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Profiling in law enforcement
Racial profiling and perceptions
Racial profiling and perceptions
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Recommended: Profiling in law enforcement
Profiling came into the public eye with the debut of the popular show Criminal Minds which has been renewed for a tenth season. According to Lilienfeld et al. (2014) practitioners use information derived from patterns of crimes to determine the motives and personality traits of the offender. Law enforcement has used profiling techniques for the last thirty years but little empirical scientific research has been conducted on the validity of actual techniques used by profilers. Most articles are instead, discussion pieces about the perception of profiling within the law enforcement field. In this paper, I am examining two studies which focus on the perception of profiling by members of the law enforcement profession.
Richard N. Kocsis, with other authors, conducted a number of studies about perceptions about profiling. In an early 2004 study, in which police offers were subjects, he discovered bias. One of the study criteria involved the profile used in the study as either being generated by a professional or non-professional profiler. The identity of the author did not appear to influence the officers' opinion regarding the usefulness of the profile but did affect the perceptions of the accuracy of the profile. Two reasons were given for this. One of these, professional loyalty, causes the officers to give more weight to the work of a fellow professional as opposed to that of an outsider. The second reason relates to the beliefs of the officers regarding profiling. This phenomena has been labelled as the P. T. Barnum effect which also notes the tendency of people to positively interpret vague material presented in a positive manner such as horoscopes and personality tests (Lilienfeld et al. 2014).
In the later study, Kocsis a...
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...paper submitted in 2008, calls for the burden of proof to be borne by those in the field who claim that profiling is a legitimate science and that claims must be scientifically tested for validity (Snook et al. 2008).
REFERENCES
Bennell, C., Jones, N., Taylor, P., Snook, B. (2006). Validities and abilities in criminal profiling: a critique of the studies conducted by Richard Kocsis and his colleagues. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 50, 344-360.
Snook, B., Cullen, R., Taylor, P., Gendreau, P. (2008). The criminal profiling illusion: what's behind the smoke and mirrors. Criminal Justice and Behaviour. 35, 1257-1271.
Torres, A., Boccaccini, M., Miller, H. (2006). Perceptions of the validity and utility of crimianl profiling among forensic psychologists and psychiatrists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. 37, 51-58.
Wortley S., Tanner J. (2003). Data, Denials, and Confusion: The Racial Profiling Debate in Toronto. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 45(3), 367-389.
Hickey, T. J. (2010). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology, 9th Edition. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
There is dispute regarding what defines racial profiling. Critics ask Is it racist, or is a necessary part of law enforcement. Racial profiling is identified by Adele Cassola in her article as unjust whereas Denyse Coles argues that racial profiling is necessary and is not considered racism. According to the Ontario Human Rights Commission “Racial profiling is based on stereotypical assumptions because of one’s race, colour, ethnicity, etc.” whereas criminal profiling “relies on actual behaviour or on information about suspected activity by someone who meets the description of a specific individual” (Facts Sheet, para 2). This definition is also shared by Casola but Coles considers them as the same. It is important to separate fact from feelings when discussing racial profiling; stereotypes are offensive, however identifying one’s race in a criminal profile does not make one racist.
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...
police then look for a suspect who might possibly have committed it. Profiling means that a suspect is discovered and the police then look for a crime for the person to have possibly committed” (Tator & Henry, 2003, p3).
Schneier, Bruce. "Will Profiling Make a Difference?" 2010. New York Times: Room for Debate. Web. 18 June 2015.
In the article “What are the Causes and Effects of Racial Profiling,” the interviews imply that most police officers think that racial profiling means they stop a vehicle or pedestrian solely based on the race or color. In other words, as long as racial or color is not the only base, it is not called racial profiling (“Heal the Street Race”). Most police officers also think that racial profiling is not a widespread problem. They believe that it is only caused by a “few bad apples.” In addition, there is another phrase called biased profiling which officers believe to be more common. They explain that every person has his own preference and methods, so some personal bias is inevitable during investigation. On the other hand, most victims do not think in this way, since African Americans define racial profiling differently. They state that, as long as race or color becomes a factor, they are treated unfairly, because race or color can’t indicate anything related to crime. As a result, the absent of a comprehensive understanding about racial profiling prevents people from really solving the problem. Each side of the argument will have a feeling that they are the real innocent people. And at the same time, racial profiling will keep
Understanding Crime: Theory and Practice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishers. Woodham, J., & Toye, K. (2007). Empirical Tests of Assumption of Case Linkages & Offender’s profiling with Commercial Robbery.
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.
This type of criminal profiling is quick, accurate, and easy. But, it is the opposite in real life. People in today’s society believe that actual crime solving is as easy as it is in Hollywood while in reality it takes weeks, maybe even months, for criminal profilers to narrow the suspects down to one person. On reality shows, every case is solved within the forty-five plus minutes of every episode. These unrealistic events set people up for a lot of confusion. These shows don’t go into much detail on how they solve these crimes and catch the “bad guys” you just know that they put some papers in machines and somehow have a database containing the faces of hundreds to thousands of people. This type of database does not even exist yet. Though progress is being made, there is no piece of machinery that can pinpoint the face of any person of your choosing. So, knowing this, it seems quite difficult to grasp the thought that these crime shows would ever be able to get any actual work done because without these “machines” that they use on their shows, they would be unable to catch their “guy” as quickly and easily as they do. Therefore, criminal profiling would be known as a boring and dragging event that most people would not be interested in were it not for the exaggerations applied to the processes that occur in the “crime-fighting, inspired countless movies, television shows, and best-selling thrillers.” Our reality is distorted by the media, causing people to believe some of the craziest things. Along with over-exaggerating reality, society has set standards and stereotypes that many people
Racial profiling occurs when a police officer uses a “profile” as reasonable suspicion to stop a person with the intent to obtain consent to search their belongings (Pollock, 2010). These stops are usually traffic stops and the officer is looking to obtain consent to search the individual’s automobile. The “profile” used is based on race. In these cases, an officer is using their discretion to target minority groups because they believe they are involved in criminal activities...
Muller, Damon A. "Criminal Profiling ." Homicide Studies 4.3 (2000): 234-364. Web. 9 Apr 2011.
In the past few years, racial profiling has become a very prominent issue in American society. In “Racial Profiling,” “Racial Profiling is a controversial and illegal discriminatory practice in which individuals are targeted for suspicion of crimes based on their ethnicity, race, or religion rather than on evidence-based suspicious behavior” (Para. 11). Many people are wronged because of this phenomenon and effects many of them in multiple ways. Racial profiling is effecting many people and it needs to be addressed.
Winerman, L. (2004). Criminal profiling: The reality behind the myth. Monitor on psychology, 35(7), Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug04/criminal.aspx
A large misconception of criminal investigative analysis is that there is a difference between profiling and criminal investigative analysis. Criminal Investigative Analysis is the same tool as criminal profiling and there is no true difference. A survey was done by Torres and the survey consisted of a couple of questions about profiling and about criminal investigative analysis asked to mental health professionals with profiling knowledge. The following table contains the results from the