Professor Spalding
Introduction to Criminal Justice- Policing
March 10, 2017
Racial Profiling: Two Sides
Racial profiling and bias-based policing has been an issue in society for a while. Racial profiling is judging an individual based on their ethnicity and/or looks. This subject has been involved in many careers but especially with law enforcement recently. The idea of racial profiling has been around and developed in the 1980’s but has become a recent manifestation.
Racial profiling is simply about a human deciding if someone is committing a crime based on what a person looks like but can be used in other aspects including: religion, gender and national origin. Racially profiling someone can be considered a form of racism. …show more content…
The perception humans have on certain ethnicities creates this reality of racially profiling an individual. The perception of specific races dates back to the 1700’s when slavery was founded. African American slaves were put onto a plantation where they could not leave that plantation unless they had “freedom papers” to prove they were free. In this era African American’s were treated with many forms of disrespect, such as, physical punishment, harassment and it even goes as atrocious as possibly death. The 1700’s and beyond, until slavery was determined unconstitutional in the year of 1865, was racial profiling in terms of judging someone by their skin color. Making the entire race of African American’s be judged on how they look, not their actions still exists today. Slavery is unconstitutional but in modern-day society it is done in a less harsh way, but it still exists.
Implicit bias was briefly mentioned in an earlier paragraph. “Implicit bias is the bias in judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control” (www.ncsc.org). Implicit bias relates to racial profiling in an unconscious way. Whether an individual is aware or unaware of their actions, conscious or unconscious it is still considered racial profiling for many …show more content…
Many studies have collected evidence on both sides of racial profiling. Racially profiling to keep others safe based on previous evidence found on specific ethnicities is still considered racially profiling and a form of racism. This kind of racial profiling has a different meaning behind racially profiling because someone has some sort of dislike towards a certain ethnicity. Racial profiling is definitely a major issue that keeps growing as time moves on. The government should spend time coming up with a solution that will keep citizens safe while also limiting the racism and profiling side of