Running head: RACIAL PROFILING: REAL OR PERCEIVED PROBLEM

Racial Profiling: Real or Perceived Problem

Name Institution Date

RACIAL PROFILING: REAL OR PERCEIVED PROBLEM Abstract (To Be written after the entire document)

RACIAL PROFILING: REAL OR PERCEIVED PROBLEM Introduction

The current administrators and law enforcement organizations are faced with several challenges of sticking within their mandates while maintaining acceptance among the subjects. The issue of racial profiling used by several officers as a means of profiling criminal acts is among these challenges. Racial profiling is a discriminative law enforcement whereby the responsible officers target a section of population for crime suspicion based on the religion, ethnicity, or nationality orientation. This profiling is usually practiced by law enforcement officers on the belief that a certain community of group has feature which are directly associated with crime. A perfect illustration of this case is the use of racial orientation to determine which driver should be flagged down for negligible traffic offences. In most cases, black and brown drivers are considered to be with a high possibility of flouting the rules. The debate over the existence of racial profiling has raged over time. While some section of law enforces argue that the act does not exist, some activist and human rights defenders are convinced that some police officer act in a biased manner when dealing with suspects. This dilemma has permeated all the way to its technical definition. The definition carried in the state racial profiling laws does not encompass the move by the police to base their actions on ethnicity, race, or nationality of suspects. This disparity and others highlighted later are the central concerns of this research. Therefore, the objective of this research is to ascertain whether racial profiling is a perceived problem or real. After a search on the existing literature on the same topic, a discussion seeking to settle this matter follows. As defined by Ramirez (2000), racial profiling is a police-instigated action relying on ethnicity, race, and nationality of a person instead of his or her behavior as a way of identifying the potential

RACIAL PROFILING: REAL OR PERCEIVED PROBLEM

suspects. Although many people have condemned the act as a way of profiling criminal behavior, there is some evidence to illustrate that a section of law enforces are still involved in the vice regardless of the condemnation it has received. Racial profiling is against the spirit the U.S constitution since it goes against the grain of people protection. As desired by the developers of this document, people of diverse backgrounds deserve protection from the potential harshness of any present government after an era of unjust experiences, which gave yield to Articles of Confederation (Jordan 1999). All that racial profiling is doing, is degrading the gains made in human rights protection and appreciation of diversity in the name of executing constitutional mandate. The controversy of racial profiling has attracted the attention of various institutions and public scrutiny. Consequently, a myriad of researches have been done to establish the cause, effects, and existence of racial profiling. The objective of the following sections is to ascertain the existence of racial profiling as a technique of profiling criminal activities. Literature Review Several organizations have monitored different jurisdictions and have established that racial profiling is a fundamental problem in the execution of justice and constitutional mandates among law enforcers. As an illustration, a survey done in Maryland established that although an average of 16.9% of drivers were made up of African Americans; the accounted for 72.9% of the drivers flagged-down and frisked by Maryland State cops (Ramirez 2000). The skewness of this figure illustrates the existence of a deliberate effort to target a given section of population based on racial background. Therefore, it is evident that the police officers in this state engage in racial profiling. Another survey done on Pennsylvania highways for one week indicates 79% of traffic stops were African Americans.

RACIAL PROFILING: REAL OR PERCEIVED PROBLEM

In the United States, racial profiling is increasingly gaining extensive ill reputation. This may as well be an important issue currently faced in many homelands. Racial profiling is clearly a violation of citizens civil rights in the United States. It affects civilians as well as hindering the effectiveness of law enforcement. Although there have been efforts to explore and eliminate racial profiling, they have always failed because of lack of clear findings and accountability from the law enforcers. In order to reduce racial profiling, new measures should be merged with the existing one. There is also need for a firm federal program to help in monitoring and surveying all the countrys police officers. Furthermore, the public can play a vital role through their collaborative efforts to put an end to racial profiling. Not unless, the above measures are put in place racial profiling is bound to remain a disaster for the nation. Besides the tendency to affect direct victims, racial profiling also has negatively effects all persons of any color, any socio-economic status and from any generation. Racial profiling causes a loss of accountability and integrity of agencies dealing with law enforcement. Integrity can be lost especially in communities that have a great need for effective law enforcement, which makes it almost impossible for law enforcers to carry out their duties. Racial profiling is of two types: soft and hard. Soft profiling involves the use of race as one of the factors in examining criminal suspiciousness. For example, a police officer gets information that a gang of Latinos driving red Hondas was spotted carrying drugs down the freeway. The police officer spots a Latino who is driving at a high speed in a red Honda and harasses him with an expectation of finding the drugs. Hard profiling involves the use of merely race as a factor in evaluating criminal consciousness. For instance, a police officer looks for a black person and pulls him to conduct a search with the assumption that the person can be carrying weapons or drugs (MacDonald, 2001).

RACIAL PROFILING: REAL OR PERCEIVED PROBLEM

Racial profiling is wide such that it encompasses characteristics connected to gang or minority related behavior. In his Village Voice article, Peter Noel indicates that a baseball cap that has been worn out at an angle is responsible for 10% of stops. A blue or red bandanna is responsible for 20% of stops. Huge hooded sweatshirts are responsible for 10% of stops (Noel, 2000).

Discussion-discuss opposing sides of the issue

Conclusion

References Ramirez, D. (2000). A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems. Northwestern University, 18-20. Meeks, K. (2000). Driving While Black. New York: Broadway Books. MacDonald, H. (2001). The Myth of Racial profiling. City Journal 112, 14-27. Noel, P. (1998). Driving While Black. The Village Voice June 9, 1998.