the core of the stop and frisk policy as utilized by the New York Police Department is racial profiling. Racial profiling has a significant and often controversial place in the history of policing in the United States. Racial profiling can be loosely defined as the use of race as a key determinant in law enforcement decisions to stop, interrogate, and/or detain citizens (Weitzer & Tuch, 2002). Laws in the United States have helped to procure and ensure race based decisions in law enforcement. Historically, the Supreme Court has handed down decisions which increase the scope of discretion of a law enforcement officer. For example, traffic stops can be used to look for evidence even though the officer has not observed any criminal violation (Harris, 2003). Proponent's for racial profiling reason that racial profiling is a crime fighting tool that does treat racial/ethnic groups as potential criminal suspects based on the assumption that by doing so increases the chances of catching criminals (Harris, 2003). Also, it is important to note, law enforcement officers only need reasonable suspicion to stop and frisk, probable cause is not required as in other circumstances (Harris, 2003). It is because of this assumption that the New York Police Department’s stop and frisk policy is still a relevant issue.
In 1990, there was a total of 2,245 murders in New York, but over the past nine years, this total has been less than 600 (NYCLU). However, there has not been evident proof that the stop-and-frisk procedure is the reason of the declination of the crime rate. Indeed, stop-and-frisk contributes to some downturn of crime but the number is not high enough for the citizen and police to rely on. Specifically, only 3% of 2.4 million stops result in conviction. Some 2% of those arrests – or 0.1% of all stops – led to a conviction for a violent crime. Only 2% of arrests led to a conviction for possession of a weapon (Gabatt, A., 2013). In other words, the decrease in crime due to stop-and-frisk is mostly due to the discovery of possessed of weapons. Therefore, stop-and- frisk is not an effective procedure to use because it does not represent a huge impact in people’s safety (Gabatt, A., 2013). The author has done research about how police base their initiation towards the procedure of stop-and-frisk. Researchers have found that stop-and-frisk is a crime prevention strategy that gives a police officer the permission to stop a person based on “reasonable suspicion” of criminal activity and frisk based on “reasonable suspicion” that the person is armed and dangerous. This controversy is mainly because of racial profiling. “Reasonable suspicion” was described by the court as “common sense” (Avdija, A., 2013). Although, the
Racial profiling is the tactic of stopping someone because of the color of his or her skin and a fleeting suspicion that the person is engaging in criminal behavior (Meeks, p. 4-5). This practice can be conducted with routine traffic stops, or can be completely random based on the car that is driven, the number of people in the car and the race of the driver and passengers. The practice of racial profiling may seem more prevalent in today’s society, but in reality has been a part of American culture since the days of slavery. According to Tracey Maclin, a professor at the Boston University School of Law, racial profiling is an old concept. The historical roots “can be traced to a time in early American society when court officials permitted constables and ordinary citizens the right to ‘take up’ all black persons seen ‘gadding abroad’ without their master’s permission” (Meeks, p. 5). Although slavery is long since gone, the frequency in which racial profiling takes place remains the same. However, because of our advanced electronic media, this issue has been brought to the American public’s attention.
For the past few years there has been an ongoing debate surrounding the issue of racial profiling. The act of racial profiling may rest on the assumption that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to commit crimes than any individual of other races or ethnicities. Both David Cole in the article "The Color of Justice" and William in the article "Road Rage" take stance on this issue and argue against it in order to make humanity aware of how erroneous it is to judge people without evidence. Although Cole and William were very successful in matters of showing situations and qualitative information about racial profiling in their articles, both of them fail at some points.
"The Reality of Racial Profiling." CivilRights.org. The Leadership Conference, 22 08 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2014. .
The police are there to protect and serve the community. Racial profiling has prevented police from serving all the community, because in their minds it has been segregated. This has often been disregarded while in reality, racial profiling has corrupted society’s perception of groups of people, especially in law enforcement. On our nation's highways, police ostensibly looking for thugs and criminals routinely stop drivers based on the color of their skin. This practice is so common that the minority community has given it the derisive term, "driving while black" – a play on the real offense of "driving while intoxicated."
This essay will bring to light the problem of racial profiling in the police force and propose the eradication of any discrimination.
Before any argument can be made against racial profiling, it is important to understand what racial profiling is. The American Civil Liberties Union, defines racial profiling as "the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin"(Racial Profiling: Definition). Using this definition we can determine that racial profiling excludes any evidence of wrong-doing and relies solely on the characteristics listed above. We can also see that racial profiling is different from criminal profiling, which uses evidence of wrong-doing and facts which can include information obtained from outside sources and evidence gathered from investigation. Based on these definitions, I will show that racial profiling is unfair and ineffective because it relies on stereotyping, encourages discrimination, and in many cases can be circumvented.
The issue of racial profiling in America is one of great importance to the future of American society. This issue fairly new, in terms of being recognized is old in its ways. Racism and stereotyping are issues that date back to many years ago. Racial profiling in America is on that needs to be addressed by the government and society if we ever want America to truly be, "The Land of The Free." One of the main examples of racial profiling is called DWB (Driving While Black). This is a suspicious. Many of the cases I read it seems that the officers did not act with training but with suspicion and that has caused the deaths of many innocent people. The last step I think is to for law enforcement to gain t...
Even the United States struggles with issues of racial discrimination despite being a society highly based on immigrants and multicultural diversity. On one hand, people frown on treatment based on race, whether that is on an individual or group level. On the other, people are tired and annoyed by the seemingly constant call of discrimination. All of these feelings culminate into the debate pertaining to the use of racial profiling. Likewise, there are some individuals that hold a certain level of acceptance in regard to racial profiling. However, what is lost in the process because of that acceptance? There are many components that need to be thought about in reference to the use of racial profiling. In addition, it can be viewed from varying perspectives, such as through the use of statistics, by looking at social norms and taking into account moral/ethical values. Although racial profiling has been denounced, its use has continued to come up repeatedly. Furthermore, it is very apparent that certain circumstances cause the use concept of racial profiling to resurface.
Racial profiling consists of innocent, those chosen because of their skin color and guilty citizens that are being unjustly targeted by law enforcement because of their race and /or ethnicity. Mainly Blacks, Hispanics, and people of color within the minority communities are targeted for such harassment by law enforcement. However, race is the key factor for racial profiling by police, which is unfair on so many levels that people of color are processed differently than white youths within the system. Racial bias, disparity, and racial profiling are considered as a violation of citizens’ rights, that started long before it was actually recognized as a violation, and taking place within the Juvenile Justice and Criminal System. Due to the
Everyday people are pulled over for speeding, and broken tail lights, but does it become an issue when law enforcement start pulling people over for no reason. Racial Profiling, while sometimes used inappropriately, can sometimes be a good thing because it can help cut down on illegal immigrants, drug trafficking, and help prevent terrorism. Many issues arise regarding legal immigrants and non-legal immigrants in quiet neighborhoods nationwide. Racial profiling has been increasing for many years, from the 1500’s up to present time.