racial profiling thesis

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.

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 .

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.

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:

• 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.

Read the full text

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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Racial Profiling - Essay Samples And Topic Ideas For Free

Racial profiling involves the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Essays could explore the impacts, ethics, and legal implications of racial profiling, or the measures and initiatives aimed at combating racial profiling. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Racial Profiling you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

Police Brutality and Racial Profiling

If you were stopped by police officers and all they saw was your race, imagine how that would have felt. Sadly, this happens in the real world to people of color daily. Racial profiling is a controversial and illegal form of discrimination, where people are targeted for suspicion based on their race or ethnicity rather than on evidence-based suspicious behavior. Racial profiling is a common practice used by law enforcement agencies in the United States. It is based on the […]

Racial Profiling: a Defense Mechanism or Blunt Racism?

Dating as far back during the Reconstruction time period, Jim Crow Era, up until now, racial profiling has been a highly debated issue. Racial Profiling refers to the discriminatory practice by law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individual's race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Cases such as Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and along with many other African Americans males who were killed, beaten, or harassed by white male police officers sparked […]

Police Brutality and Racism

The Declaration of Independence was created to protect the inalienable rights that all Americans receive at birth, yet police brutality continues to threaten the rights of African Americans everywhere. Police everywhere need to be given mandatory psychological tests in order to gain awareness of racial bias in law enforcement and allow citizens to slowly gain trust for the officers in law enforcement. No one wants a child to grow up in a world filled with hate. As Martin Luther King […]

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Racial Profiling Within the Criminal Justice System

Abstract There are many different reasons for people to engage in criminal activities. Unfortunately, there is no way to pin point the source of crime. The purpose of this research paper is to reveal the influences that race has on the Criminal Justice System. More specifically, the researcher (Danielle Clarke) will be discussing the ethical issue of Racial Profiling within the criminal justice system.? Introduction Sampson and Wilson (1995) stated that, “The discussion of Race and Crime is mired in […]

Dealing with Racial Profiling

Have you ever been in an awkward situation when you feel you’re being racially profiled and you’re not doing anything wrong? People that bully, or treat people a certain way because of their skin color really leaves an impact on a person’s life. In “Just Walk on By: Black Men in Public Spaces” you’ll see examples of racial profiling and different ways Brent Staples himself went through experiences. The story begins just a normal day; A man walking down the […]

What is Racial Inequality?

Racial inequality is systematically different from racial discrimination and racism. Racial discrimination involves the treatment of racial inequality while racial inequality involves the consequences of inequality such as, income, education, health, etc. Racism often involves these two processes, but modern forms of racial inequality and discrimination are not necessarily the direct consequences of modern racism (Pager and Shepherd, 2008). Racist sociology studies that relationships between these three phenomena when, how, why and to what extent? In the post-civil rights era […]

What is Racial Profiling

A few people wonder what is racial profiling. Racial profiling mainly is miss-instruction, bondage, and imprisonment. Since slavery African Americans have endured racism because of their personality. Racial profiling also includes choosing on a man for their protest of an explicit racial gathering. The reason in upholding racial profiling out of sight of criminal investigation can develop the likelihood of capturing offenders. Paul Bou-Habib expressed, If the rate at which individuals from an explicit racial gathering carries out a wrongdoing […]

Racial Profiling in America

Racial Profiling against Minorities in America Racial Profiling is an arbitrary action initiated by an authority based on race, ethnicity or national origin rather than on a person’s behavior. Discrimination is when you are denied opportunities and equal rights because of prejudice or other arbitrary reasons. (Schaefer, 2013: 233) There is no secret that racial profiling and discrimination still takes place in America today. With Racial profiling also comes stereotypes. Racial Profiling and stereotyping is something that happens very often […]

How Stereotypes Contribute to Injustice System?

Because of the stereotypes exist in the media and our society that create racial profile and many injustices especially in criminal system, which is why that Social movement are created. These movements are demanding changes for a better treatment not just on better wage or better job, but also the protection from law. Stereotypes exist in society that it become the norm, which creates the one of the most dangerous behavior which is racial profiling. Racial profiling exist everywhere which […]

Racial Profiling in Law Enforcement

Unfortunately, Racial discrimination has been an ongoing problem within society in general and also within law enforcement agencies worldwide. The news reports of officer involved shootings involving unarmed young black men, proves to be a universal issue that has not yet been resolved. In an effort to find a resolution to these senseless acts of violence, police officers should attempt to come together and become more involved with communities so that there will be less encounters between law enforcement and […]

Persuasive Speech about Racial Profiling

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The History of Racism

Have you ever wondered why the world must be this way? Why does racism have to exist? Why something so little as skin color can dictate how you feel about somebody? It’s mind-boggling that racism has been a problem dating back to the 17th century and is still one the most controversial topics in today’s society. Some people may think that racism ended once slavery was abolished, but that was not the case. Hate crimes against ethnic minorities are on […]

Stop and Frisk Theory and Racial Profiling

Abstract Stop and frisk is the detention temporarily of a person and search their clothing based on specific, articulate facts that lead the police officer to have reasonable suspicious that the person is armed and dangerous. However, in the recent years, many people are arguing that stop and frisk are used to target minorities, because the numbers of people who are more stop and frisk by the police are Latinos and African-American. Therefore, stop and frisk are affecting the relationship […]

Racial Profiling in the United States

Racial profiling is a prejudiced act done by law enforcement when an individual is targeted as a suspicious being due to characteristics such as race, skin color, ethnicity, religion, etc. Those characteristics then become the principal factors when a police officer is making decisions. Racial profiling has become a common concern and longstanding problem in many ethnic groups and communities of the U.S. Racial profiling happens because law enforcement officers often develop a style of policing, based off of their […]

Racial Profiling and Stereotypes of Ethnicity

Racial profiling is stereotyping or judging or discriminating against someone (thinking they will do something or already have done something) based off of their color, race or ethnicity. An example of how law enforcement has been since 9/11 is they have been really on Muslims, Arabs and Asian and detaining them on minor immigration violations. Hoping that they can help give information on the attack of the Pentagon or World Trade Center. Another example of how law enforcement use racial […]

A Closer Look at Racial Profiling

Growing up in a predominantly black neighborhood in California, I had never experienced or witnessed racial profiling. Others around me would discuss this issue, but to my knowledge it was rare, and at the time I was not aware about lives being taken due to this issue. It was not until I moved to a more suburban area that consisted of a multitude of different races, that I experienced racial profiling for myself. I remember vividly what happened that day […]

US Police Brutality and African Americans

Police brutality is a major issue in the United States, with its target against African Americans being a longstanding problem. The history of police brutality closely relates to racism and discrimination in America. Many factors, such as institutional racism, poverty, education, and even the drug war, contribute to this issue. With these factors combined, there is an increased risk of violence from law enforcement officials toward African Americans. According to Schwartz and Jahn (2020), African Americans are three times more […]

Racial Profiling at Traffic Stops and Solutions

Traffic stops are incidents that happen to every driver at some point in their life. Whether it is because there is a broken tail light on the car, a traffic violation occurred, or any other factor that can contribute to police conducting a traffic stop. A traffic stop is defined as a justifiable act done by police officers due to a reasonable suspicion that the driver is involved in criminal activities (Sklansky, 2000). In Whren v. United States (1996), the […]

Racial Profiling: a Struggle for Justice and Equality

Imagine being a parent of a Black or Latino child having to explain to them that not all police officers have their best interest at heart. Or having to worry and pray that the said child makes it to their destinations safely without being pulled over in the fears of them being arrested or worst killed. What about the innocent children who have been profiled just for walking in a crowd or being in the wrong place at the wrong […]

Racial Profiling in Police Agencies

Racism, discrimination, prejudgment, and hatred are the effects that tarnish police agencies throughout the country. Blacks who are pulled over by cops are scared that the judicial system is on no occasion by their side. Racial profiling places a fault in the confidence, amongst the youngest generation of black people, of law enforcement agencies. Racial profiling is the time a person or set of persons is prejudged against in a specific manner because of the color of their skin. Scholars […]

Racial Profiling in Stop-and-Frisk

According to The Attorney General of New Jersey in 1999, "… determined that searches of cars on the Turnpike were even more racially disparate than the initial stops: 77.2% of all ‘consent' searches were of minorities and blacks" (Rudovsky, 2001). It is also important to note that according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, "Nearly nine out of 10 stopped-and-frisked New Yorkers have been completely innocent." With these unfortunate statistics surrounding the stop-and-frisk policy in New York City, it […]

Police Brutality against Black Communities

Throughout the years, the issue of police brutality against black communities has been a major problem affecting many countries in the United States. Unjustified killings have taken place in the black community, which has clearly led to a national outcry for justice and equality. The issue has become particularly notable in recent years thanks to the numerous murders of young black people that have been committed by police officers. Research shows that young black men were nine times more likely […]

Issue of Racial Profiling in Communities

Racial profiling has affected many innocent lives and caused them to deserve harsh punishments for crimes they did not commit. Many individuals are being targeted on or assaulted because of racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is becoming worse as the years pass, it's changing into a controversial topic. That is the reason why African American, Hispanics, and Muslims are being focused on. Racial profiling negatively impacts our society. People have expressed worry because racial profiling isn't right about our core beliefs […]

Is Racial Profiling Unnecessary

Racial profiling has been around for as long as we can remember, the discrimination practice by the law enforcement officials of targeting individuals for suspicion of crime based on the individuals’ race, ethnicity or religion. Racial profiling has been around but is it unnecessary for the world that we live in today. It is illegal, violating the U.S. Constitution’s essential promises of equal protection under the law to all and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. Just as importantly, racial […]

Racial Profiling: Racial-Ethnic Stratification

It has always been racial profiling in our history because the ones who are persecuted and separated sooner or later will claim why they are dealt with unequally. There are numerous examples far and wide, yet one just needs to investigate how American culture was designed to understand the extraordinary contrast between people. It was even typical and satisfactory to see these distinctions amid the making of this country on the grounds that the ones who apparently had the power […]

Speech about Racial Profiling

The professional speaker that I went to see was Natalie Stoljar. She is a philosophy professor at McGill University. She gave her speech in Farber Hall. The topic that she was talking about was racial profiling and whether or not it was discriminatory. She did not go into all of the aspects of racial profiling she just went into how it plays into the police system. She looked at racial profiling in the philosophical way. I think that the purpose […]

Police Brutality against Latinos in the U.S.

This research focused on the history of police brutality against Latinos in the U.S. and thedifferent types of police brutality. It starts off with an overview of what police brutality is and providing examples of police brutality in the different states. The examples intend to provide the reader with knowledge of how police brutality affects the Latino community and some other minority groups. Additionally, it talks about injunctions and the system of points (used in Boston), which allow police officers […]

Profiling in Law Enforcement: is it Effective Policing?

Profiling in law enforcement is a form of racism in America. This practice is used by police officers on the basis of race or ethnic status of individuals. This form of profiling is also known as criminal profiling or offender profiling and is used to identify likely suspects. Profiling is also used to link cases that have been committed by the same individual. This paper will present several arguments against police profiling. First, the negative impact profiling has in policing […]

The History of the United States

In the early stages of United States history following the events of WW2, the use of stop and search procedures where officers would flood the streets after a reported crime to question individuals in urban, low income, and predominantly black neighborhoods became a staple method for crime fighting. These tactics originated by the LAPD became embraced by other city police chiefs and began to prioritize street stops as a way to conduct surveillance on suspicious individuals. Throughout history patrol officers […]

Social Justice System

Most of the complaints have different applications of the death penalty, police brutality, racial profiling, sentencing disparity, and different treatment of minorities by the Criminal justice system. Everything that happens in court is suppose to be lawful and took into consideration, that your life could be on the line and how many years being spent could affect you and the people around you. The color of someone skin shouldn't be a reason to put them in jail but the supreme […]

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What Causes Racial Profiling?

By Sarah Galbenski

Published: July 31, 2018

Rufus Scales, 26 and black, was driving his younger brother Devin to his hair-cutting class in this genteel, leafy city when they heard the siren's whoop and saw the blue light in the rearview mirror of their black pickup. Two police officers pulled them over for minor infractions that included expired plates and failing to hang a flag from a load of scrap metal in the pickup's bed. But what happened next was nothing like a routine traffic stop. Uncertain whether to get out of the car, Rufus Scales said, he reached to restrain his brother from opening the door. A black officer stunned him with a Taser, he said, and a white officer yanked him from the driver's seat. Temporarily paralyzed by the shock, he said, he fell face down, and the officer dragged him across the asphalt. (LaFraniere and Lehren)

In America today, this is a narrative that we have to come to know all too well. A young black man, either guilty of simply "driving while black" or a minor infraction, is pulled over by the police, usually in an affluent, predominately white neighborhood. Upon being pulled over, the driver is treated by the officers in a cruel manner that is not commensurate with his crime. This prevalent narrative is an example of racial profiling, which is "a form of differential treatment based on an individual's racial or ethnic social identity" (Williams 401). Although racial profiling affects many sectors of American society, particularly education and employment, for the purposes of this paper, I will be focusing on racial profiling as it pertains to law enforcement proceedings. According to Brian N. Williams, associate professor of Public Administration and Policy at The University of Georgia, "Biased policing exists when an individual's race is used as an illegitimate factor for initiating police actions against the individual" (401). So, if police officers understand that it is biased and unlawful to initiate police action against an individual because of his or her race, what causes them to continue to racially profile individuals? I contend that while racial profiling can be caused by officers feeling pressured to produce crime-reducing statistics and by those in power valuing efficacy over constitutionality, it is primarily caused by officers' implicit biases. Furthermore, it is not simply caused in reaction to an "abundance" of black crime.

Williams reports that there are "a growing number of research studies that highlight the disproportionate number of traffic and pedestrian stops and searches of minorities" (402). A likely contributing factor to this racial inequity is the fact that high crime "impact zones" tend to be comprised of mostly minority residents, and, based on interviews with the New York Police Department, Andres Garcia reported that, "Trained as they are in high crime areas, and taught that they are there to bring down crime, officers feel pressured to produce numbers and statistics, and therefore engage in stop-and-frisk practices at a disproportionate rate in these impact zones," zones which are overwhelmingly inhabited by minorities. The pressure to produce is even higher for recent recruits, fresh out of the Police Academy, who are aiming to prove themselves as bona fide members of the force. Unfortunately for the minority residents of impact zones, these eager new recruits tend to have first assignments in their neighborhoods. Since officers, especially new ones, are expected to produce crime-reducing statistics in minority populated impact zones, they often resort to racial profiling as an effective means to achieve their quota.

Although racial profiling may be considered an "effective" means to identify stop-and-frisk targets and fight crime, it is in no way constitutional. In fact, "In August 2013, Federal District Court Judge Shira A. Scheindlin ruled that the New York Police Department practice of stop-and-frisk, in which individuals are stopped for questioning and frisked for weapons, is unconstitutional because it violates the civil rights of the blacks and Latinos who are disproportionately targets of the program" (Garcia 37). Despite the unconstitutionality of the practice of stop-and-frisk due to its promotion of racial profiling, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg argued for the efficacy of stop-and-frisk and said that its practice would continue until the end of his term because he "wouldn't want to be responsible for a lot of people dying" (Garcia 38). When people in positions of power, such as Mayor Bloomberg, value efficacy over constitutionality when it comes to practices like stop-and-frisk, more occurrences of racial profiling are caused and perpetuated.

While pressure to produce crime-reducing statistics and more value placed on the efficacy than on the constitutionality of stop-and-frisk practices certainly cause racial profiling to occur, I argue that implicit biases encourage racial profiling to run rampant. Implicit biases are defined as "the stereotypes and prejudices that reside and operate in our mind outside of our conscious awareness" ("Suspect Race"). Although we may not possess awareness nor approval of our possession of these stereotypes, they are nonetheless present in our unconscious mind. As Malcolm Gladwell states in his book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking , "We don't deliberately choose our unconscious attitudes…The giant computer that is our unconscious silently crunches all the data it can from experiences we've had, the people we've met, the lessons we've learned, the books we've read, the movies we've seen, and so on, and it forms an opinion" (39). In order to help us gain an understanding of our unconscious's opinions, social psychologists Anthony G. Greenwald, Mahzarin Banaji, and Brian Nosek created a series of Implicit Association Tests (IATs) designed to prove that "we make connections much more quickly between pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds than we do between pairs of words that are unfamiliar to us" (Gladwell 37). The most famous of the IATs, the Race IAT, asks participants to sort both positive and negative words, such as "fabulous" and "evil" and images of white faces and black faces into their respective categories. After the participants sort words and faces separately, they are asked to associate positive words with white faces and sort them into the same category. Conversely, negative words and black faces are related during this first part of the test. For the second part of the test, the categories switch; white is now associated with negative words, and black is now associated with positive words. The results of this test state that "more than 80 percent of all those who have taken the test end up having pro-white associations, meaning that it takes them measurably longer to complete answers when they are required to put good words into the "black" category than when they are required to link bad things with black people" (Gladwell 39).

In order to scientifically explain this difference in response time, scholars have found that "there's some evidence that the amygdala, a center in the brain for emotions, flashes a threat warning when it perceives people who look 'different'" (Kristof). However, despite this biological explanation, it is more likely that our biases are derived culturally. This is hypothesized because in actuality, "many African-Americans themselves have an unconscious pro-white bias" (Kristof). White people look "different" from black people, yet many black people do not experience these threat warnings when encountering an image of a white face, as evidenced by their quicker response time when associating white faces with positive words. Even though many people, including undoubtedly many African-Americans, explicitly repudiate the stereotype that associates minorities (particularly blacks) with crime, according to Jack Glaser, Berkeley social psychologist and author of Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling, this stereotype is still pervasive in our culture and media, and therefore still influences all of our unconscious biases, African-Americans' included. Applying this concept of implicit biases to policing, Glaser asserts, "When we're making decisions under uncertainty, we tend to use cognitive shortcuts. What might feel like a legitimate hunch to a police officer could actually be the influence of a racial stereotype." Furthermore, these stereotypes evoke a sense of fear in police officers, and when they are put into perceived life-threatening situations, they resort to simplistic, overzealous responses.

Yet another view that has prevailed in American society for decades is that an "abundance" of black crime justly causes racial profiling, reactionary policing, and sometimes even "necessary" forms of police brutality. However, "far from being a novel bit of truth-telling, the argument that black crime is the cause of reactionary policing is among the aged and easily refuted clichés of American racial history" (Cobb). Jelani Cobb, the Ira A. Lipman Professor of Journalism at Columbia University, finds it ironic that this view is mostly held by American conservatives because "the idea that the treatment of an individual hinges upon his or her demographic category flies in the face of the doctrine of individual rights central to modern conservatism." Yet this revered doctrine of individual rights still pertains to the white population of our country, for although "the white-on-white mayhem is profound" as white people are six times more likely to be murdered by a white person than a black person, "no one speaks of it in racial terms" (Dyson 149). In our country, white is the default race. And, as the Race IAT demonstrates, it is far easier for the majority of our population to implicitly (and racially) associate whites with good terms and blacks with evil ones. When a black person commits a crime against their brethren, it is immediately racially labeled. Conversely, when a white person commits the same crime against one of their own, they are not lumped in with the rest of their race but are instead treated as singular beings:

That's because the phrase white-on-white crime doesn't serve a larger ideological purpose. White-on-white crime does not jibe with the exclusive focus on a black-on-black narrative that conservatives and liberals too, have bought into. The success of that narrative depends on a few things. You had to construct the ghetto as a space of savagery that was unique to black folk…Then you had to say that any right-thinking folk wouldn't kill each other. (Dyson 149)

The cultural narrative strikes again, construing blacks as savages, portraying whites as upright citizens, and unconsciously influencing us all. Furthermore, do blacks really commit more crimes or are they simply arrested for them at higher rates? In the case of drug crimes, "blacks are nearly four times as likely as whites to be arrested for drug possession. This is despite the evidence that whites and blacks use drugs at roughly the same rate" In fact, "from 1995 to 2005, African Americans comprised approximately 13% of drug users but 36% of drug arrests and 46% of those convicted for drug offenses" (Nellis). The absurdity of the excuse that "horrific black crime" triggers racial profiling is quite evident. Whites use drugs at the same rate. And, "white folk consistently lead all other groups in assault, larceny, illegal weapons possession, arson, and vandalism" (Dyson 149). Once again, it has been proven that indoctrinated cultural biases influence the police's perceptions on black crime. They are not solely combatting a "radical disproportion" of black crime.

In the case of Rufus Scales, it is highly probable that before the police officers even identified his minor infractions, they unconsciously associated his blackness with crime. It is important to note that they possessed this implicit bias through no fault of their own. Since this stereotype is perpetuated by our culture, both black and white officers have no choice but to be inundated with examples of this black crime association in the media and society at large. However, their hamartia, their fatal flaw, occurred when they failed to recognize that they were under the influence of a racial stereotype and proceeded to abuse Scales out of fear. Although it is important to admit that we all fall prey to implicit biases, it is absolutely paramount to recognize when our biases cloud our vision and proactively choose to act out of rationality and respect, not out of fear. Whether or not Scales was in an impact zone or under the jurisdiction of a mayor who believed in efficacy over constitutionality, he will always be subject to officers operating by implicit biases. For this reason, it is of the utmost importance that officers are trained to understand implicit biases in hopes of reducing the number of occurrences of racial profiling. And, on a larger scale, it is crucial that we understand our own implicit biases so that we can be able to recognize the singularity of every human being instead of associating them with a stereotype.

Works Cited

Cobb, Jelani. "No Such Thing as Racial Profiling." The New Yorker, 4 Dec. 2014, https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/eric-garner-racial-profiling . Accessed 21 November 2017.

Dyson, Michael Eric. "Our Own Worst Enemy?" Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America, St. Martin's Press, 2017, 143-169.

Garcia, Andres. "Stop-and-frisk: the policing of Latinos in New York." NACLA Report on the Americas, vol. 46, no. 4, 2013, pp. 37+. Global Issues in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A355468776/GIC?u=nd_ref&xid=87fec209 . Accessed 6 November 2017.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2005.

Glaser, Jack. "Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling." News Center: Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California Berkeley , 24 Nov. 2014, https://gspp.berkeley.edu/news/news-center/suspect-race-causes-and-consequences-of- %09racial-profiling . Accessed 6 November 2017.

Kristof, Nicholas D. "What? Me Biased?" The New York Times, 30 Oct. 2008, p. A39(L). Global Issues in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A188025544/GIC?u=nd_ref&xid=5294534d . Accessed 6 November 2017.

LaFraniere, Sharon, and Andrew W. Lehren. "The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black." The New York Times , 24 Oct. 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/us/racial-disparity-traffic-stops-driving-black.html . Accessed 6 November 2017.

Norris, Ashley. "The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prison." The Sentencing Project, 14 June 2016, http://www.sentencingproject.org/publications/color- of-justice-racial-and-ethnic-disparity-in-state-prisons/ . Accessed 21 November 2017.

Williams, Brian N. "Racial Profiling and Biased Policing." Encyclopedia of Race and Racism, edited by Patrick L. Mason, 2 nd ed., vol. 3, Macmillan Reference USA, 2013, pp. 401- 406. Global Issues in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX4190600368/GIC?u=nd_ref&xid=f71f76de . Accessed 6 November 2017.

• To what extent does Galbenski demonstrate fairness/evenhandedness in her argument regarding the causes of racial profiling? Are you convinced by her argument, or do you see it as a function of her own implicit bias? Point to specific evidence from the essay to support your claims.
• How does Galbenski work to establish her credibility with her reader? To what extent is she successful in doing so?
• Comment on the effectiveness of Galbenski's use of the Rufus Scales story as a framing device. What kind of response did that story invite from you as a reader?

Sarah Galbenski

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Solving racial disparities in policing

Colleen Walsh

Harvard Staff Writer

Experts say approach must be comprehensive as roots are embedded in culture

“ Unequal ” is a multipart series highlighting the work of Harvard faculty, staff, students, alumni, and researchers on issues of race and inequality across the U.S. The first part explores the experience of people of color with the criminal justice legal system in America.

It seems there’s no end to them. They are the recent videos and reports of Black and brown people beaten or killed by law enforcement officers, and they have fueled a national outcry over the disproportionate use of excessive, and often lethal, force against people of color, and galvanized demands for police reform.

This is not the first time in recent decades that high-profile police violence — from the 1991 beating of Rodney King to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in 2014 — ignited calls for change. But this time appears different. The police killings of Breonna Taylor in March, George Floyd in May, and a string of others triggered historic, widespread marches and rallies across the nation, from small towns to major cities, drawing protesters of unprecedented diversity in race, gender, and age.

According to historians and other scholars, the problem is embedded in the story of the nation and its culture. Rooted in slavery, racial disparities in policing and police violence, they say, are sustained by systemic exclusion and discrimination, and fueled by implicit and explicit bias. Any solution clearly will require myriad new approaches to law enforcement, courts, and community involvement, and comprehensive social change driven from the bottom up and the top down.

While police reform has become a major focus, the current moment of national reckoning has widened the lens on systemic racism for many Americans. The range of issues, though less familiar to some, is well known to scholars and activists. Across Harvard, for instance, faculty members have long explored the ways inequality permeates every aspect of American life. Their research and scholarship sits at the heart of a new Gazette series starting today aimed at finding ways forward in the areas of democracy; wealth and opportunity; environment and health; and education. It begins with this first on policing.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad traces the history of policing in America to “slave patrols” in the antebellum South, in which white citizens were expected to help supervise the movements of enslaved Black people.

Photo by Martha Stewart

The history of racialized policing

Like many scholars, Khalil Gibran Muhammad , professor of history, race, and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School , traces the history of policing in America to “slave patrols” in the antebellum South, in which white citizens were expected to help supervise the movements of enslaved Black people. This legacy, he believes, can still be seen in policing today. “The surveillance, the deputization essentially of all white men to be police officers or, in this case, slave patrollers, and then to dispense corporal punishment on the scene are all baked in from the very beginning,” he  told NPR  last year.

Slave patrols, and the slave codes they enforced, ended after the Civil War and the passage of the 13th amendment, which formally ended slavery “except as a punishment for crime.” But Muhammad notes that former Confederate states quickly used that exception to justify new restrictions. Known as the Black codes, the various rules limited the kinds of jobs African Americans could hold, their rights to buy and own property, and even their movements.

“The genius of the former Confederate states was to say, ‘Oh, well, if all we need to do is make them criminals and they can be put back in slavery, well, then that’s what we’ll do.’ And that’s exactly what the Black codes set out to do. The Black codes, for all intents and purposes, criminalized every form of African American freedom and mobility, political power, economic power, except the one thing it didn’t criminalize was the right to work for a white man on a white man’s terms.” In particular, he said the Ku Klux Klan “took about the business of terrorizing, policing, surveilling, and controlling Black people. … The Klan totally dominates the machinery of justice in the South.”

When, during what became known as the Great Migration, millions of African Americans fled the still largely agrarian South for opportunities in the thriving manufacturing centers of the North, they discovered that metropolitan police departments tended to enforce the law along racial and ethnic lines, with newcomers overseen by those who came before. “There was an early emphasis on people whose status was just a tiny notch better than the folks whom they were focused on policing,” Muhammad said. “And so the Anglo-Saxons are policing the Irish or the Germans are policing the Irish. The Irish are policing the Poles.” And then arrived a wave of Black Southerners looking for a better life.

In his groundbreaking work, “ The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America ,” Muhammad argues that an essential turning point came in the early 1900s amid efforts to professionalize police forces across the nation, in part by using crime statistics to guide law enforcement efforts. For the first time, Americans with European roots were grouped into one broad category, white, and set apart from the other category, Black.

Citing Muhammad’s research, Harvard historian Jill Lepore  has summarized the consequences this way : “Police patrolled Black neighborhoods and arrested Black people disproportionately; prosecutors indicted Black people disproportionately; juries found Black people guilty disproportionately; judges gave Black people disproportionately long sentences; and, then, after all this, social scientists, observing the number of Black people in jail, decided that, as a matter of biology, Black people were disproportionately inclined to criminality.”

“History shows that crime data was never objective in any meaningful sense,” Muhammad wrote. Instead, crime statistics were “weaponized” to justify racial profiling, police brutality, and ever more policing of Black people.

This phenomenon, he believes, has continued well into this century and is exemplified by William J. Bratton, one of the most famous police leaders in recent America history. Known as “America’s Top Cop,” Bratton led police departments in his native Boston, Los Angeles, and twice in New York, finally retiring in 2016.

Bratton rejected notions that crime was a result of social and economic forces, such as poverty, unemployment, police practices, and racism. Instead, he said in a 2017 speech, “It is about behavior.” Through most of his career, he was a proponent of statistically-based “predictive” policing — essentially placing forces in areas where crime numbers were highest, focused on the groups found there.

Bratton argued that the technology eliminated the problem of prejudice in policing, without ever questioning potential bias in the data or algorithms themselves — a significant issue given the fact that Black Americans are arrested and convicted of crimes at disproportionately higher rates than whites. This approach has led to widely discredited practices such as racial profiling and “stop-and-frisk.” And, Muhammad notes, “There is no research consensus on whether or how much violence dropped in cities due to policing.”

Gathering numbers

In 2015 The Washington Post began tracking every fatal shooting by an on-duty officer, using news stories, social media posts, and police reports in the wake of the fatal police shooting of Brown, a Black teenager in Ferguson, Mo. According to the newspaper, Black Americans are killed by police at twice the rate of white Americans, and Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.

Such efforts have proved useful for researchers such as economist Rajiv Sethi .

A Joy Foundation Fellow at the Harvard  Radcliffe Institute , Sethi is investigating the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers, a difficult task given that data from such encounters is largely unavailable from police departments. Instead, Sethi and his team of researchers have turned to information collected by websites and news organizations including The Washington Post and The Guardian, merged with data from other sources such as the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the Census, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A Joy Foundation Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Rajiv Sethi is investigating the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers,

Courtesy photo

They have found that exposure to deadly force is highest in the Mountain West and Pacific regions relative to the mid-Atlantic and northeastern states, and that racial disparities in relation to deadly force are even greater than the national numbers imply. “In the country as a whole, you’re about two to three times more likely to face deadly force if you’re Black than if you are white” said Sethi. “But if you look at individual cities separately, disparities in exposure are much higher.”

Examining the characteristics associated with police departments that experience high numbers of lethal encounters is one way to better understand and address racial disparities in policing and the use of violence, Sethi said, but it’s a massive undertaking given the decentralized nature of policing in America. There are roughly 18,000 police departments in the country, and more than 3,000 sheriff’s offices, each with its own approaches to training and selection.

“They behave in very different ways, and what we’re finding in our current research is that they are very different in the degree to which they use deadly force,” said Sethi. To make real change, “You really need to focus on the agency level where organizational culture lies, where selection and training protocols have an effect, and where leadership can make a difference.”

Sethi pointed to the example of Camden, N.J., which disbanded and replaced its police force in 2013, initially in response to a budget crisis, but eventually resulting in an effort to fundamentally change the way the police engaged with the community. While there have been improvements, including greater witness cooperation, lower crime, and fewer abuse complaints, the Camden case doesn’t fit any particular narrative, said Sethi, noting that the number of officers actually increased as part of the reform. While the city is still faced with its share of problems, Sethi called its efforts to rethink policing “important models from which we can learn.”

Fighting vs. preventing crime

For many analysts, the real problem with policing in America is the fact that there is simply too much of it. “We’ve seen since the mid-1970s a dramatic increase in expenditures that are associated with expanding the criminal legal system, including personnel and the tasks we ask police to do,” said Sandra Susan Smith , Daniel and Florence Guggenheim Professor of Criminal Justice at HKS, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute. “And at the same time we see dramatic declines in resources devoted to social welfare programs.”

“You can have all the armored personnel carriers you want in Ferguson, but public safety is more likely to come from redressing environmental pollution, poor education, and unfair work,” said Brandon Terry, assistant professor of African and African American Studies and social studies.

Kris Snibble/Harvard file photo

Smith’s comment highlights a key argument embraced by many activists and experts calling for dramatic police reform: diverting resources from the police to better support community services including health care, housing, and education, and stronger economic and job opportunities. They argue that broader support for such measures will decrease the need for policing, and in turn reduce violent confrontations, particularly in over-policed, economically disadvantaged communities, and communities of color.

For Brandon Terry , that tension took the form of an ice container during his Baltimore high school chemistry final. The frozen cubes were placed in the middle of the classroom to help keep the students cool as a heat wave sent temperatures soaring. “That was their solution to the building’s lack of air conditioning,” said Terry, a Harvard assistant professor of African and African American Studies and social studies. “Just grab an ice cube.”

Terry’s story is the kind many researchers cite to show the negative impact of underinvesting in children who will make up the future population, and instead devoting resources toward policing tactics that embrace armored vehicles, automatic weapons, and spy planes. Terry’s is also the kind of tale promoted by activists eager to defund the police, a movement begun in the late 1960s that has again gained momentum as the death toll from violent encounters mounts. A scholar of Martin Luther King Jr., Terry said the Civil Rights leader’s views on the Vietnam War are echoed in the calls of activists today who are pressing to redistribute police resources.

“King thought that the idea of spending many orders of magnitude more for an unjust war than we did for the abolition of poverty and the abolition of ghettoization was a moral travesty, and it reflected a kind of sickness at the core of our society,” said Terry. “And part of what the defund model is based upon is a similar moral criticism, that these budgets reflect priorities that we have, and our priorities are broken.”

Terry also thinks the policing debate needs to be expanded to embrace a fuller understanding of what it means for people to feel truly safe in their communities. He highlights the work of sociologist Chris Muller and Harvard’s Robert Sampson, who have studied racial disparities in exposures to lead and the connections between a child’s early exposure to the toxic metal and antisocial behavior. Various studies have shown that lead exposure in children can contribute to cognitive impairment and behavioral problems, including heightened aggression.

“You can have all the armored personnel carriers you want in Ferguson,” said Terry, “but public safety is more likely to come from redressing environmental pollution, poor education, and unfair work.”

Policing and criminal justice system

Alexandra Natapoff , Lee S. Kreindler Professor of Law, sees policing as inexorably linked to the country’s criminal justice system and its long ties to racism.

“Policing does not stand alone or apart from how we charge people with crimes, or how we convict them, or how we treat them once they’ve been convicted,” she said. “That entire bundle of official practices is a central part of how we govern, and in particular, how we have historically governed Black people and other people of color, and economically and socially disadvantaged populations.”

Unpacking such a complicated issue requires voices from a variety of different backgrounds, experiences, and fields of expertise who can shine light on the problem and possible solutions, said Natapoff, who co-founded a new lecture series with HLS Professor Andrew Crespo titled “ Policing in America .”

In recent weeks the pair have hosted Zoom discussions on topics ranging from qualified immunity to the Black Lives Matter movement to police unions to the broad contours of the American penal system. The series reflects the important work being done around the country, said Natapoff, and offers people the chance to further “engage in dialogue over these over these rich, complicated, controversial issues around race and policing, and governance and democracy.”

Courts and mass incarceration

Much of Natapoff’s recent work emphasizes the hidden dangers of the nation’s misdemeanor system. In her book “ Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes America More Unequal ,” Natapoff shows how the practice of stopping, arresting, and charging people with low-level offenses often sends them down a devastating path.

“This is how most people encounter the criminal apparatus, and it’s the first step of mass incarceration, the initial net that sweeps people of color disproportionately into the criminal system,” said Natapoff. “It is also the locus that overexposes Black people to police violence. The implications of this enormous net of police and prosecutorial authority around minor conduct is central to understanding many of the worst dysfunctions of our criminal system.”

One consequence is that Black and brown people are incarcerated at much higher rates than white people. America has approximately 2.3 million people in federal, state, and local prisons and jails, according to a 2020 report from the nonprofit the Prison Policy Initiative. According to a 2018 report from the Sentencing Project, Black men are 5.9 times as likely to be incarcerated as white men and Hispanic men are 3.1 times as likely.

Reducing mass incarceration requires shrinking the misdemeanor net “along all of its axes” said Natapoff, who supports a range of reforms including training police officers to both confront and arrest people less for low-level offenses, and the policies of forward-thinking prosecutors willing to “charge fewer of those offenses when police do make arrests.”

She praises the efforts of Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins in Massachusetts and George Gascón, the district attorney in Los Angeles County, Calif., who have pledged to stop prosecuting a range of misdemeanor crimes such as resisting arrest, loitering, trespassing, and drug possession. “If cities and towns across the country committed to that kind of reform, that would be a profoundly meaningful change,” said Natapoff, “and it would be a big step toward shrinking our entire criminal apparatus.”

Retired U.S. Judge Nancy Gertner cites the need to reform federal sentencing guidelines, arguing that all too often they have been proven to be biased and to result in packing the nation’s jails and prisons.

Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard file photo

Sentencing reform

Another contributing factor in mass incarceration is sentencing disparities.

A recent Harvard Law School study found that, as is true nationally, people of color are “drastically overrepresented in Massachusetts state prisons.” But the report also noted that Black and Latinx people were less likely to have their cases resolved through pretrial probation ­— a way to dismiss charges if the accused meet certain conditions — and receive much longer sentences than their white counterparts.

Retired U.S. Judge Nancy Gertner also notes the need to reform federal sentencing guidelines, arguing that all too often they have been proven to be biased and to result in packing the nation’s jails and prisons. She points to the way the 1994 Crime Bill (legislation sponsored by then-Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware) ushered in much harsher drug penalties for crack than for powder cocaine. This tied the hands of judges issuing sentences and disproportionately punished people of color in the process. “The disparity in the treatment of crack and cocaine really was backed up by anecdote and stereotype, not by data,” said Gertner, a lecturer at HLS. “There was no data suggesting that crack was infinitely more dangerous than cocaine. It was the young Black predator narrative.”

The First Step Act, a bipartisan prison reform bill aimed at reducing racial disparities in drug sentencing and signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2018, is just what its name implies, said Gertner.

“It reduces sentences to the merely inhumane rather than the grotesque. We still throw people in jail more than anybody else. We still resort to imprisonment, rather than thinking of other alternatives. We still resort to punishment rather than other models. None of that has really changed. I don’t deny the significance of somebody getting out of prison a year or two early, but no one should think that that’s reform.”

 Not just bad apples

Reform has long been a goal for federal leaders. Many heralded Obama-era changes aimed at eliminating racial disparities in policing and outlined in the report by The President’s Task Force on 21st Century policing. But HKS’s Smith saw them as largely symbolic. “It’s a nod to reform. But most of the reforms that are implemented in this country tend to be reforms that nibble around the edges and don’t really make much of a difference.”

Efforts such as diversifying police forces and implicit bias training do little to change behaviors and reduce violent conduct against people of color, said Smith, who cites studies suggesting a majority of Americans hold negative biases against Black and brown people, and that unconscious prejudices and stereotypes are difficult to erase.

“Experiments show that you can, in the context of a day, get people to think about race differently, and maybe even behave differently. But if you follow up, say, a week, or two weeks later, those effects are gone. We don’t know how to produce effects that are long-lasting. We invest huge amounts to implement such police reforms, but most often there’s no empirical evidence to support their efficacy.”

Even the early studies around the effectiveness of body cameras suggest the devices do little to change “officers’ patterns of behavior,” said Smith, though she cautions that researchers are still in the early stages of collecting and analyzing the data.

And though police body cameras have caught officers in unjust violence, much of the general public views the problem as anomalous.

“Despite what many people in low-income communities of color think about police officers, the broader society has a lot of respect for police and thinks if you just get rid of the bad apples, everything will be fine,” Smith added. “The problem, of course, is this is not just an issue of bad apples.”

Efforts such as diversifying police forces and implicit bias training do little to change behaviors and reduce violent conduct against people of color, said Sandra Susan Smith, a professor of criminal justice Harvard Kennedy School.

Community-based ways forward

Still Smith sees reason for hope and possible ways forward involving a range of community-based approaches. As part of the effort to explore meaningful change, Smith, along with Christopher Winship , Diker-Tishman Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and a member of the senior faculty at HKS, have organized “ Reimagining Community Safety: A Program in Criminal Justice Speaker Series ” to better understand the perspectives of practitioners, policymakers, community leaders, activists, and academics engaged in public safety reform.

Some community-based safety models have yielded important results. Smith singles out the Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets program (known as CAHOOTS ) in Eugene, Ore., which supplements police with a community-based public safety program. When callers dial 911 they are often diverted to teams of workers trained in crisis resolution, mental health, and emergency medicine, who are better equipped to handle non-life-threatening situations. The numbers support her case. In 2017 the program received 25,000 calls, only 250 of which required police assistance. Training similar teams of specialists who don’t carry weapons to handle all traffic stops could go a long way toward ending violent police encounters, she said.

“Imagine you have those kinds of services in play,” said Smith, paired with community-based anti-violence program such as Cure Violence , which aims to stop violence in targeted neighborhoods by using approaches health experts take to control disease, such as identifying and treating individuals and changing social norms. Together, she said, these programs “could make a huge difference.”

At Harvard Law School, students have been  studying how an alternate 911-response team  might function in Boston. “We were trying to move from thinking about a 911-response system as an opportunity to intervene in an acute moment, to thinking about what it would look like to have a system that is trying to help reweave some of the threads of community, a system that is more focused on healing than just on stopping harm” said HLS Professor Rachel Viscomi, who directs the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program and oversaw the research.

The forthcoming report, compiled by two students in the HLS clinic, Billy Roberts and Anna Vande Velde, will offer officials a range of ideas for how to think about community safety that builds on existing efforts in Boston and other cities, said Viscomi.

But Smith, like others, knows community-based interventions are only part of the solution. She applauds the Justice Department’s investigation into the Ferguson Police Department after the shooting of Brown. The 102-page report shed light on the department’s discriminatory policing practices, including the ways police disproportionately targeted Black residents for tickets and fines to help balance the city’s budget. To fix such entrenched problems, state governments need to rethink their spending priorities and tax systems so they can provide cities and towns the financial support they need to remain debt-free, said Smith.

Rethinking the 911-response system to being one that is “more focused on healing than just on stopping harm” is part of the student-led research under the direction of Law School Professor Rachel Viscomi, who heads up the Harvard Negotiation and Mediation Clinical Program.

Jon Chase/Harvard file photo

“Part of the solution has to be a discussion about how government is funded and how a city like Ferguson got to a place where government had so few resources that they resorted to extortion of their residents, in particular residents of color, in order to make ends meet,” she said. “We’ve learned since that Ferguson is hardly the only municipality that has struggled with funding issues and sought to address them through the oppression and repression of their politically, socially, and economically marginalized Black and Latino residents.”

Police contracts, she said, also need to be reexamined. The daughter of a “union man,” Smith said she firmly supports officers’ rights to union representation to secure fair wages, health care, and safe working conditions. But the power unions hold to structure police contracts in ways that protect officers from being disciplined for “illegal and unethical behavior” needs to be challenged, she said.

“I think it’s incredibly important for individuals to be held accountable and for those institutions in which they are embedded to hold them to account. But we routinely find that union contracts buffer individual officers from having to be accountable. We see this at the level of the Supreme Court as well, whose rulings around qualified immunity have protected law enforcement from civil suits. That needs to change.”

Other Harvard experts agree. In an opinion piece in The Boston Globe last June, Tomiko Brown-Nagin , dean of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and the Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law at HLS, pointed out the Court’s “expansive interpretation of qualified immunity” and called for reform that would “promote accountability.”

“This nation is devoted to freedom, to combating racial discrimination, and to making government accountable to the people,” wrote Brown-Nagin. “Legislators today, like those who passed landmark Civil Rights legislation more than 50 years ago, must take a stand for equal justice under law. Shielding police misconduct offends our fundamental values and cannot be tolerated.”

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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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Racial Profiling: Problem Statement Essay

Racial profiling is the discriminating behavior of law enforcement officers by targeting persons for criminal allegation based on their race, ethnicity, religious belief, or nationality. These are some of the factors that are often used by security agents in imposing abnormal police stops, searches, and even eventual arrests. Due to this, for many years, blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, and Muslims have been given unfair treatment only because of their race. When it comes to these minorities, some phrases, such as driving while black and flying while Arab, are used to segregate them from equal access to services. To some extreme extent, this racial profiling has the possibility of leading to police brutality (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). In racial profiling the police or any law enforcement agents uses more force, this sometimes becomes inhuman when dealing with suspects from the minority group. This paper will look deep into the effects of racial profiling, policies put in place and their effectiveness to curb this social issue.

For those who have never had an experience of racial profiling or have not associated with anyone who has experienced it, it may seem to be an everyday issue or a mere inconvenience. However, this issue is more profound than an annoyance and it has a direct consequence on the victims (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). Those who have faced profiling have been affected emotionally, physically, and mentally even in extreme cases some have been affected financially and physically (Harris, 2020). The effects include post-traumatic stress disorder and other forms of stress. This leads to the creation of perceptions in the victims, so they avoid using the available community resources (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). Further, it was found that the disorder affects not only the direct victims but also others beyond the direct experience. Racial profiling has significant indirect effect on families, friends, and relatives. This has shown why profiling is so harmful, and it, therefore, needs measures to combat it.

The target population of racial profiling has raised some concerns on their access to the services and even the quality of services they receive. According to Kovera (2019), many participants noted that the psychological impacts of racial profiling had made their children develop anti-social behaviors even at a young age. One will find that most of the time, white people associate black people with criminality without even realizing they also do it. Another study showed that when resumes are in the application for jobs, it was found that, stereotypically, those with white names received more call back. This is more than fifty percent, compared to those with black names (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). This is even after they all have similar qualifications. Even some blacks and Asians raised an issue that they were paying more car loan interest than the white despite having the same creditworthiness.

Some policies have been put in place to address the issue of racial profiling. There is an attempt to reduce homelessness and housing inability. This is because racism and the policies that support it use people of color to charge high rental costs, evicting and even make them overcrowded (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). Therefore, these policies will curb the issues where households with low incomes pay almost half of their rent earnings, increasing their risk of homelessness (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). Also, this is an attempt to improve access to preschool and childcare. This will help in reducing the inequalities that exist in the opportunities of children from the racialized groups, it will also help the parents from high childcare costs.

Some policies have been put in place, which has detrimental effects on the target group. Primarily through racial targeting, the police will search blacks more often than whites. Evidence has shown that it would be better for them to focus more on the right people who are minorities. Through this, it shows that racial targeting did not even improve the accuracy of the police: it did not even result in the balance between how white was treated compared to blacks (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). It made even the police accuracy worse than before, this hit rate occurs across different departments and places.

Racial profiling is wrong and not productive. It affects the power and the crucial role of law enforcement authorities in keeping the public safe. It originates from stereotypes, negative attitudes, and prejudice against racialized groups, and they are often linked with criminality. Racial profiling is different from legal criminal profiling, which uses fair suspect descriptions. Profiling may make the trust of public institutions to be undermined (Harris, 2020). This is because there is a relationship between public confidence and law enforcement, which leads to public safety. Through this, people will not be willing to cooperate and even give evidence in court if they have been fed a negative perception about how the law is enforcement (Lang & Kahn-Lang, 2020). It should also be noted that profiling could happen at any decision-making stage. It can lead to implicit biasness on conscious and unconscious personal prejudice toward racialized people.

Harris, D. A. (2020). Racial profiling: Past, present, and future? Criminal Justice , 34 , 10. Web.

Kovera, M. B. (2019). Racial disparities in the criminal justice system: Prevalence, causes, and a search for solutions . Journal of Social Issues, 75 (4), 1139-1164. Web.

Lang, K., & Kahn-Lang Spitzer, A. (2020). Race discrimination: An economic perspective . Journal of Economic Perspectives , 34 (2), 68-89. Web.

• Racial Profiling in the United States
• Crime, Criminality, and Prisons in the USA
• Teenage and Racial Profiling in the United States
• Unveiling Civil War Injustices with Untold Stories
• Black Soldiers’ Struggle for Recognition and Equal Pay
• The Issue of Racism: One of Social Evils
• White Privilege: Two Sides of the Issue
• Challenges Faced by Black American Youth
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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Jamelle Bouie

Trump’s Taste for Tyranny Finds a Target

By Jamelle Bouie

Opinion Columnist

Among the worst episodes in American history are those moments when the federal government deploys the full weight of its power against the most vulnerable people in the country: the Trail of Tears and the Fugitive Slave Act in the 19th century and Japanese internment in the middle of the 20th, to name three.

If he is granted a second term in the White House, Donald Trump hopes to add his own entry to this ignominious book of national shame.

Trump’s signature promise, during the 2016 presidential election, was that he would build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. His signature promise, this time around, is that he’ll use his power as president to deport as many as 20 million people from the United States.

“Following the Eisenhower model ,” he told a crowd in Iowa last September, “we will carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.”

It cannot be overstated how Trump’s deportation plan would surely rank as one of the worst crimes perpetrated by the federal government on the people of this country. Most of the millions of unauthorized and undocumented immigrants in the United States are essentially permanent residents. They raise families, own homes and businesses, pay taxes and contribute to their communities. For the most part, they are as embedded in the fabric of this nation as native-born and naturalized American citizens are.

What Trump and his aide Stephen Miller hope to do is to tear those lives apart, rip those communities to shreds and fracture the entire country in the process.

“The Trump immigration plan,” notes Radley Balko , a journalist who writes primarily on civil liberties, in his Substack newsletter, “would be the second-largest forced displacement of human beings in human history, on par with Britain’s disastrous partition of India, and second only to total forced displacement during World War II.”

What is the plan, exactly? It begins, as Miller explained in an interview with Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk last year, with creating a national deportation force consisting of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Border Patrol and other federal agencies, as well as the National Guard and local law enforcement officials. The administration would empower this deportation force to scour the country for unauthorized and undocumented immigrants. It would move from state to state, city to city, neighborhood to neighborhood and, finally, house to house, looking for people who, according to Trump and Miller, do not belong. This deportation force would raid workplaces and stage public roundups, to create a climate of fear and intimidation.

Of course, in the heat of the moment, it isn’t actually all that easy to determine who may be an unauthorized or undocumented immigrant. But these won’t be selective apprehensions. How could they be? Instead, what we’ll see in practice is an indiscriminate roundup of anyone who might appear to be an immigrant — a mass campaign of racial and ethnic profiling.

Because it would be beyond the capacity of the federal government to immediately return detainees to their “home” countries, the Trump team also plans to build “vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers” for immigrants on land near the Texas border. Internment camps, essentially.

It is worth remembering here that in addition to its wanton cruelty, Trump’s policy of child separation was also noteworthy for the poor conditions suffered by separated families living in government facilities. Child detainees lacked adequate food , water and sanitation. There were also reports of mistreatment , as in the case of the Border Patrol agents who were accused of telling detained women to drink out of toilet bowls.

Now, imagine the conditions that might prevail for hundreds of thousands of people crammed into hastily constructed camps, the targets of a vicious campaign of demonization meant to build support for their detention and deportation. If undocumented immigrants really are, as Trump says, “ poisoning the blood of our country ,” then how do we respond? What do we do about poison? Well, we neutralize it.

There are roughly 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, according to a recent estimate by the Pew Research Center. Trump’s number of “probably 15 million and maybe as many as 20 million” is pulled from nowhere — an assumption based on the inchoate sense that the official numbers are wrong and there must be more “illegals” to apprehend than anyone truly realizes.

To reach this goal, Miller and Trump would almost certainly have to round up citizens as well. But that is also part of the plan. On the first day of his second term, the campaign has let it be known, Trump will sign an executive order “to withhold passports, Social Security numbers and other government benefits from children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States.”

Neither Trump nor Miller appears to have made any distinction between the undocumented children of undocumented immigrants and the native-born children of undocumented immigrants, which fits their opposition to the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship through the 14th Amendment. Under the Trump deportation plan, citizenship will not save those who have the wrong background.

The Trump campaign’s promise to detain and deport millions of immigrants, along with many American citizens, is a promise to plunge the country into an authoritarian nightmare. It is also a promise of strife and pervasive civil conflict.

It wouldn’t be the first time that Americans responded to an effort of this sort with violence. With the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, which essentially deputized all authorities and private citizens in free states as slave catchers required to return all escaped slaves to their enslavers, came widespread, armed resistance to efforts to carry out the law. You did not have to be sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved to be outraged by the notion that you could be dragooned into acting as a bounty hunter for state-sanctioned human traffickers.

The political consequence of the Fugitive Slave Act, to the dismay of Southern lawmakers, was to radicalize countless Northerners against the so-called Slave Power and raise sectional tensions to a point of almost no return. The law did not cause the Civil War, but it was the provocation that set the stage for a decade of conflict that led, inexorably, to war.

Do we not think that a mass deportation program, with roving bands of armed agents, would result in similar upheaval? Do we not think that there would be violent resistance to agents storming homes, churches and businesses to seize and detain people? And do we not think that a Trump who wanted, during his first term, to shoot protesters would see this as an opportunity to do so — a hoped-for chance to invoke the Insurrection Act, mobilize the military and crush his political opponents?

We talk often, these days, of illiberalism. It is has become a bit of a buzzword. Often the focus is illiberalism in elite spaces, usually the classrooms and common areas of selective colleges. Sometimes the focus is on particular politicians. But what we are seeing here from Trump isn’t simply a distaste for liberal values; it is a taste for genuine tyranny and bona fide despotism, one that complements his endless praise for dictators and strongmen.

Rhetoric matters, and what candidates say is not simply for show. At every opportunity, Trump has placed the mass deportation of millions of people at the center of his campaign. It is a promise. And the promises a presidential candidate makes while on the trail are the promises a president tries to keep.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here's our email: [email protected] .

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Jamelle Bouie became a New York Times Opinion columnist in 2019. Before that he was the chief political correspondent for Slate magazine. He is based in Charlottesville, Va., and Washington. @ jbouie