racial profiling essay introduction

Racial Profiling Essay: Outline, Examples, & Writing Tips

Racial profiling is not uncommon. It’s incredibly offensive and unfair behavior that causes most of the protests in support of people of color. It occurs when people are suspected of committing a crime based on their skin color or ethnicity.

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Unfortunately, most people are unaware that racial profiling is an everyday phenomenon that harms both the victims and society. Therefore, it’s crucial that we highlight this issue in as many ways as possible. One of the options is expressing your opinion through writing. A racial profiling essay can be inspiring and persuasive. All the power is in your hands, so let’s figure out how to use it! Keep reading this guide made by Custom-writing.org experts.

The article contains a writing guide, a collection of racial profiling essay topics, ideas, and examples, as well as the tips on making a racial profiling essay outline. We hope that it will inspire you to make an A+ argumentative racial profiling essay or even a persuasive speech on the topic!

🤔 What Is a Racial Profiling Essay about?

• 📑 Making an Outline
• 👌 Writing Tips

📝 Racial Profiling Essay Examples

🔗 references.

There is more than one objective for writing a racial profiling essay. First of all, it can be as simple as expressing your feelings about it. For example, you might consider pointing out how unfair and unjustified those actions are. Moreover, if you’re a law student, you should definitely back up those conclusions with the extractions from the Constitution.

You can then focus on describing the impact it has on society, which makes a fantastic cause and effect essay. There are so many more topic ideas, but if you’re feeling stuck, go ahead to the article’s next sections!

Argumentative Racial Profiling Essay

To write a successful argumentative racial profiling essay, you need to focus on investigating the topic to express your perspective later. Every statement you include in the main body of the writing should be supported by evidence. The essential part of such an essay is a clear thesis statement! And if you struggle to come up with a good one yourself, you can get help from a thesis statement generator online .

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Persuasive Racial Profiling Essay

Unlike the type discussed above, a persuasive racial profiling essay should aim to convince your readers that your point of view is the only correct one. Instead of just presenting your point of view, you need to gather the most convincing facts that can influence your audience. It requires expertise in the topic of racial profiling.

Racial Profiling Essay Topics

Looking for a racial profiling essay topic ? Find a short and sweet topic collection below.

• The impact of racial profiling on the US society. For this essay, you would need to study how citizens react to racial profiling. You might also include some statistics from the previous years.
• Present your point of view on the issue of racial profiling. If you ever faced it yourself, your reflective essay would be even more powerful! Include as much evidence as you can. 
• Racial profiling: are African Americans overreacting? Someone feels like people might be taking this issue too personally. Therefore, you should provide strong arguments to point out how discriminating those actions are.
• Accepting racial profiling as a common practice. Express your opinion on this topic. Do you think police should be legally allowed to practice racial profiling? Why would it be a violation of rights?
• Racial profiling from a psychological perspective. Try to analyze this occurrence as if you were a professional psychologist. What do you think makes law enforcement act this way?
• Does racism impact the US immigration?
• Discuss the definition and origins of racial profiling.  
• Analyze the aim and values of the Black Life Matter movement.
• Racial stereotypes in Disney films.
• Examine the problem of workplace racism.  
• How can racism in medicine be eliminated?  
• What is the colorblind racism?  
• Describe your personal experience of racism .
• Compare the ways South Africa and the US are handling racism.  
• The goals of the Black Lives Matter movement.
• Explain why racism is a persistent problem in modern society.
• Explore the concept of racial profiling in the “war on drugs.”
• Childhood under the racist laws of apartheid in Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime .
• Discuss the effect of racism on child development .
• Is there a racial disparity gap in healthcare?
• Describe the problems racism causes in American schools.  
• How does racism affect modern society?
• Racial stereotypes in music video .
• The pros and cons of racial profiling in the airports.
• Describe the specifics of colorblind racism .
• Discuss the possible solutions of racial profiling problem.
• Terrorist attacs in 9/11, hate crimes, and racial profiling. 
• Is institutionalized racism a real problem or a myth?  
• Racial and ethnical prejudices in breast cancer treatment.  
• Examine the cases of racism against healthcare workers and their consequences.
• Analyze the impact of racism on globalization .
• Describe and characterize the main types of modern racism .
• Racial profiling of minority groups in the US. 
• Is racial discrimination issue completely eliminated from American society?
• Evaluate the racial inequalities in the US judicial system.  
• Describe how race relations are represented in Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward .
• Analyze the difference between individual and institutional racism.  
• Investigation of the history of racism in The Case for Reparations by Coates. 
• Is racial profiling a discrimination or a necessary evil? 
• Ways of dealing with racism in American education .
• Examine the history of racial stereotypes in the US.
• Explain why racial profiling is a violation of human rights.
• Catastrophic consequences of discrimination and racial prejudice in the film A Soldier’s Story .
• Racism as a global issue.  
• Discuss the causes and effects of racism in America. 
• What can be done to resolve the problem of racism at interactional level ?
• Analyze the issue of racial profiling of drivers.
• Describe the problem of racism and discrimination from the perspective of social psychology.
• Discuss the methods of solving the problem of policing racism .
• Examine the cases of racism in social work environment. 

📑 Racial Profiling Essay Outline

Whichever type of racial profiling essay you choose to work on, the basic writing strategy remains the same. After you pick up the suitable title and finish your research, it’s time to reorganize the main ideas. The best way to do it is to create a racial profiling essay outline that serves as a foundation for your future essay.

There are three elements that any essay must have:

• Introduction

The main body should have at least three paragraphs in which you present your arguments supported by evidence.

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Racial Profiling Essay Introduction

It is a good idea to start your essay with a hook – a statement that aims to grab your reader’s attention. In your racial profiling essay introduction, you could use some impressive statistics that illustrate the problem of racial discrimination or describe a real-life situation.

At this stage, it’s also essential that you think about composing a racial profiling thesis statement . It goes as the last sentence of the introduction and becomes the focal point of your whole writing. The thesis statement includes your opinion and a short description of your arguments.

Racial Profiling Essay Conclusion

In conclusion, you should summarize your arguments and paraphrase your racial profiling thesis statement. It is also a good idea to add some information about the most important findings. This way, your essay would be both informative and persuasive.

👌 Racial Profiling Essay: Writing Tips

Let us remind you of some basic rules you should stick to while writing:

• Introduce your position on the problem and, at least, three major points in the thesis statement of your racial profiling essay.
• Gather enough facts and pieces of evidence to support your points.
• Do not forget to study the arguments of the opposing side.

Before you get down to writing your essay on racial profiling, try to answer the following questions:

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• When did racial profiling start?
• Why does it happen?
• What consequences does it lead to?

Try to find some statistical data to include in your essay on racial profiling. Be careful with sources and information. The point is that racial profiling is unconstitutional, which is why you will not find official data, something like police reports, etc. Thus, use only credible online and printed sources when writing your papers on racial profiling.

There is also a way to show your creativity in the essay on racial profiling. You may play the devil advocate’s role and support it in the paper on racial profiling. We are sure this unusual approach will impress your teacher!

Below you’ll find links to 3 racial profiling essay examples. We hope that they will inspire you to write an A+ paper on racism and discrimination.

The modern globalized society provides numerous opportunities for improved communication and increased mutual understanding. However, there are still such problems as discrimination on the basis of ethnicity, mentality, sex, or gender, biased attitudes to some minorities, and widespread stereotypical thinking.

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The system of racism entails degrading and harmful actions and beliefs that are implemented and expressed by both groups of people. Racism over the years has been one of the reasons behind poverty and lack of access to social mobility in the United States.

Racial identity and racial socialization are proposed to promote the improvement of African American adolescents in the aspect of race-related difficulties. Current studies pointed out that discrimination is a condition that has harmful effects on the mental health of African Americans.

So, good luck with your papers on racial profiling! Do not hesitate to visit our blog if you have trouble with terrorism essays or any other written assignment.

• Racial Profiling: Definition | American Civil Liberties Union
• This is why everyday racial profiling is so dangerous – CNN
• Racial profiling – AP News
• Racial profiling: Germany debating police methods – DW
• Psychology responds to racial profiling
• Racial Profiling – Equal Justice Initiative
• Racial Profiling: Past, Present, and Future?
• Racial profiling | Independent
• Racial Profiling – University of Michigan Law School
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17 Racial Profiling

Robin S. Engel, School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati

Derek Cohen is a Doctoral Student at the University of Cincinnati.

• Published: 01 April 2014
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The use of the term “racial profiling” gained popularity in the mid-1990s and originally referred to the reliance on race as an explicit criterion in “profiles” of offenders that some police organizations issued to guide police officer decision making. This essay traces the evolution of racial profiling, both in terms of terminology and police practice, from the “War on Drugs” in the 1980s to present day. The essay highlights changes in policies, legislation, litigation, and data collection across the country as mechanisms to control the use of racial profiling, particularly in terms of stops and stop outcomes (e.g., citations, arrests, searches, and seizures). It also critiques the research methods and statistical analyses often used by researchers who conduct studies of the prevalence, causes, and consequences of racially biased policing. The essay concludes by issuing a new call to action for future research in the area of racial profiling. Rather than seeking incremental improvements in data collection and methodology, this essay argues for a fundamental reconceptualization of research on race and policing.

T he history of race and policing in the United States is long and troubled. For centuries, the police in America were used as instruments of the state to enforce discriminatory laws and uphold the status quo of the time ( Richardson 1974 ; Monkonen 1981). The discriminatory treatment by police of minorities—and blacks in particular—was reflective of a socially unjust and biased society ( Kerner Commission 1968 ). While the systematic targeting and biased treatment endured by minorities at the hands of American police has been well documented ( Williams and Murphy 1990 ), significant progress has been made in the last several decades toward equity and legitimacy in American policing ( Walker 2003 ; Warren and Tomaskovic-Devey 2009 ; Bayley and Nixon 2010 ). Nevertheless, the legacy that this troubled past brings to modern policing bears repeating. A current concern in American society remains the use of race or ethnicity by police as reason for some form of coercive action. This police practice—often referred to as racial profiling—is widely recognized by politicians, the public, and even the police themselves as inherently problematic. Yet reducing this problem to a single term—racial profiling—simultaneously reduces the nuances surrounding the multifaceted and complicated issues regarding police, race, and crime in America.

In this essay, we first begin with a brief historical overview of the ground previously traveled as it relates to policing, race, and research. In our discussion, we note the historical application of racially-biased police practices as a result of policies arising from the “War on Drugs” in the 1980s. Thereafter we describe the use and definition of the term “racial profiling” and trace the resulting changes in policies, legislation, litigation, and data collection across the country. The changes in data collection in particular resulted in the development of a body of research designed specifically to determine racial/ethnic disparities in police treatment during pedestrian and traffic stops. We summarize this body of research, including a focus on stops and stop outcomes (e.g., citations, arrests, searches, and seizures), and offer a critique of the research methods and statistical analyses often used by researchers. Finally, we issue a new call to action for future research in the area of racial profiling. Rather than seeking incremental improvements in data collection and methodology, we argue for a fundamental reconceptualization of research on race and policing. While we note that this essay is predominately focused on the experiences and research surrounding one racial group (blacks) within one country (United States), it is widely applicable to other minority groups within the United States, as well as minority groups within other countries. Indeed, it seems that the core components of the American story of racial bias, policing, and research is widely generalizable across cultures.

This essay represents a broad examination of racial profiling in the United States, both from historical and contemporary perspectives. Section 17.1 of the essay describes the history of racial profiling, as it was originally developed as a tactic to detect and apprehend drug couriers along the I-95 corridor of the Eastern Seaboard. Section 17.1 also describes the initial efforts to collect data on racial profiling, as well as identifying the evolving definition of the term. Section 17.2 reviews the literature on racially-biased policing starting with the classic ethnographic work that first identified issues related to race and policing; it then examines the more recent empirical evidence on the extent to which racial and ethnic disparities have appeared evident during vehicle and pedestrian stops, citation outcomes, and searches and seizure. Section 17.3 offers a new collective research agenda to help us begin to determine if the observed racial disparities in stops, citations, and searches and seizures amounts to racial/ethnic bias and discrimination. That section also draws some conclusions as to the state of the science on racially-biased policing.

A number of conclusions can be drawn:

Despite large-scale data collection efforts, the extent of racially-biased policing in the United States remains largely unknown

Despite calls from researchers to reform institutional practices, increase accountability and supervision, and engage in better data collection, the evidence regarding the actual impact of such recommendations on racially-biased policing is nearly non-existent.

While many agencies can readily identify racial/ethnic disparities, they often cannot detect bias, and further cannot determine why these disparities exist or how to effectively reduce them.

As police agencies continue to promote and advance practices that have demonstrated effectiveness (e.g., hot spots and other types of focused policing strategies), it is likely that racial/ethnic disparities in stops and stop outcomes will continue or perhaps even increase based on differential offending patterns and saturation patrols in predominately minority areas.

More, and better, research is necessary if we are serious about both the role of science in policing and the need to reduce racial/ethnic bias in policing.

17.1 History of Racial Profiling

While the troubled history of race and policing in the United States is lengthy and complex, a more recent focus on racial profiling emerged in the last two decades. The use of the term “racial profiling” gained popularity in the mid-1990s and originally referred to the use of race as an explicit criterion in “profiles” of offenders that some police organizations issued to guide police officer decision-making ( Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2001 ; Harris 2006 ). These profiles were used as part of a larger strategy for the “War on Drugs” from the 1980s and 1990s that led to dramatic changes in criminal justice strategies nationally, including the aggressive targeting of drug offenders at the street level and increased rates of incarceration and sentence length ( Scalia 2001 ; Harris 2006 ; Tonry 2011 ). Racial profiling specifically referred to criminal interdiction practices based on drug-courier profiles that were identified and provided to law enforcement officers through federal, state, and local law enforcement training. As part of police efforts to interdict drug trafficking on the nation’s highways, police agencies developed guidelines or “profiles” to help officers identify characteristics of drug couriers that could be used to target drivers and vehicles. This training sometimes identified subjects’ race and ethnicity as part of a larger “profile” of drug courier activity. The focus of this training was on Interstate highways on the East Coast, particularly around the I-95 corridor that linked Miami, Florida with cities and drug distribution points in the major mid-Atlantic and Northeastern cities ( Harris 1999 ; Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ). Based on this profile, police would make pretextual stops ( Whren v. U.S. , 517 U.S. 806 [1996]) and attempt to establish a legal basis to search for contraband.

Another police tactic resulting from the “War on Drugs” was the increased use of pedestrian stops, along with stop and frisk tactics ( Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 [1968]) to maximize the number of police-citizen encounters with individuals believed to be involved in criminal behavior. These targeted enforcement strategies were especially felt by young minority males, who were disproportionately subject to police surveillance and imprisonment for drug offenses ( Kennedy 1997 ; Walker 2001 ; Harris 2002 ; Tonry 2011 ). The controversy surrounding the aggressive use of traffic and pedestrian stops by police still exists today ( Fagan 2004 ; Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss 2007 ; Ridgeway and MacDonald 2009 ).

17.1.1 The Rise of Data Collection

High-profile litigation efforts in the states of New Jersey ( New Jersey v. Soto , 734 A.2d 350 [1996]) and Maryland ( Wilkins v. Maryland State Police , MJG 93-468 [1993]) alleging racial profiling by law enforcement agencies brought a discussion of these practices to the forefront of American public debate ( GAO 2000 ; Buerger and Farrell 2002 ; Harris 2002 ). Based on the notoriety and successful litigation involving these claims of racial profiling, the public, media, and politicians began to exert pressure on law enforcement to address perceived racial/ethnic bias, particularly as related to traffic stops ( Walker 2001 ; Barlow and Barlow 2002 ; Novak 2004 ). As a result of this pressure, law enforcement agencies and politicians across the country began erecting policies and legislation designed to “eliminate” racial profiling practices by local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies ( Harris 2002 , 2006 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ). These policies were often focused on traffic stops and included mandates to collect data regarding driver and passenger demographics from every traffic stop (regardless of disposition). The data collection efforts originally designed to uncover racial/ethnic disparities in vehicle stops were initiated by litigation, legislative mandate, and proactive action by law enforcement agencies to address community concerns ( Ramirez, McDevitt, and Farrell 2000 ; Davis 2001 ; Davis, Gillis, and Foster 2001 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Cherkauskas 2010 ). As noted by Tillyer et al. (2010) , by 2009, thirty-nine states had passed some form of legislation regarding racial profiling. Specifically, eleven states enacted legislation that prohibited racial profiling, five states mandated traffic-stop data collection, and twelve states both prohibited racial profiling and mandated data collection, while eight states had bills under consideration and three states had other forms of racial profiling policies.

The heavy focus on data collection during traffic stops was based in part on the original definition of racial profiling, but also because of the recognition that traffic stops are the most frequently occurring type of police-citizen interaction and can be initiated for a wide variety of reasons including legal violations, departmental policy requirements, and officer discretion ( Skolnick 1966 ; Walker 2001 ; Meehan and Ponder 2002 ; Alpert, MacDonald, and Dunham 2005 ). Analyses of the Police Public Contact Survey demonstrate that of the 19 percent of citizens surveyed who reported having some form of contact with police, the majority of these citizens (56 percent) indicated that contact occurred as the result of a traffic stop ( Durose, Schmitt, and Langan 2007 ). In addition, police officers have wide and often unfettered discretion when determining when to initiate traffic stops and the outcomes that motorists receive as a result of those stops ( Wilson 1968 ; Ramirez, McDevitt, and Farrell 2000 ; Lundman and Kaufmann 2003 ; Engel and Calnon 2004b ; Novak 2004 ; Engel 2005 ).

When initial claims of racial profiling during traffic stops were leveled against police, it was clear that law enforcement agencies across the country were poorly prepared to demonstrate, document, or defend their current practices. Quite simply, most law enforcement agencies did not routinely collect information about all motorists who were stopped by police, nor did they collect basic demographic information about those who were stopped (including race/ethnicity) ( Ramirez, McDevitt, and Farrell 2000 ). While many agencies did routinely collect information about citations and arrests, this information could not be compared to the population of all motorists stopped by police that did not result in further official action. Likewise, the population of drivers “eligible” to be stopped for traffic violations was also unknown. Described as the “benchmark” problem, the need to compare traffic stops to those eligible to be stopped created a new stream of research across the country ( Walker 2001 ; Engel and Calnon 2004b ). Unfortunately, as noted in more detail below, over two decades of subsequent research produced very little, as the benchmark problem has never been adequately addressed by the research community.

17.1.2 Defining Racial Profiling

The initial narrow focus on “racial profiling” did not adequately address a much larger issue in American police-community relations. Specifically, claims of inappropriate police targeting of minorities for purposes of enhanced criminal apprehension and punishment have been recognized throughout American history. While the term “racial profiling” referred directly to the specific policies and practices in the 1990s of targeting minorities traveling on interstates for increased scrutiny to obtain drug seizures, concerns of racial bias and illegitimate practices by police have existed for many decades. Therefore, researchers recognized the need to broaden the conversation by calling for examinations of all forms of police bias. A more comprehensive definition allowed policy makers, practitioners, and academics to better focus on issues of racial bias beyond drug profiles during traffic stops.

As noted by Fridell and Scott (2005) the term racial profiling has evolved over time. Despite the rather narrow definition of profiling that began with policing drug trafficking, the growing public consensus became that any and all decisions made by officers based solely or partially on the race of the suspect were considered racial profiling. It was this change from a narrowly defined term of profiling to an all-encompassing term that led Fridell et al. (2001) to first introduce the new term. They argued that some past definitions of profiling may have been too restrictive, focusing exclusively on “sole” reliance on race. They noted that police decision making is rarely based on any sole factor, including race. Furthermore, in focus groups with citizens and police officers, Fridell et al. (2001) noted that citizens defined profiling as encompassing any and all demonstrations of racial bias in policing and viewed it as widespread. On the other hand, for police officers “profiling” connoted only the narrow definition of sole reliance on race; therefore, they viewed it as a much rarer occurrence. The differing definitions of profiling led to defensiveness and frustration as the two groups talked past each other, thus the development of the new term, racially biased policing, which Fridell and her colleagues defined as follows: “Racially biased policing occurs when law enforcement inappropriately considers race or ethnicity in deciding with whom and how to intervene in an enforcement capacity.”

As noted by Engel (2008) , economists and other academics have identified two different types of police racial/ethnic bias: 1) “taste discrimination” or “disparate treatment” and 2) “statistical discrimination” or “disparate impact” ( Becker 1957 ; Arrow 1973 ). The difference between these two concepts is based on the individual intentions of police officers—in the former, racial/ethnic discrimination is the direct result of intentional police bias, while in the later, racial/ethnic discrimination is the result of factors other than individual police bias (i.e., deployment patterns, differences based on deployment patterns, offending behavior, etc.) ( Knowles, Perisco, and Todd 2001 ; Ayres 2002 , 2005 ; Persico and Castleman 2005 ). Accurately measuring and classifying these two general types of police bias, however, have proved difficult for researchers. A summary of the evidence regarding racially biased policing is reviewed below.

17.2 The Evidence

Initial systematic research of the police began in the 1950s when a few ethnographic studies reported the realities of policing and the use of discretion. These studies described police agencies and culture (e.g., Wilson 1968 ; Van Maanen 1974 ; Reiss 1983 ; Manning 1997 ); police-citizen encounters (e.g., Skolnick 1966 ; Reiss 1971 ; Muir 1977 ); and the use of coercive power during interactions, particularly with minorities (e.g., Westley 1953 , 1970 ; Skolnick 1966 ; Bayley and Mendelsohn 1969 ; Bittner 1970 ). From this beginning, a body of research emerged that exposed issues surrounding racial bias, abuse of force, corruption, and poor police-community relations ( Bernard and Engel 2001 ). Much of this work was informed by an implicit assumptions that police decision making was inherently biased and exposure of these practices was necessary for reform. Given the tenor of the times, these assumptions are hardly surprising. More importantly, these assumptions created a lasting legacy that is seldom directly challenged in current studies of police decision making.

Over time, a more quantitative body of research developed that examined coercive outcomes of police-citizen encounters (i.e., citations, arrests, use of force) and whether citizens’ characteristics influenced these outcomes. This research evolved from simple bivariate comparisons of police decisions and citizen characteristics (e.g., Pivilian and Briar 1964 ; Black and Reiss 1970 ; Black 1971 ), to the use of multivariate statistical techniques designed to explore the effects of extra-legal factors on police decision making, after controlling for legal factors (e.g., Smith and Visher 1981 ; Smith, Visher, and Davidson 1984 ; Worden 1989 ; Klinger 1994 ; Mastrofski et al. 2000 ). The body of research that emerged compared the impact of legal to extra-legal factors, including the effect of race on police decision making ( Sherman 1980 ; Riksheim and Chermak 1993 ; National Research Council 2004 ).

Although researchers made significant methodological and statistical advances from the 1970s through the 1990s, the actual research questions being asked remained relatively constant. With only a handful of exceptions, this work focused on police decisions to use specific coercive sanctions, including citations, arrests, and use of force. The focus of this research was to determine whether police used their considerable discretion in a morally defensible manner. Summary reviews of this body of research generally indicate that despite differences in measures and methods, a majority of the studies demonstrate legal factors have the largest impact over police behavior ( Gottfredson and Gottfredson 1988 ; Riksheim and Chermak 1993 ; Klinger 1994 ; National Research Council 2004 ). Research has also demonstrated that to a lesser extent, some extra-legal factors impact officer decision making even when legal factors are controlled for; in particular, citizen demographics (including race/ethnicity) have been identified as correlated with some coercive outcomes ( Riksheim and Chermak 1993 ; National Research Council 2004 ).

Based on this larger literature examining police behavior, a growing area of more narrowly focused research has emerged in the last two decades to inform our understanding of “racial profiling” during traffic stops in particular. This research considers stop and search practices (e.g., Fagan and Davies 2000 ; Gould and Mastrofski 2004 ; Alpert, MacDonald, and Dunham 2005 ; Warren and Tomaskovic-Devey 2009 ), and more nuanced decision making points, including the development and interpretation of cues of suspicion ( Alpert, MacDonald, and Dunham 2005 ), and decisions to patrol certain areas ( Tomaskovic-Devey, Mason, and Zingraff 2004 ).

Traffic stop research generally examines two types of police decision making situations: 1) the decision to initiate a traffic stop, and 2) the resolution/disposition of that traffic stop ( Ramirez, McDevitt, and Farrell 2000 ; Smith and Alpert 2002 ). However, given the inherent methodological limitations of examining racial disparities in stop decisions, recent research has focused nearly exclusively on identifying and explaining racial/ethnic disparities in traffic stop outcomes ( Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ; Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). The findings and limitations of research on stops and post-stop outcomes are reviewed in greater detail below.

17.2.1 Traffic and Pedestrian Stops

Initial research examining racial profiling relied on the use of traffic stop studies to determine racial/ethnic disparities in officers’ decisions to stop motorists. These initial studies reported differences in aggregate rates of stops across racial groups and often interpreted these disparities as evidence of racial discrimination (e.g., Lamberth 1994 , 1997 ). After these initial studies, dozens of published studies and agency reports followed that reported the degree to which police agencies over-stop minority drivers, relative to white drivers ( Fridell 2004 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ). Over time, however, researchers were more careful to note that while these studies demonstrated racial/ethnic disparities in traffic stops, it could not be determined if these disparities actually represented racial bias by police. Researchers lacked the ability to determine why disparities existed. Rather, researchers focused on establishing a standard basis for determining that particular demographic groups were overrepresented in police stops, by comparing the percentage of drivers of a particular racial/ethnic group to the percentage that are expected to be stopped assuming no bias (i.e., a benchmark) ( Zingraff et al. 2000 ; Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ; McMahon et al. 2002 ; Smith and Alpert 2002 ; Fridell 2004 ; Rojek, Rosenfeld, and Decker 2004 ; Schafer, Carter, and Katz-Bannister 2004 ; Gaines 2006 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ).

Benchmark comparisons represent researchers’ attempts to isolate race as an explanatory factor for disparity in traffic stops from the driving quality explanation and other possible alternative factors, including driving quantity, driving location, time of travel, etc. ( Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ). However, this approach has considerable limitations, the most important of which is the inability to identify and measure a scientifically valid benchmark for comparison purpose ( Walker 2001 ; Engel and Calnon 2004a ; Fridell 2004 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ; Ridgeway and MacDonald 2009 ). In this effort to rule out factors other than racial discrimination in traffic stop research, social scientists utilized several different data sources to measure comparison groups, some of which were readily available and others that involved initiating new data collection. The most common types of benchmark data include: Residential Census populations, “adjusted” Census populations, official accident data, DMV records of licensed drivers, citizen surveys, internal departmental comparisons, observations of roadway usage, and assessments of traffic violating behavior (for review, see Fridell et al. 2001 ; Walker 2001 ; Engel and Calnon 2004a ; Fridell 2004 ). Each type of data has strengths and limitations as a representative measure of motorists at risk of being stopped by police. Importantly, no benchmark data has demonstrated the ability to adequately measure all the risk factors associated with the likelihood of being stopped and no consensus exists regarding which benchmarks are the most accurate ( Engel and Calnon 2004b ).

Early studies into disparate stop practices often used census data and other official records as the relevant denominator. For example, Verniero and Zoubek (1999) sought to uncover racial bias in the state of New Jersey by comparing the percentage of minority motorists stopped compared to their percentage in the residential population or eligible driving population. Similar analyses were conducted using data from Cincinnati, Ohio ( Browning et al. 1994 ). Both studies reported that minority drivers constituted a greater proportion of stops compared to their representation in the residential population. Later studies marginally improved on this method by using the driving-eligible portion of the population. For example, in an analysis of traffic stops in Richmond, Virginia, Smith and Petrocelli (2001) found that when compared to the driving-eligible population minority motorists were overrepresented in the stop data, concluding that minority motorists were 46 percent more likely to be stopped than nonminority motorists. This finding was echoed by Meehan and Ponder (2002) ; using the alternative measure of observed roadway composition in a mostly-white suburban community, the authors found that the minority drivers were three times more likely to be stopped by the police. Disparities between driving population and stoppage rates were also observed when using spatially-weighted benchmark to account for confounding issues presented by cross-jurisdictional commuters ( Rojek, Rosenfeld, and Decker 2004 ). In an analysis of the greater St. Louis, Missouri area, the authors found concentrated areas of small instances of disparate stop practices, with blacks being more likely to be stopped, searched, and arrested than white and Hispanic motorists in the areas in which a relationship was found.

Disparity via a disproportionate share of stops has been observed in studies of the San Jose and Sacramento Police Departments’ traffic practices as well. During the period of study from July to September 1999, Hispanics represented 43 percent of motorists stopped by police while accounting for just 31 percent of San Jose’s population ( Withrow 2004 ). Similarly, using Census data as a benchmark Greenwald (2001) it was shown that during a one-year period black motorists were stopped by the Sacramento police at greater frequency than justified by their percentage in the general population.

Census data, however, are limited in their ability to measure alternative explanations of racial disparities including factors influencing drivers’ risk of being stopped (e.g., where and when they drive, frequency of driving, what and how they drive) ( Engel and Calnon 2004a ; Gaines 2006 ). The Census’ lack of measures of alternative explanatory factors, however, did not prevent some of the initial studies of traffic stops from prematurely interpreting disparity as discrimination and attributing racial disparities in stops and/or stop outcomes to unmeasured officers’ racial prejudice ( Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ). Most researchers in the field began to realize, however, that the hypothesis that police are racially biased in their stopping decisions is just one of numerous possible hypotheses or explanations for disparity in stops. Without measuring alternative explanatory factors, researchers cannot determine whether differences in traffic stops and stop outcomes reflect disparity or discrimination ( Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ).

One suggested reason for these reported racial disparities among stopped motorists is the use of traffic stops as a pretext for criminal or drug interdiction purposes. Some support has been found for this hypothesis in studies of suburban communities ( Meehan and Ponder 2002 ; Novak 2004 ), highlighting that while the correlation of race and the decision to stop is weak, minorities are more likely to be stopped at night and to reside in areas outside where the stop has taken place. This has given rise to a conflict theory-oriented explanation of police behavior (i.e., that police officers disproportionately target minorities when found outside of the areas where they typically reside or travel). Likewise, Petrocelli, Piquero, and Smith (2003) demonstrated that contextual variables, such as a neighborhood’s percentage of black and UCR Part I crime rate, influence the number of stops performed in the area. Subsequently, searches of black suspects in these high-search areas resulted in fewer arrests or summons being issued. This general trend has been shown in self-reported data sources as well. A telephone survey of licensed drivers in North Carolina illustrated differential practices between the local police departments and the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP). The decision of local police officers to issue tickets is related to driver age, race, and traffic history, while NCSHP ticketing decisions were driven both by legal factors (i.e., speeding) as well as quasi-legal factors (i.e., driver age and homeownership status) ( Warren et al. 2006 ; Miller 2008 ). Similar (though insignificant) disparities were found by Gaines (2006) in Riverside, California. Reviewing all traffic stops made in 2003, the author established that stops made by traffic units showed no evidence of racial bias, while stops made by patrol and investigative units exhibited slight, statistically insignificant bias. Further, Gaines found that that the stop data correlated strongly with race variables found in neighborhood crime data and received police reports.

Similar findings have been observed in studies of pedestrian stops as well. Using internal benchmarking (i.e., comparing the decisions of one officer to others similarly assigned; Walker 2001 ), Ridgeway and MacDonald (2009) developed a statistical method for identifying potentially problematic officers. These officers were more likely to stop black and Hispanic pedestrians, net of situational characteristics, compared to officers in similar assignments. Of the 2,756 officers whose approximately 500,000 cumulative stops were analyzed, the authors identified only 15 officers (0.54 percent) as significantly more likely to stop minority pedestrians. A multilevel analysis of pedestrian stops in New York City revealed similar patterns. Fagan (2004) found that after controlling arrest rates by race, black and Hispanic pedestrians were stopped more often than white pedestrians. This may be attributable to zero-tolerance policing strategies, the application of which was found to be driven more by neighborhood characteristics including poverty rate, racial makeup, and social disorganization ( Fagan and Davies 2000 ).

Rojek, Rosenfeld, and Decker (2004) sought to correct the problems using Census data as a benchmark by spatially weighting motorists by their residential proximity to the various municipalities under analysis. This was believed to account for the fact that motorists spend more time driving in and around their own neighborhoods, and that race effects could be seen as spurious if observed in a majority-white neighborhood where a disproportionate number of minorities are stopped should that neighborhood abut majority-nonwhite neighborhoods.

Researchers have also developed benchmarks through the use of self-reported citizen surveys. General and purposive surveys have been used in both creating a more accurate composite of individuals’ driving practices as well as recording the nuances of their interaction with the police (e.g., Lundman and Kaufman 2003 ; Miller 2008 ). Citizen surveys offer researchers the benefit of circumnavigating official data collection protocols and observational reports that may fail to capture key variables (such as perceived cause for the stop or officer demeanor) or erroneously categorize the demographic information of the stopped motorist. However, survey response data is prone to errors in recollection, desirability bias, and false reporting ( Engel and Calnon 2004a ).

A shared problem of these various benchmarks, however, is that they do not account for possible racial variations in driving behavior. For example, the differential offending hypothesis holds that certain racial groups may drive more frequently, more aggressively, or in locations with more police presence, and are therefore more likely to attract the attention of law enforcement. The literature offers measured support for this hypothesis; several studies have shown that certain minority subgroups are likely to engage in aggressive driving behaviors at a higher rate and to greater severity than white drivers ( Lange, Blackman, and Johnson 2001 ; Lange, Johnson, and Voas 2005 ; Tillyer and Engel 2012 ).

In summary, the available analyses of traffic stop data have rather consistently demonstrated racial disparities in stopping patterns ( Engel and Johnson 2006 ; Warren et al. 2006 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ). However, the methodological and analytical problems associated with this body of research are now widely recognized, including the inherent limitations associated with using benchmarks to determine racial disparities in vehicle stops ( Walker 2001 ; Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ; Engel and Calnon 2004a ; Fridell 2004 ; Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ; Ridgeway and MacDonald 2009 ). As a result, research emphasis shifted away from examining officers’ initial decisions to stop motorists and more toward officers’ decisions during the stop (e.g., issuing citations, making arrests, and conducting searches). The study of traffic stop outcomes allowed for the use of more robust analytical techniques including multivariate analysis ( Tillyer, Engel, and Wooldredge 2008 ).

17.2.2 Traffic and Pedestrian Stop Outcomes

Many researchers examining racial bias by police have reinvigorated the study of post-stop outcomes, including citations, arrests, and searches. This shift in focus may be due in part to the inherent methodological and statistical problems associated with examining racial disparities in traffic and pedestrian stops. Additionally, some have argued that racial/ethnic bias may be more likely to manifest itself after an initial stop is made and officers interact with citizens ( Ramirez, McDevitt, and Farrell 2000 ; Alpert et al. 2006 ). As noted previously, research examining arrests dominated the policing literature in the 1970s and 1980s. Academics interested in examining racial profiling simply applied the widely used statistical techniques of multivariate regression modeling used in previous examinations of systematic social observation data to current studies using traffic and pedestrian stop data.

17.2.2.1 Citations and Arrests

Rather than focusing on stop or search decisions, the earliest exploration of racially-biased police practices examined the effect of race in the issuance of formal sanctions, such as citations and arrests. The evidence generated regarding the impact of drivers’ race over the likelihood of citations has been mixed. While most studies have reported that drivers’ race has a significant impact over citations, the direction of these reported findings have been both positive and negative ( Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). While some studies have demonstrated that minority drivers were more likely to be cited compared to whites ( Smith et al. 2003 ; Engel, Cherkauskas, and Tillyer 2007 ; Ingram 2007 ), other research suggests that black drivers were less likely to be cited ( Alpert Group 2004 ; Engel et al. 2007 ; Lovrich, et al. 2007 ; Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). These results also varied across racial groups. For example, Alpert et al. (2006) reported that Hispanics, Asian, and Native American drivers were more likely to be cited, while black drivers were less likely to be cited, compared to whites. As a result, there appears to be little consistency regarding the reported influence of race/ethnicity over the likelihood of being issued citations during traffic stops. As concerned in the context of possible police bias, this mixed evidence correlates with differing hypotheses regarding the likely direction of the effect ( Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). Some have suggested that minorities are more likely to be cited once stopped as a form of enhanced punishment. Others have suggested that minorities may be more likely than whites to be stopped as a pretext for criminal interdiction purposes, and then are released with a warning.

Studies examining the impact of race on arrests during traffic and pedestrian stops have been slightly more consistent. Tillyer and Engel (2012) reported that most traffic stop studies found that minority drivers were between 1.5 and 2.6 times more likely to be arrested compared to similarly situated white drivers ( Smith and Petrocelli 2001 ; Withrow 2004 ; Alpert et al., 2006 ). A few studies, however, have reported no racial disparities in arrest (e.g., Alpert Group 2004 ; Engel et al. 2006 ; Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). Other studies suggest that arrest decisions are impacted by both citizen and officer race. For example, Brown and Frank’s (2006) analysis of police-citizen encounters in Cincinnati, Ohio found that after controlling for characteristics of the officer and citizen along with contextual effects, black officers were more likely to arrest black citizens, while white officers are equally likely to arrest both black and white citizens.

In sum, the body of science surrounding racially-biased policing is generally seen as inconclusive ( National Research Council 2004 ). Most recently however, in a meta-analysis of 40 arrest studies using 23 different datasets, Kochel, Wilson, and Mastrofski (2011) systematically computed an effect size for the effect of race in arrest decisions net of offense severity, demeanor, intoxication, and other factors. The researchers reported “with confidence that the results are not mixed. Race matters.” This declaration was based on observed effect sizes ranging from 1.32 to 1.52 (498). The study concluded that blacks were 30 percent more likely be arrested compared to whites, even after controlling for other factors. The authors noted that although previous policing experts have described the collective research findings as “mixed” regarding the effects of race (e.g., Riksheim and Chermak 1993 ; National Research Council 2004 ; Rosich 2007 ), their comprehensive review of the available research, however, is necessarily limited by the quality of the individual studies reviewed. Due to the nature of meta-analysis as a technique, the quality of the meta-analytic results is based on the quality of the individual studies included in the meta-analysis ( Gendreau and Smith 2007 ). Further, their analyses cannot systematically explain why, how, and when race matters in arrest decisions, only that it does.

Specific to traffic and pedestrian stops, the research available generally shows an inconsistent impact of race over the likelihood of issued citations. In contrast, the impact of race over the likelihood of arrest during traffic and pedestrian stops appears to be more consistent, demonstrating racial disparities in arrest decisions. Further, the bulk of the available research demonstrates that minorities (and especially blacks) continue to be arrested at much higher rates than their representation in the general population (Engel and Swartz, forthcoming). Whether this disparity is the result of police bias, however, remains a point of contention throughout the research community.

17.2.2.2 Searches and Seizures

Beyond the decision to stop a minority motorist, racial profiling could potentially manifest itself in officers’ decisions to search. While extant Fourth Amendment precedent limits the utility of contraband discovered outside of reasonable or warranted searches, officers may seek consent to search an individual’s person, effects, or automobile. The relationship between race and search likelihood has been observed across a multitude of jurisdictions, using qualitative and quantitative analyses on both official and unofficial data sources. The bulk of scholarship examining traffic searches suggests that minority motorists are more likely to be searched compared with other racial groups ( Rojek, Rosenfeld, and Decker 2004 ; Withrow 2004 ; Engel and Johnson 2006 ; Roh and Robinson 2009 ; cf. Smith and Petrocelli 2001 ; Paoline and Terrill 2005 ; Schafer et al. 2006 ).

Engel and Johnson’s (2006) review of agency reports from twelve different state highway police/patrol agencies demonstrated consistently higher rates of minority searches compared to white drivers stopped for traffic offenses. For example, using data from the Washington State Patrol, Pickerell, Mosher, and Pratt (2009) found that black and Hispanic drivers were more likely to be searched compared to white drivers, regardless of the reason for the search. Close and Mason’s (2007) examination of traffic stop data from the Florida Highway Patrol also showed that black and Hispanic drivers were more likely to be searched compared to white drivers, irrespective of the search type.

Examining interaction effects using college campus data, Moon and Corley (2007) found that black male students were more likely to be searched compared to their white counterparts. Based on results from propensity score matching, Ridgeway (2006) reported that black motorists were twice as likely as whites to be searched based on probable cause in Oakland, California. And most recently, Rojek, Rosenfeld, and Decker (2012) reported that young, black males were more likely to be searched compared to young white males during traffic stops in St. Louis, Missouri and Cincinnati, Ohio. Likewise, analyses of survey data from the Police Public Contact Survey indicated that younger drivers, male drivers, and minority drivers all reported higher rates of search compared with other drivers ( Engel and Calnon 2004a ). Similar racial disparities in search rates have been reported in survey and qualitative research ( Brunson 2007 ; Brunson and Weitzer 2009 ).

Despite these consistent findings, Tillyer, Klahm, and Engel (2012) identified several limitations of the analyses examining racial disparities in search rates. First, many studies did not separate mandatory from discretionary searches. Mandatory searches (e.g., searches incident to arrest, inventory searches, etc.) are required by departmental policy and should not be included in analyses designed to examine officer discretion. Second, as with other post-stop analyses, the statistical analyses of searches often are misspecified due to the omitted variable problem (cf. Mustard 2003 ; Gelman, Fagan, and Kiss 2007 ). Third, examinations of officer search behavior is often based on pooled variance models ( Lundman 2003 ; Alpert, Dunham, and Smith 2007 ; Moon and Corley 2007 ), without taking into account the nested nature of traffic stop data that requires the use of hierarchical models. Finally, as with studies of citations and arrests, research examining searches is often not guided by a theoretical framework necessary to understand the reasons for racial disparities in search rates ( Engel, Calnon, and Bernard 2002 ; Tomaskovic-Devey, Mason, and Zingraff 2004 ; Engel and Johnson 2006 ).

The current discussion regarding racial profiling has also shifted from examinations of stops, benchmarks, and search rates, to examinations of contraband seizures during searches. A “hit rate” commonly refers to the percentage of searches conducted by police that result in discoveries of contraband ( Engel 2008 ). In addition to criminologists and legal scholars, economists have entered the racial profiling debate by publishing articles using police vehicle and pedestrian stop, search and seizure data in an effort to determine racial and ethnic discrimination at the hands of the police. Specifically, economists have argued that a statistical comparison of search success rates can be used to distinguish between statistical discrimination and officer bias ( Knowles, Persico, and Todd 2001 ; Ayres 2002 ; Persico and Castleman 2005 ; Persico and Todd 2006 ). The economic perspective explicitly suggests that if one racial/ethnic group is found to be more involved in criminal activity, members of that racial/ethnic group should be subjected to increased police scrutiny in an effort to maximize police resources and increase the rates of discovering contraband. Therefore, under these economic principles, a difference in search rates across racial/ethnic groups is tolerable if the rates of recovering contraband across racial groups are statistically equivalent ( Knowles, Persico, and Todd 2001 ; Anwar and Fang 2006 ).

To identify racial/ethnic discrimination, the analytical strategy utilized is a statistical comparison of search outcomes across racial/ethnic groups, commonly referred to as the “outcome test” ( Ayres 2002 ). If the hit rates are different across racial/ethnic groups, economists argued this is evidence of discrimination ( Knowles, Persico and Todd 2001 ; Ayres 2002 ; Hernandez-Murillo and Knowles 2004 ; Persico and Castleman 2005 ; Anwar and Fang 2006 ; Persico and Todd 2006 ). Using the outcome test method, most studies have reported that first, minorities are more likely to be searched, and second, when searched, minorities are less likely to be found with contraband compared to whites. However, the use of the outcome test as a tool to determine police discrimination has been met with sharp criticism. As noted by criminologists and economists, many of the underlying assumptions required by the statistical model do not coincide with what is known about decision-making during police-citizen encounters, and further the underlying conditions necessary to support the outcome test cannot be met (Anwar and Fang 2004; Dharmapala and Ross 2004 ; Hernandez-Murillo and Knowles 2004 ; Engel 2008 ; Engel and Tillyer 2008 ; Antonovics and Knight 2009 ).

Nevertheless, the accumulating evidence that minorities are more likely to be searched, but less likely to be discovered with contraband begs the question why ? Why are minority citizens searched more frequently for discretionary reasons, but less frequently found to be carrying contraband? The outcome test assumes the response is officer bias, but there are many other potential contributing factors ( Engel 2008 ). Questioning why racial disparities exist demonstrates the severe limitation of this body of research—a nearly exclusive focus on outcome , rather than process . Studying the process of officer decision making is crucial to fully developing an understanding of the relationship between citizen race/ethnicity and police behavior. Unpacking and understanding the process of officer decision making is the next great challenge in understanding police discretion and is rooted in the existence of officer suspicion (e.g., Alpert Group 2004 ; Alpert, MacDonald, and Dunham 2005 ).

17.3 The Future

As noted above, the empirical body of evidence available has clearly demonstrated the routine existence of racial and ethnic disparities in stops, citations, arrests, and searches in police agencies across the country. What remains in debate, however, is whether these racial/ethnic disparities are indicative of officer bias. Unfortunately, our research methods and statistical analyses thus far cannot determine officers’ motivation and intent, and therefore cannot determine racial bias and discrimination. While researchers can identify patterns and trends of disparities, we cannot readily determine the causes of these disparities. This is, of course, a critical limitation of social scientific research in this area. And, as a result, our current research cannot readily assist police agencies with the difficult task of developing policies and procedures designed to reduce racial disparities.

In the majority of studies examining bias-based policing, academics typically acknowledge these limitations of their research designs and statistical techniques, while simultaneously noting the importance of their work as adding to the accumulating body of research. Academics then often advocate for more of the same types of research to continue this incremental advancement in knowledge. In contrast to these recommendations, we believe a significant departure from the existing line of research in this area is necessary to advance the field. It appears to us that the current research has exhausted its value, particularly to practitioners struggling to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in police outcomes. Incremental increases in knowledge based on analyses of new data from traffic stop studies, or slight changes in the measurement of variables in yet one more multivariate statistical equation used to model stops, citations, arrests, and searches will not address the overarching methodological limitations that plague this line of research. We agree with Piquero (2009, 376) that “there should be a high priority of focused theoretical and research efforts that use multiple methods to generate a careful description and understanding of police-citizen encounters, as well as the myriad of factors that influence both police and citizen decisions.” We further note that repeated application of the statistical technique du jour (e.g., outcome tests, propensity score matching, hierarchical linear modeling, etc.) also will not solve the underlying benchmark problem, nor will it address why racial/ethnic disparities persist despite multiple forms of police intervention. After over two decades of focused research on racial profiling, the research community is no closer to assisting practitioners in the reduction of racial/ethnic disparities than we were in the early 1990s.

While patterns of racial/ethnic disparities have been routinely identified and confirmed, research dedicated to understanding why these patterns exist has been limited. Despite the abundance of academic study devoted to this topic, researchers have limited theories to explain the mounting evidence of racial/ethnic disparities. Although some researchers developed partial theories to explain these disparities post hoc (e.g., Parker et al. 2004 ; Tomaskovic-Devey, Mason, and Zingraff 2004 ; Warren et al. 2006 ; Smith and Alpert 2007 ), these theories have not been adequately tested ( Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). As a result, researchers continue to struggle with determining why disparities exist in coercive outcomes during police-citizen encounters (Engel and Swartz, forthcoming).

Importantly, there is also little evidence available to suggest that the frequency of racial disparities have been reduced as a result of research efforts, or based on changes in police policies, procedures, and training. National estimates of the rates of police-citizen contacts with minorities have remained relatively stable over time ( Langan et al. 2001 ; Durose, Scmitt, and Langan 2005 , 2007 ), suggesting there have not been significant reductions in racial disparities despite years of attention by legislatures, police administrators, academics, and the public. The only other study attempting to examine this issue suffers from severe methodological constraints. Although Warren and Tomaskovic-Devey (2009) reported that racial disparities in hit rates decreased as a result of media attention and changes in legislation in North Carolina, they did not control for any other rival explanations—including changes in specific training, supervisory oversight, departmental policies, among many others—and further were unable to properly establish time ordering to demonstrate cause and effect (Piquero 2009). Therefore, despite this important first step forward taken by Warren and Tomaskovic-Devery (2009) in an attempt to address these issues, the impact of specific attempts to reduce officer bias remains untested.

Further, we believe that even using new statistical techniques in racial profiling research that are promising (e.g., Ridgeway and MacDonald 2010 ) will not result in significant progress until theories of police discretion grounded in the daily work of police officers are developed and applied to this research (Engel and Swartz, forthcoming). As clearly articulated by Piquero (2009, 372),

the science of racial profiling research rests on a weak data and knowledge base, and although there has been some important methodological/statistical progress, we are likely not yet in a position to reach definitively any strong set of conclusions concerning whether racial profiling exists (even if we can arrive at some working definition and operationalization of it) and most certainly which set of policies can diminish and/or eliminate the explicit/sole use of race/ethnicity in police decision making.

Therefore, the challenges that remain for both research and practice are considerable.

17.3.1 A New Research Agenda

It is based on this review of the state of research in bias-based policing that we call for new approaches and changes in our current research agenda. In short, we argue that it is time to advance research that will better aid practitioners interested in reducing racial/ethnic disparities. A similar argument was made fifteen years ago by Sherman (1998) when he advocated for the use of science to help the police find humane crime fighting practices rather than simply look for failures in policing. That Sherman felt compelled to justify the moral soundness of police crime reduction research illustrates how radical this idea was at the time. This also led to the changing of the core research questions that were being asked by prominent researchers in the field and promoted the evidence-based movement in policing ( Weisburd and Neyroud 2011 ). In the same vein, we argue that rather than continually documenting racial/ethnic disparities in police stops and stop outcomes (e.g., citations, arrests, searches), academics should pursue and advance research specifically designed to reduce racial/ethnic disparities in police decision making and then test the results. How do we know, for example, that the changes in police policies, procedures, and training recommended by researchers have any impact on police behavior? Police agencies across the country spent millions of dollars on changes to policies and training designed to eliminate racial profiling—has it had an impact? The research community has been silent on these critical issues. Many academics, private companies, former practitioners, etc. provide training for police agencies to reduce racial profiling; yet are these trainings effective?

The research questions that must be addressed are: (1) why racial disparities persist in the outcomes of police-citizen encounters, and (2) what works to reduce these disparities. To address these questions, we propose the advancement of a research agenda that includes the implementation of stronger research designs, greater use of mixed methods and qualitative research, and increased use of panel-wave and longitudinal data.

First, the selection of strong research designs is critical, though the selection of the appropriate design should be guided by the questions asked rather than simply relying on external standards. The considerable advances in police effectiveness research, compared to racial profiling research, is due in part to the use of strong quasi-experimental designs, and when appropriate, randomized controlled trials. There is no reason these designs cannot be applied to study the impact of policies, procedures, and training on racial bias. The type of research proposed might include pre- or post-tests of the impact of different policies, procedures, and training implemented by police agencies, or even quasi-experimental designs where some officers, units, etc. are provided specialized training and others are not. Changes in officers’ attitudes, levels of racial disparities in stops, post-stop outcome measures, and citizens’ perceptions could all be measured outcomes. This is not to suggest that other research designs have no value. To the contrary, many important topics cannot be examined with randomized controlled trials or even strong quasi-experiments. But to say that there is a place for all systematic methods is not to say that any method can be fruitfully applied to any question, or that all research methods are created equal. Concerns over police discrimination against minorities can be, and must be, translated into falsifiable and therefore testable hypotheses.

Moreover, research has demonstrated that citizens’ experiences during police-citizen encounters significantly influence their attitudes toward law enforcement ( Brandl, Frank, Worden, and Bynum 1994 ; Weitzer and Tuch 2004 , 2005 ; Engel 2005 ). Given that citizens’ contact with police is most likely to occur as the result of a traffic stop ( Durose, Schmitt, and Langan 2007 ), coupled with the impact that these contacts have on the formation of citizen attitudes, perceptions of racial/ethnic disparities within this context could seriously undermine police legitimacy ( Tillyer and Engel 2012 ). Therefore, researchers might also focus on testing the impact of particular focused policing strategies on citizens’ perceptions of racial bias and police legitimacy. Additionally, police research that examines effectiveness (often measured as reductions in crime) might also include measures of changes in disparate outcomes as an indicator of success. In short, we argue that our collective research agenda should be expanded to focus on research that will assist in the reduction of racial/ethnic disparities, and increases in legitimacy and transparency in policing (e.g., Weitzer and Tuch 2004 , 2005 ; Tyler 2006 ) rather than simply continuing to document racial/ethnic disparities in stops and stop outcomes.

Second, prior to the development of testable interventions, studies of police bias will inevitably rely on non-experimental approaches. But to better understand racial bias, we clearly need to better use mixed method and qualitative examinations of police decision making. In this regard, direct observation of the police, their decision making, and their interactions with the public is critical. Some promising research in this area includes rich qualitative work (e.g., Kennedy 1997 ; Brunson and Miller 2006 ; Brunson and Stewart 2006 ; Engel et al. 2007 ) that helps provide context and may stimulate further theoretical development. This work successfully expands the initial research questions asked in the biased-based policing literature to incorporate police legitimacy research.

It should now be clear to the research community that black box evaluations and secondary data analyses without detailed descriptions of the original data collection effort are seldom helpful. It is essential to capture information about the process so that practitioners can implement and researchers can replicate. For example, a recent study showed that police removal of homeless encampments may have lowered crime ( Berk and MacDonald 2010 ), but the results are unlikely to help policy makers because of inadequate descriptions of the intervention, outcomes, setting, and mechanisms ( Eck 2010 ). Further, this study led to uninformed speculations on the nature of the intervention ( White 2010 ), which in turn led police administrators to question “who will police the criminologists” ( Beck, Bratton, and Kelling 2011 ). Though this example comes from the police effectiveness literature, the same sort of problems exist in racial profiling research when secondary data sets are used and the researchers neither directly observed the police nor understand the details of how the data were collected, and consequently cannot sufficiently describe or understand police decision making.

Longitudinal studies, such as those using panel or time-series designs, show promise in addressing many of the methodological shortcomings found in the current body of research. Unfortunately, these types of data are very limited and attempts to compile an applicable dataset would introduce a host of measurement issues, as independent data sources vary widely. One promising research endeavor is the National Institute of Justice’s recently funded National Police Research Platform ( Rosenbaum, Schuck, and Cordner 2011 ). Providing researchers with longitudinal data on police practice will allow analyses to model the effects of changes in training protocol, workforce changes, and officer perception over time ( National Research Council 2004 ).

17.3.2 Conclusion

Fridell and Scott (2005) have suggested that police administrators need to be concerned about three ways that issues of police racial bias might manifest themselves: “Bad apple” officers, well-intentioned officers in need of guidance, and institutional practices or policies that might inadvertently contribute to the problem. Each involves different types of agency responses to identify and correct the problems. Fridell and Scott identified seven areas that police agencies can consider for responses to racially biased policing: (1) institutional practices and priorities; (2) accountability and supervision; (3) recruitment and hiring; (4) education and training; (5) minority community outreach; (6) policies prohibiting racially biased policing; and (7) data collection. Within each of these categories are a set of reasonable recommendations that, on their face, are believed to reduce police bias. Yet the evidence regarding the actual impact of these recommendations is nearly non-existent. A closer look at the available research surrounding these recommendations demonstrates that we are often operating in the dark. For example, only a handful of studies have considered the impact of recruitment, training, and education, on police behavior generally, and even fewer have focused specifically on reducing biased policing (e.g., Worden 1990 ; Sun 2002 ; Engel and Worden 2003 ). The same critique regarding the lack of evidence can be applied to each of the categories noted by Fridell and Scott (2005) .

Fridell and Scott concluded their article by arguing that “law enforcement has never been better situated to address these issues” (2005, 359) and that “the police are more capable than ever of effectively detecting and addressing police racial bias” (2005, 343). However, based on the lack of available evidence to guide practitioners, we are less optimistic at this stage. While many agencies can readily identify racial/ethnic disparities, they often cannot detect bias, and they further cannot determine why these disparities exist or how to effectively reduce them. Further, as police agencies continue to promote and advance practices that have demonstrated effectiveness (e.g., hot spots and other types of focused policing strategies), it is likely that racial/ethnic disparities in stops and stop outcomes will continue or perhaps even increase based on differential offending patterns and saturation patrols in predominately minority areas ( Engel, Smith, and Cullen 2012 ). This is not to suggest that Fridell and Scott’s identified categories to reduce police bias are inaccurate; we agree that these areas are ripe for reform and that changes in these areas have the potential to reduce racial bias in policing. Rather we argue that specific guidance based on social scientific evidence regarding the types of training, practices, recruitment, policies, supervision, education, etc. to reduce police bias currently does not exist. This is where, we believe, our research community should focus if we are serious about both the role of science in policing and the need to reduce racial/ethnic bias in policing.

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Free Racial Profiling Essay Example, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on May 25, 2018 May 25, 2018

A racial profiling essay may require a student, among other things, to discuss the origin, prevalence or effects of racial profiling in a given country. If you need help with history homework or need additional help, we have experienced and qualified history experts who specialize in subjects such as art history, European history and world history. Contact us today and get professional help.

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Here is a sample essay that discusses racial profiling in the United States.

Racial Profiling Essay Outline

Introduction.

Thesis: Racial profiling is not only morally and ethically wrong but also legally condemned in the American constitution.

Paragraph 1:

According to the United States Constitution, every American citizen regardless of their race have equal protection under the law and protected against any unreasonable searches and seizures.

• Racial profiling tends to create a form of alienation of specific groups from law enforcers, inhibits community policing efforts, and leads to a lack of trust of law enforcers among the general community who they are sworn to protect and serve.
• Racial profiling goes against the sworn duty of law enforcers of protect and serve all American citizens despite their religion, what they look like, or their religion.

Paragraph 2:

The issue of racial profiling affects different communities of color.

• One of the most affected group has been African-Americans who have had to endure more than two hundred years of slavery and more than ninety years of legalized racial segregation leading to systematic profiling of blacks.
• The most recent case was the one that involved George Floyd, an African-American who died in the hands of the police while being arrested.

Paragraph 3:

Noteworthy, the violent attacks often meted out on the blacks by the police cannot be related to any situation that the group faced in the past.

• Most of the time, blacks have protested by organizing peaceful demonstrations and attacking symbols of the state.
• The George Floyd’s case attracted mass protests and demonstrations across the entire United States.

Paragraph 4:

It is morally wrong to judge an individual based on their physical characteristics.

• According to experts, judging an individual based on their physical traits is a major factor of racial profiling.
• A group of Americans prescribe to the idea that racial profiling is an effective tool in safeguarding security and punishing illegality.
• Critics argue that racial profiling does more harm than good to the affected groups and cannot be a solution towards the problems facing the US.
• For instance, on the issue of illegal immigration, although racial profiling is considered a solution by many it cannot be a systematic solution to the crisis of porous borders.
• Racial profiling leads to production of a sense of exclusion, alienation and fear among the targeted groups.

Paragraph 5:

Racial profiling violates and ignores the foundation of the American spirit and rule of law.

• In a fundamental sense, racial profiling tends to consider a group of Americans as ’not fully Americans’ and puts them under a continuous trial.
• Racial profiling intensifies and despises people of color in many aspects of life where lawful American citizens who are legally Americans are considered as half Americans or aliens in their neighborhoods.

In summary, racial profiling is legally and ethically wrong. The American Constitution stipulates that every American citizen has equal rights regardless of their race, sex, gender, and nationality. Racial profiling goes against this stipulation by painting a specific group of people as potential enemies.

Free Racial Profiling Essay Example

In the 21st century, there is a common argument that the United States is going through a post-racial era. That is, the country is going through a period where it is free from racial segregation and all other ills that come with the vice. However, the issue of racial profiling has continued to be an enormous social stigma for a select few American nationals. Defined, racial profiling is a general phrase referring to the practice of suspecting or targeting people from a particular race on the basis of observed characteristics or behavior rather than on individual behavior. In spite of the claim that the U.S. is enjoying a post-racial era, racial profiling continues to occur. Racial profiling is not only morally and ethically wrong but also legally condemned by the American constitution.

According to the United States Constitution, every American citizen regardless of their race has equal protection under the law and is protected against any unreasonable searches and seizures. Inasmuch as racial profiling is largely ineffective, it tends to create some form of alienation of specific groups by law enforcers, inhibits community policing efforts, and leads to a lack of trust of law enforcers among the general society which they are sworn to protect and serve. It is without a doubt that a government through the police force has a general duty to protect citizens while promoting fairness and justice (Zack, 2015). However, practicing racial profiling goes against this sworn duty leading to fear among citizens who are condemned due to what they look like, their origins, or the religions they subscribe to among others.

The issue of racial profiling affects different communities of color. One of the most affected groups has been African-Americans who have had to endure more than two hundred years of slavery and more than ninety years of legalized racial segregation leading to their systematic profiling. As noted by Butler (2017), not for one minute in the history of America has there been peace between African-Americans and law enforcers. In the recent past, there have been cases where the police resort to violence when arresting blacks. The most recent case was the one that involved George Floyd , an African-American who died in the hands of the police while being arrested. From the video footage of the incidence, the suspect had already complied with the police but was still chocked to death by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer (Hill et al., 2020). Not even the “I can’t breathe” pleas from the poor man could save him from death in the hands of the four white police officers.

Noteworthy, the violent attacks often meted out on the blacks by the police cannot be related to any situation that the group faced in the past, not even the Jim Crow segregation , the lynching, the restrictive covenants in housing, or the New Deal programs (Butler, 2017). Most of the time, blacks have protested by organizing peaceful demonstrations and attacking symbols of the state. Another group that has been a significant target of racial profiling are the Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians. The group has been profiled by individuals working in airlines, Federal law enforcement officers, and local police. The George Floyd’s case, as already described, attracted mass protests and demonstrations across the entire United States. People, including African-Americans, Caucasians, and people of color organized demonstrations to protest the inhumane racially-instigated act by the police officers. Some of these demonstrations even turned violent and culminated in looting sprees by demonstrators. This single act of racial profiling bordered on racism and even parked protests across the world, led by the Black Lives Matter movement. The world stood together with Americans against what intentional disregard for African-American lives.

It is morally wrong to judge an individual based on their physical characteristics. According to experts, judging an individual based on their physical traits is a significant factor of racial profiling. Nonetheless, there exists a group of American citizens who consider racial profiling as a useful tool in ensuring security and punishing illegality. On the other hand, some critics posit that racial profiling does more harm than good to the affected groups and cannot be a solution towards the problems facing the U.S. On the issue of illegal or undocumented immigration, racial profiling is considered a solution by many, but it cannot be a systematic solution to the crisis of porous borders (Chacón & Coutin, 2018). In its entirety, the issue of racial profiling towards solving the problem of terrorism and illegality overlooks an acute moral issue. By marking specific groups as targets or a source of threats, racial profiling goes a long way in putting many innocent citizens under pervasive scrutiny. In the process, there is a production of a sense of exclusion, alienation, and fear among the targeted groups.

Racial profiling further violates and ignores the foundation of the American spirit and the rule of law. In a fundamental sense, the practice tends to consider a group of Americans as ‘not fully Americans’ and puts them under a continuous trial. It is a devastating force that tends to put the affected group into a devastating psychological and physical harm. Therefore, it is morally wrong and should be condemned and unequivocally rejected by all means possible. It is crucial to pinpoint that racial profiling is not only practiced by law enforcers but also the public. That is, the public tends to paint a particular group of individuals as potential enemies or criminals based on their race, way of dressing, and culture. The practice thus despises people of color in many aspects of life as lawful citizens who are legally American are considered as half Americans or aliens in their own country.

Racial profiling is legally and ethically wrong. The American Constitution stipulates that every American citizen has equal rights regardless of their race, sex, gender, and nationality. Racial profiling goes against this stipulation by painting a specific group of people as potential enemies. The practice is also ethically and morally wrong since it characterized by judging an individual based on their looks and generalizing that opinion on every member of the group or race. The American government should thus actively engage in strategies that are aimed at combating terrorism and illegality without resorting to racial discrimination and profiling.

Butler, P. (2017, August 11). “ US justice is built to humiliate and oppress black men. And it starts with the chokehold”. The Guardian. Retrieved June 30, 2020 from https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/11/chokehold-police-black-men-paul-butler-race-america

Chacón, J. M., & Coutin, S. B. (2018). Racialization through enforcement.  Race, Criminal Justice, and Migration Control: Enforcing the Boundaries of Belonging , 159.

Hill, E., Tiefenthäler, A., Triebert, C., Jordan, D., Willis, H., & Stein, R. (2020). “How George Floyd was killed in police custody”. The New York Times . Retrieved June 30, 2020 from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd- i nvestigation.html

Zack, N. (2015).  White privilege and black rights: the injustice of US police racial profiling and homicide . Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Racial Profiling — Racial Profiling’s Impact on Community-Police Relations

Racial Profiling's Impact on Community-police Relations

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Published: Mar 25, 2024

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Table of contents

Introduction:, historical background:, underlying causes:, effects on community-police relations:, legal and ethical implications:, mitigating strategies:, conclusion:.

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Racial Profiling

The ACLU’s work on racial profiling encompasses major initiatives in litigation, public education, and advocacy, including lobbying for passage of data collection and anti-profiling legislation and litigating on behalf of individuals who have been victims of racial profiling.

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Racial profiling is a longstanding and deeply troubling national problem despite claims that the United States has entered a “post-racial era.” It occurs every day, in cities and towns across the country, when law enforcement and private security target people of color for humiliating and often frightening detentions, interrogations, and searches without evidence of criminal activity and based on perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, or religion. Racial profiling is patently illegal, violating the U.S. Constitution’s core promises of equal protection under the law to all and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. Just as importantly, racial profiling is ineffective. It alienates communities from law enforcement, hinders community policing efforts, and causes law enforcement to lose credibility and trust among the people they are sworn to protect and serve.

“National security” has long been used to justify the unconstitutional profiling of, and discrimination against, Muslim, Black, Brown, and other historically marginalized communities. Since September 11, 2001, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian communities have been discriminatorily profiled by federal law enforcement, local police, and border officers. We have also seen federal agencies use race, ethnicity, national origin, and/or religious beliefs to profile and target Asian Americans, particularly Chinese American scientists and academics.

The federal government’s encouragement of unprecedented raids on immigrant communities and workplaces by local law enforcement in cooperation with federal agencies has targeted Latine communities in particular. These policies have unjustly expanded the purview of and undermined basic trust in local law enforcement, alienated immigrant communities, and created an atmosphere of fear. Anti-immigrant rhetoric has led to a dramatic increase in hate crimes against and racial profiling of people of color.

The ACLU’s work on racial profiling encompasses major initiatives in litigation, public education, and advocacy, including lobbying for passage of data collection and anti-profiling legislation and litigating on behalf of individuals who have been victims of racial profiling by airlines, police, and government agencies.

Persuasive Speech about Racial Profiling

How it works

• 1 Introduction
• 4 Conclusion
• 5 References

Introduction

The definition for racial profiling is the following; “the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense.” Believe it or not majority of us have been a part of stereotyping but when it is done through power and authority of each state that is where it crosses the line. Today I am going to be talking about the hard, but the truth of racial profiling done through law enforcement.

You be asking yourself in reality who those this affect or does it even concern anyone in this room well according to my audience analysis 100% have gone or witness someone being discriminated by the law enforcement.

This just makes you look around and take to encounter that at least one person in this room has been racial profiled. I will be discussing stories of people who have gone through racial profiling, the causes of it and the solution to fix discrimination within the law enforcement.

Racial profiling is not something that is easy to talk about as many people in this room have dealt with problems within the law enforcement. We all had those days where you wake up late whether if it is for work or school; but even though knowing that you have to be there at a certain time you still keep pressing the snooze button. Until you are rushing late, and everything is not going your way. There you are on your way to your destination into you see those lovely but bright blue and red lights from your rear veer mirror. At that moment it is not that sunny anymore all you were speeding 5 miles above the speed limit. Now there are two outcomes to this scenario having a speed ticket or getting attacked by the police because of your skin color. Asking you to step out of your car and heading to the police department. Do not get me wrong they both do not sound great, but I rather chose the latter.

Subpoint 1: A lot of people think this is just happening now but that is not the case. According to the senior Vox reporter Dara Lind from Vox media, racial profiling has been happening since the 1950s. We all remember Rosa Park story she did not want to get up because she was tired which ended up leading to boycotting. While they were out boycotting their rights; guess who was the one that attacked and bomb people’s home? You guessed right the law enforcement. This followed up with the beating of a young black man in Rochester 1964 or the pregnant women killed in Philadelphia in 1964. (Lind, 2016) Years later nothing has changed. We have had developments with the new touch screen phone rather than having block big antenna mobile phones. Everything has changed but the only thing that has stick around is discrimination based on skin color.

Subpoint 2: Not so long ago we heard the story of Trayvon Martin and for those who have not according to biography.com where his story was published on A&E Television Networks; he was a young 17-year-old killed by the police. He was a young kid like many of us sitting down in this room he had a bright future ahead of him, he wanted to study for aviation and become the next pilot. Although that all changed on February 26 where he was staying over his father and step mothers house. He was that kid in the block that stood out from the rest as he was an African American kid that was tall and had tattoos which does not seem rare but the only thing that made him stand out was that the house was in a gated community in Florida. That night, he was on the phone with his girlfriend while he was walking to the closes gasoline station to buy some chips. Where he felt like someone was watching him, so what did he do? He ran because he was afraid and the only reason why Zimmerman the neighborhood watch police was following him because he seemed suspicious just because of his skin color. The story sadly ended up leading to his death with a gunshot to his chest. (Biography, 2019)

Subpoint 1: According to Crystal Ayres the editor for Vittana Personal finance stated the following “Blacks/African-Americans are 3 times more likely to be searched during a police stop as a motorist compared to Whites/Caucasians. Hispanics are 2.5 times more likely to be searched during a police stop compared to Whites/Caucasians.” (Ayres 2016) This goes to show that when an individual does get stopped it just depends on your ethnicity on the measurements the police will go. All across 50 states the police have taken a turn in the community attacking people who have not done nothing to harm others while those who are harming are getting away with it. North Carolina has recently done a statistical test in 2016 according to Professor Andrews from Stanford News. The statically data results were people who were black, or Hispanic were thoroughly search while white and Asian were not. (Stanford University, 2017) At the end they realized the ones who were searched were less likely to have an illegal item while those who were not.

Subpoint 2: As you can see from the graph above from Contact Between Police and the Public you can clearly see the percentage and the big difference between ethnicities.(Jones, 2018) This just goes to show that police officers do more harm to those who look like they are the danger to the community, but we should never judge someone by the way someone looks or dresses.

Subpoint 1: Do not get me wrong in order to want something to happen there has to be changes. With that being said you cannot change a person’s point of view. We all have different minds for reason. But as civilians we do not want the so-called people that protect us from harm judge us. Yes, I do not want the police officers to be like robots and not have in mind but the moment they put the uniform they should be able to stand in anyone’s shoes no matter their skin color. To make change happen within the law enforcement there has to be workshops done before an individual wants to become an officer and during the time you are employed as a law enforcement. This workshop will help us ensure they do not discriminate no one for who they are. But before doing these workshops guess what we need money. And how do we get this money by funding. Funding that is needed through our government we already pay taxes. I suggest that some of the money should be dedicated to the law enforcement workshops where it will benefit them and us from racial profiling.

Restate thesis & review main points: With all of this being said I state that we need the correct funding measures given by the government. Where that money will not go to waste with the fantastic workshops that will come to play for our law enforcement. With these workshops we will not have to fear getting stopped by the police next time.

• Ayres, C. (n.d.). 24 Frightening Racial Profiling Statistics. Retrieved from https://vittana.org/24- frightening-racial-profiling-statistics
• Brewster, Z. W., Lynn, M., & Cocroft, S. (2014, June 02). Consumer Racial Profiling in U.S.
• Restaurants: Exploring Subtle Forms of Service Discrimination against Black Diners. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/socf.12093
• Jones, A. (2018, October 12). Police stops are still marred by racial discrimination, new data shows. Retrieved from https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2018/10/12/policing/
• Stanford University. (2017, September 08). Stanford researchers develop new statistical test that shows racial profiling in police traffic stops. Retrieved from https://news.stanford.edu/2016/06/28/stanford-researchers-develop-new-statistical-test-shows-racial-profiling-police-traffic-stops/
• Trayvon Martin. (2019, April 16). Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/crime- figure/trayvon-martin

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The True Danger of Racial Profiling Essay

Often, it tends to be enough to change the perspective in order to achieve a greater understanding. Growing up as a White woman, I had not experienced racism and racial discrimination to the extent showcased in fig. 1 or fig. 2:

Indeed, I can attempt to imagine what it is like to be there personally, but that is not the feeling that invokes concern and fear in the given case. What does, however, is imagining my child being subjected to such a horrifying attitude. Parental love belongs to rare, genuinely unconditioned feelings where there is no space for racism in any of its forms. Unfortunately, I cannot fight every individual case of racial discrimination. Nevertheless, I feel obliged to fight its systemic manifestations, such as racial profiling. If set loose, it can affect both the present and, most importantly, the future of my and every other child representing the racial minority.

Racial Profiling Manifestations

The issue of racial discrimination has a long and ugly history. For instance, Fig. 2 illustrates the sanitation workers’ strike that took place on February 12, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. It began a few days after Echol Cole and Robert Walker – Memphis sanitation workers – were crushed to death while working by their garbage truck (Gailani). For many people, the accident revealed how dangerous the job conditions really were. However, the payment for it was definitely not enough to justify the danger. Moreover, the situation of Black sanitation workers was even worse due to racial bias still ubiquitous at the time of the accident (Gailani). People desired change for a long time, but the accident served as a sparkle that ignited the fire. The phrase “I Am a Man” depicted on men’s chests conveys the main message behind the striker’s actions – a desire to be treated equally.

Unfortunately, their desire has yet to be completely fulfilled even today. The issues caused by racial discrimination occur almost in every area of modern society. For instance, after Marvin Joseph – the Washington Post staff photographer – was tasked to visualize racism, he quickly came up with an idea of depicting the law enforcement topic (Joseph). Currently, the cases of death of African Americans at the hands of law enforcement are frighteningly common (Joseph). Therefore, fig. 1 illustrates the crime scene footage, where the main infraction is skin color.

Compared to broader terms of racial discrimination and racism, racial profiling tends to have a more organized and systematic nature. According to Schclarek Mulinari and Keskinen, it can be defined as selective, racializing practices that instill and establish societal hierarchies through the targeting of particular populations based on their race, ethnicity, national identity, or religion (379). Racial profiling itself is an overarching term that can manifest in many ways and affect people regardless of their age, which implies it affects children as well.

However, the adverse effects of racial profiling on youth are far worse than on the adult population. In the context of fig. 1, it robs children of faith in the public security sector. In turn, while the context of fig. 2 presents the issue of discrimination at work, racial profiling in the education sector – an activity that is analogical to work but is more appropriate considering children – endangers their cognition and affects socialization. Finally, the failure of the youth protection welfare – often the last resort in a desire for protection – can ultimately lead to devastating consequences.

The Public Security Sector

Law enforcement agencies and police officers play a fundamental role in protecting the public and preventing criminality. In this context, racial profiling undermines confidence and trust in government institutions among the population in general and racialized groups in particular. People from racialized communities cannot enjoy the same freedoms as the rest of the population, including having fun, circulating, or getting together with other racialized youth. Consequently, they might feel they are on society’s margin due to being scrutinized and targeted when they occupy public spaces. The most revolting notion is that, despite being born in the U.S., young people are excluded and feel like undesirables in their society.

The Education Sector

Racial profiling in the education sector is particularly sustained by the assumption – unconscious in many cases – that certain racialized groups, and especially young Blacks, are more likely to threaten security or disturb order within a school. Since they are deemed to be at greater risk of adopting anti-social behaviors, racialized minority youths receive more intense scrutiny by school personnel than other students. Consequently, based on this disproportionate scrutiny and given the same behavior, racialized students tend to be more likely penalized for violating rules that are, apart from everything else, applied to them more severely. As a result, the discriminatory punishments for security reasons and the application of codes of conduct in school directly relate to the problem of school drop-outs and failures among youth from racialized minorities.

The Youth Protection System

Racial bias and discrimination in systems responsible for protection can be considered the most appalling. In this context, racial profiling occurs at a different level compared to the previous two. According to recent studies, Black youths are less often the object of protection measures, such as withdrawal from the family, than Whites and other racialized minorities (Keddell 8). The possible conclusion might be that there exists an attitude unfavorable to Black youths in identifying situations where the child’s rights are truly at risk among professionals in the social services sector. Thus, children experience prolonged exposure to traumatizing circumstances that might eventually affect their mental well-being.

Potential Counter Arguments

One might argue that, in terms of public security, racial profiling is confused with criminal profiling – an important activity in police investigations. However, racial profiling is easily distinguishable from the latter, which is not based on biases but instead relies on actual behavior or information about an individual’s suspicious activity (Coleman and Kocher 1187). In other words, criminal profiling is not the same since it is based on objective evidence of wrongful behavior. In contrast, racial profiling is based on stereotypical and biased assumptions. For instance, such are the cases of harassing and abusive police scrutiny of racialized individuals or disproportionate police resources deployment in the neighborhoods they frequent.

In the education sector, many forms of discrimination cannot be directly attributed to racial profiling as such. For example, measures, decisions, or organizational policies determining the student’s educational path result from systemic discrimination, not racial profiling (Desai 1037). However, the issues of racial discrimination do tend to intertwine in their overarching influence on society. Therefore, the debate regarding the true nature and racism classification seems unnecessary and unhelpful in the given case.

Through its manifestations at various societal levels, racial profiling adversely impacts the lives of children, which robs them of their happy present and a successful future. Due to profiling occurring in the public security and youth protection sectors, children might lose trust in institutes created to protect them. In turn, biased attitudes in the education sector can directly rob them of their chance of finding their place in society. I believe it is my duty to ensure that my son has all the possibilities to realize his potential. I only wish that every person will be able to apply the same genuine and unconditional attitude when it comes to treating other people.

Works Cited

Coleman, Mat, and Austin Kocher. “ Rethinking the ‘Gold Standard’ of Racial Profiling: § 287 (g), Secure Communities and Racially Discrepant Police Power .” American Behavioral Scientist , vol. 63, no. 9, 2019, pp. 1185-1220. Web.

Desai, Shiv R. “ Humanizing Trayvon Martin: Racial Profiling, Implicit Biases, and Teacher Education .” Urban Education , vol. 54, no. 8, 2019, pp. 1031-1057. Web.

Gailani, Matthew. “‘I Am A Man’ Dr. King and The Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike.” Tennessee State Muzeum , Web.

Joseph, Marvin et al., editors. “Visualizing Racism: Nine Photographers Take on the Challenge of Depicting Bigotry.” The Washington Post Magazine , Web.

Keddell, Emily. “ Algorithmic Justice in Child Protection: Statistical Fairness, Social Justice and the Implications for Practice .” Social Sciences , vol. 8, no. 10, 2019, pp. 1-22. Web.

Schclarek Mulinari, Leandro, and Suvi Keskinen. “Racial Profiling in the Racial Welfare State: Examining the Order of Policing in the Nordic Region.” Theoretical criminology , vol. 26, no. 3, 2022, pp. 377-395.

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The Ethics of Racial Profiling: Introduction

• Published: 08 December 2010
• Volume 15 , pages 1–2, ( 2011 )

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Ryberg, J. The Ethics of Racial Profiling: Introduction. J Ethics 15 , 1–2 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-010-9097-4

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-010-9097-4

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