Racial Profiling Problems

688 Words2 Pages

The NIJ website clearly defines racial profiling and it also explains how some officers might have the tendency of creating a specific “profile” based on characteristics other than behavior. In other words, officers might have the temptation to believe that only a specific group of people will commit most of the crimes in a certain area. For instance, in some urban vicinities there is a vast majority of minorities and officers might start to stereotype erroneously. Officers might find that when making arrests the suspects are predominantly black or Hispanic or any characteristic that is not related to the crime committed. Consequently, racial profiling in law enforcement practices can trigger several issues and concerns with the community (NJI, 2013).
Problems can be easily identified as some agencies have had to face investigations and lawsuits due to civil rights violations. Racial profiling problems can cause a negative effect by deteriorating the dynamic relation between police and the community …show more content…

Of course, finding a resolution to this dilemma is not an easy task. Meanwhile, research has confirmed that black drivers are more likely to be stopped by a traffic officer than a white driver. Unfortunately, quite a few factors affect the ability to measure traffic stops data correctly such as a differences in driving patterns which means that representation of minority drivers can vary depending on location. Secondly, the differences in exposure to the police mean that minority drivers live where there is higher police patrol and could be the basis for discrimination. Thirdly, the differences in offending refer to the fact that research reflects that a minority group has a higher or lower tendency to commit a certain type of violation. All these factors can influence officers in a way that cause biased and discriminatory assumptions (NJI,

Show More
Related

  • Pros And Cons Of Stop And Frisk

    1514 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling in Today's Society

    1740 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Race-Based Traffic Stops in the US

    1225 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine driving home, on a pleasant evening, after a tedious day at work. Just as you are about to arrive to your neighborhood, you notice blue and red flashing lights and pull over. It seems the police officer has no reason for stopping you, except to search your vehicle because of your suspiciously perceived skin tone. This unnecessary traffic stop, designed for people of colored skin, happens on numerous occasions and has been termed Driving While Black or Brown. Racial profiling is the act of using race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed a crime.

    Read More

  • Racial Disparity in the Correctional Population

    2356 Words  | 5 Pages

    One discriminating practice used by police officers is racial profiling. This is the police practice of stopping, questioning, and searching potential criminal suspects in vehicles or on the street based solely on their racial appearance (Human Rights Watch, 2000). This type of profiling has contributed to racially disproportionate drug arrests, as well as, arrests for other crimes. It makes sense that the more individuals police stop, question and search, the more people they will find with reason for arrest. So, if the majority of these types of stop and frisk searches are done on a certain race then it makes sense that tha...

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling: Is it Intentional? Can We Correct it?

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...e odds of being searched were 50% higher for black drivers and 42% higher for Hispanic drives than for white drivers. These actions took place despite a finding that white drivers were more likely than minority drivers to be carrying contraband. (p. 78)

    Read More

  • An Argument Against Racial Profiling by Police

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racial profiling in the dictionary is “the assumption of criminality among ethnic groups: the alleged policy of some police to attribute criminal intentions to members of some ethnic groups and to stop and question them in disproportionate numbers without probable cause (“Racial Profiling”).” In other words racial profiling is making assumptions that certain individuals are more likely to be involved in misconduct or criminal activity based on that individual’s race or ethnicity. Racial profiling propels a brutalizing message to citizens of the United States that they are pre-judged by the color of their skin rather than who they are and this then leads to assumptions of ruthlessness inside the American criminal justice system. With race-based assumptions in the law enforcement system a “lose-lose” situation is created due to America’s diverse democracy and destroys the ability to keep the criminal justice system just and fair. Although most police officers perform their duties with fairness, honor, and dedication, the few officers who portray to be biased then harm the whole justice system resulting in the general public stereotyping every law enforcement officer as a racial profiler (Fact Sheet Racial Profiling). When thinking about racial profiling many people automatically think it happens only to blacks but sadly this is mistaken for far more ethnic groups and races such as Jews, Muslims, Mexicans, Native Americans, and many more are racially profiled on a day to day basis. Many people believe racial profiling to be a myth because they see it as police officers merely taking precautions of preventing a crime before it happens, but in reality racial profiling has just become an approved term for discrimination and unjust actio...

    Read More

  • Laws Affecting Minority Groups

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    Choudhury and Fenwick (2011) argue that as a result of increased policing and stop and searches, more members of minorities are subjected to prejudice and discriminatory views from law enforcement which has heightend distrust amonst minorities with the police force as laws are seen as being unlawfully implicated amongst members of their minority group as a result of their race of religious

    Read More

  • Minorities and Policing

    382 Words  | 1 Pages

    Minorities and Policing: Unfairly Treated If we look at the past, we can see that there is no warm tradition of community cooperation between the African-American community and law enforcement. Minorities and Policing is an important topic because it deals with issues pertaining to how minorities are treated by the police. Racial profiling and social injustice are important areas when dealing with unfair treatment of minorities. 1.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling by Police in Canada

    2887 Words  | 6 Pages

    The key to understanding racialized profiling is to understand what systemic discrimination and profiling mean. Systemic discrimination sometimes called systemic racism is defined as, “Patterns and practices… which, although they may not be intended to disadvantage any group, can have the effect of disadvantaging or permitting discrimination against… racial minorities” (Comack, 2012, p30). Profiling in policing is defined as,

    Read More

  • racial profiling

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    Racial Profiling can happen to anyone, anywhere such as the streets, in the airports, or even just walking home. Racial profiling and the media influence an individual’s perspective on a trial. Racial Profiling is using someone’s race or ethnic background as suspicion for committing a crime. Evidence from past trials dating back to 1920s Sacco and Vanzetti trial to George Zimmerman’s trial in 2013 prove that racial profiling has existed for nearly a century. According to the article “The Quiet Racism in the Zimmerman Trial” by Steven Mazie, he states

    Read More

  • An Argument Against Racial Profiling

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many studies and case reports involving racial profiling, particularly racial profiling issues involving traffic stop and seizures. In a study done of reports on the stop-and-searches done on Interstate 95 in Maryland, it was found that 28.4 percent of black drivers and passengers and 28.8 percent of white drivers and passengers stopped were found with illegal contraband. (U.S. Department of Justice) The disparity between the two statistics is a mere .4 percent and shows that race is not an issue. Further reading into the seventy one page report written by the U.S. Department of Justice sho...

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many instances of racial profiling occur in reaction to specific crimes, making any racial or cultural groups are usually subjected to more intensive scrutiny by the authorities than others groups. The biggest two groups that are mainly affect by racial profiling are the African American and Hispanics. While other groups are also targets they are not as common as the ones in cases of African American. In certain phrases like “Driving while black” and “driving while Indian” comes from complaining that cops are pulling them over for no reason at all. “It affects groups such as Native Americans, Latin Americans, Arabs, Muslims, Asians, and others.” (Gale) Most of these groups have said there are not only targeted by driving, they are also targeted by performing simple tasks that we all do in everyday lives. Some examples of this where a police office has is an African American man standing on a corner waiting for a bus is stopped and questioned regarding why he is standing there and where he is going . Another example of this would be where a police a store clerk will stop a group of Hispanics accusing them of shoplifting. Hispanics and Muslims are suspected to immigration violations or ever worst terrorist. All these things lead into a powerful and sometime regretful aftermath of a

    Read More

  • Racial Profiling and Stereotypes

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Racial tension has been a part of America ever since the Civil War. Today we have a different issue with race, which is called racial profiling. Over the years, the relationship between the police and community of color has gone bitterly racial profiling. America’s society today tends to be tainted by racial profiling and stereotypes. These issues can have great effects on our society.

    Read More

  • Racial Profiiling In The Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling

    1645 Words  | 4 Pages

    The justice system is in place in America to protect its citizens, however in the case of blacks and some other minorities there are some practices that promote unfairness or wrongful doing towards these groups. Racial profiling is amongst these practices. In cases such as drug trafficking and other criminal acts, minorities have been picked out as the main culprits based off of skin color. In the article “Counterpoint: The Case Against Profiling” it recognizes racial profiling as a problem in America and states, “[In order to maintain national security] law-enforcement officers have detained members of minority groups in vehicles more than whites”…. “these officers assume that minorities commit more drug offenses, which is not the case” (Fauchon). In relationship to law enforcement there has also been many cases of police brutality leaving young blacks brutally injured, and even dead in recent years, cases such as Michael Brown, Dontre Hamilton, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, and Freddy Gray just to name a few. Many of these young men were unarmed, and the police involved had no good justification for such excess force. They were seen as threats primarily because of their skin color. Despite the fact this nation is trying to attain security, inversely they are weakening bonds between many of its

    Read More

  • An Argument Against Racial Profiling by Police

    831 Words  | 2 Pages

    This essay will bring to light the problem of racial profiling in the police force and propose the eradication of any discrimination.

    Read More

More about Racial Profiling Problems

Open Document