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Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
Racial Discrimination in the Criminal Justice System
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The Use of Criminal Profiling
The most famous serial killers were at one point free and had the opportunity to do what they wanted to do. Ted Bundy for example killed over 30 people, The Atlanta Child Murderers killed 29 people almost all children, and the Green River Killer committed somewhere between 48 to 90 murders. All were eventually caught with forensics, but if police used criminal profiling it might have help catch them sooner. Teten and Patrick Mullany are the first two who have profiled difficult criminal cases. Teten’s first investigation was a woman who was stabbed in her home. He looked at the documents and the crime scene and came up with a profile that fit the description of the actual killer. Mullany and Patrick were
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soon a pair and taught classes on how to do this technique and were called on to help with new cases to catch killers. Both look at personalities, backgrounds, and behaviors along with their modus operandi, MO the reason why offenders do what they do, and their signature, something the offender took or left that is unique to them. Law enforcement should have some profiling training because it helps investigators solve crimes; people may think, but it is not the same as racial profiling; and it helps people feel safer. To begin with, criminal profiling is another available tool for law enforcement to use and have. It is just another way for them to get ahead of offenders before there is a repeat of their the crime. Criminal profiler Pete Klismet was once asked if it worked all the time his answer “No, it doesn’t. But I was never wrong” (Pompia). Klismet was able to help in many cases and even after he retired law enforcement still wants him to consult on cases. People think that profiles are something that lead law enforcement directly to the person who committed the crime, but that is not what it is. The profile is to help narrow down the search for maybe ten people to five by using their characteristics, backgrounds, childhoods, and more contributing factors. An example of a case where profiling was used is in the mad bomber case. George Metesky, the mad bomber, went around and set 30 bombs frustrating NYPD investigators. Unable to catch him NYPD asked James Brussel, a mental hygienist, to study the notes collected by the officers and the available crime scenes. He used psychological ideas about paranoia, which peaks at around age 35 and the first bomb was set 16 years ago, so he concluded that he would be in his 50s. He predicted him to be self-educated, living in Connecticut, unmarried, and that because the first bomb was the target of a power company, that he had a vendetta against that company. His profile led investigators right to the mad bombers door because he was interviewed and people were able to recognize the profile (Winerman, 66). Profiles are meant to be a general outline that can be used to catch him or her before another crime is committed, it may not always work, but nothing has a 100% success rate. Next, contrary to popular belief criminal profiling and racial profiling are two different concepts.
Racial profiling is accusing someone because of their race and criminal profiling uses race, but it is not the deciding factor. When there is an investigation and there is a witness saying he was attacked by a white fat guy with brown hair investigators are not looking for a black guy to just pin it on. In 2000 a Bradford police officer was questioned in court about his profile. The defense was saying that he targeted his client because of race. The officer gave the profile he came up with of the house; high electric consumption, large heat loss, vacated appearance, and the culprits were all of the same race. He had profiled the house to be a grow house. The judge accepted the criminal profile and believed that the arrest was not racially motivated (Criminal Profiling versus Racial Profiling). This shows that criminal profiles are useable in court and an explanation for an arrest. The profile is proof that while race may be a factor there is more to the profile than that. Police work in an ethnically diverse departments and communities and if they aren’t comfortable with it, maybe reconsider that career choice. Law enforcement needs to know when to use race as part of the profile and when the profile is useable without having race
involved. One last reason why law enforcement should use profiles is it can help communities and surrounding areas feel safer knowing what the offender might look or act like and what their preferences are. The profile can tell people who the offender might target such as blonds or brunettes; petite or athletic; tall or short. This way the people who may be a target can protect themselves and people who aren’t a target can feel a little safer. The profile should also have what the transgressor is like. How offenders might act, jobs they may have, or even the area they may live in. It is helpful to narrow down the suspect pool for the people so they don’t have to look over their shoulders every few minutes thinking that the criminal is everywhere. It helps the police because now those same people know who law enforcement is looking for and citizens may recognize the person described. This helps the police catch them and the people feel safer. The community is a great way for the police to know what's going on in the area. Police cannot be everywhere at once they are a limited resource. This way the community members are the eyes and ears of what is going on. People are able to help where the police may be in another area. Now all areas of the community are safer because someone may see something that the police missed. Opposing views think that profiling is biased and not effective. They believe that the information used is an outdated and flawed psychological theory. They think that studying offenders that have already been caught means that their psychological reasons for doing what they did aren’t the same as offenders that are free. That it is cognitive errors and mistaking correlation for causation (Karlsson). The issue with this is by studying past offenders it is easier to catch offenders now. No two will be the same, but similar crimes have certain similarities that are similar in the offenders that can be classified for those offenders. Serial Killers all have something in common in the way they think and so do rapists, bomber, or any other offender with similar crimes. That is how criminal profilers are able to categorize them. Some say that the way profilers categorized are not valid typologies. They say it is not possible to classify killers as organized or disorganized or rapist as power-assertive, power-assurance, or anger-retaliatory (Karlsson). These are the ways that profilers describe a crime and the offender together not one or another. Finally, law enforcement can do what profilers can do without the training. This is somewhat true because with years of experience law enforcement can judge or profile offenders and crimes. They are essentially doing the same thing, but profilers are able to go just a little bit more indepth description of the offender and the crime. Experienced law enforcement is able to pick up on things, but a few years into the job is not enough experience to accurately profile offenders. Profiling is a new way to help catch criminals and people don’t like change, so they try to find problems that can slow down the investigation instead of speed it up. While some feel it is bias and outdated, law enforcement officers should have some training for criminal profiling. This tool can help catch criminals all over the United States and the world in general. Police can use this not as a way to racially segregate people, but to catch criminals and make people feel safer in their homes and communities. Lets help keep everybody a little bit safer and have our law enforcement officers get at least minimal training in profiling. Even if it is new it is effective and everyone can benefit from experienced profilers. Law enforcement can always use new ways to catch criminals and profiling is just another tool for their disposal.
Our criminal justice book defines racial profiling as "any police initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than the behavior of an individual, or on information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being, or having been, engaged in criminal activity” (Schmalleger 757). I think it is best summed up as the practice of using race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion as the primary factor in deciding who to subject to law enforcement investigations. Racial profiling can be used as a basis for racist police officers to arrest more minorities and this is documented very often. In the article Jim Crow policing, Bob Herbert talks about the unnecessary frisking and racism connected to searching for potential criminals. Herbert makes several points as to why police are harassing the black and Latino population and how it is wrong.
First of all, racial profiling is unfair to its victims . Racial profiling is seen through the police in “Hounding the Innocent”, which is unfair since a person shouldn’t be pulled over more because of their race and that many of these stops have little to no connection to an actual crime. “Young black and Hispanic males are being stopped, frisked, and harassed in breathtaking numbers” (Herbert, 29) This is unfair to all victims of racial
Opponents will argue that racial profiling is based on suspicious behavior and not on race. They feel as though racial profiling can potentially stop certain crimes befor...
When police stop someone of a minority because they fit the profile of suspect people become outraged and say that the officer was racially profiling. White argues that profiling based on statistical evidence is an effective way to save time, money and sometimes lives. Many people feel the opposite of White and say that profiling is a way to harass minorities and make them feel unequal in the land of the free. Many people that are pro-profiling say that it happens in almost everything we do, from applying to college to interview for a job. Even shop owners profile so why can’t the police department profile when they are trying to keep the city streets safe. The individuals against profiling say that it targets minorities in order to make them feel out of
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 is a wide spread term in the American justice system today, but what does it really mean? Is racial profiling just a term cooked up by criminals looking for a way to get out of trouble and have a scapegoat for their crimes? Is it really occurring in our justice system, and if so is it done intentionally? Most importantly, if racial profiling exists what steps do we take to correct it? The answer to these questions are almost impossible to find, racial profiling is one of many things within our justice system that can be disputed from any angle and has no clear cut answers. All that can be done is to study it from different views and sources and come up with one’s own conclusion on the issue.
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...
Racial profiling is simply this, the color or race of a person while making a decision regarding that person. Usually when being racially profiled you are automatically marked as the worst example of your race. It is amazing the amount of things that a person can make up about your race. Most of the things they say are not true at all. You can't just say, “well all black people carry guns and eat chicken and watermelon.” You're racially profiling this person because of what you've observed among other black people. In this case, this is just morally wrong. Despite color a person of any creed can carry a gun, eat chicken, and watermelon. This statement would make you look completely idiotic...
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,
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.
Just what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is a law enforcement and security agency practice that encourages officers to stop, search, and investigate people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. While racial profiling is most commonly committed against ethnic minorities, many instances of racial profiling occur in reaction to specific crimes, making any racial or cultural group subject to more intensive scrutiny by the authorities. This is what I think about racial profiling, as it occurs when the police target someone for investigation on the basis of that person's race, national origin, or ethnicity. Examples are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic violations and the use of race to determine which motorists or pedestrians to search for contraband.
Racial profiling has been a common controversy between law enforcement and communities, specifically those of a minority population. This activity has been ultimately allowed by federal and state governments as they benefit from the aid in pinpointing or otherwise targeting criminals or illegal aliens. Furthermore, racial profiling has become more of a commonly encountered practice especially after the September 11 attacks.
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
The process of using behavioral evidence left at a crime scene to make inferences about the offender, including inferences about personality characteristics and psychopathology is called criminal profiling. Around the country, several agencies rely on the minds of criminal psychologists to lead them in the right direction to finding the correct offender. Criminal profiling provides investigators with knowledge of the appearance and behavior of a potential criminal.
Racial profiling is a negative action in the nation. In which many people across the country have experienced this sort of treatment leaving a demoralizing effect on the citizens. Racial profiling is an act of discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual 's race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.This in which acts on a terrible and negative impact to the society. Race as we know it has such a powerful contribution of the person people are that it can have life or death consequences. A person should not be judged due to their appearance.