The Pros And Cons Of Racial Profiling

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Racial profiling is a common law enforcement practice that happens in many different places in American society. It often focuses and singles out different races, religions, ethnicities, or skin color of people. Many professionals question whether it can be justiciable under certain circumstance where it could prevent a massive amount of people from being harm or to apprehend criminals before they commit crimes. Others protest that the practice is unnecessary and causes more harm than good. This paper will examine if racial profiling is an acceptable law enforcement practice by looking at how it is defined, the history, the common ways it is used, the challenges it purposes, does it work, and statistical data.

Is Racial Profiling Justiciable Under
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157). According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), racial profiling refers to the discriminatory practice of law enforcement officials who targets individuals of suspicious crimes based on the person’s race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin (“Racial Profiling: Definition”, 2015). Racial profiling does not include a law enforcement agent pursuing a suspect in which there are specific descriptions and details of the suspect’s race or ethnicity. Thomsen (2011) describes the term profiling as “the application of statistical evidence concerning differences in the propensity for crime in a police practice when deciding who to target” (p. 90). One of the most common forms of racial profiling is traffic stops of young adult, black men and Hispanic men. It is regularly utilized as a drug-trafficking interdiction strategy and as of recent has become standard protocol for law enforcements (Glaser, 2006, p. 396). The term “racial profiling” did not emerge until the 1990s and intensified throughout the

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