Racial profiling of Black men in public spaces

Racial profiling is not new, however, and was a theory of sociology in the late 19th century known as Social Darwinism. Incorrectly using Darwin's theory of evolution, the Social Darwinists believed that some species were morally superior to others, and even some races superior to othersJohnson ()

Public perception, though, believes in favor of seeing race as a reason for crime, and having a considerable fear of anyone outside their own ethnic group -- depending on the situation. Similarly, much so-called "organized crime," amounting to billions of dollars annually has similar stereotypes of ethnic origin (e.g. Mafia -- La Costa Nostra, Russian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Mexican Mafia, etc.). Still, over the past few decades, at least since the Rodney King beating, the use of race by law enforcement, and then after 9/11 by Homeland security, has received considerable political and media attention. One is agog, for instance, at the number of traffic stops that seem to target certain drivers, or the amount of arrests for similar situations focused on minorities. We must remember, too, that racial profiling, or stereotyping, is nothing new -- for centuries, cultures have looked to the "other" for excuses to go to war, to incarcerate, or to find reason for authoritarian behavior. Witness the way German-Americans were treated during WWI and WWII, and most especially the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII Keen ()

The actual concept of racial profiling is defined as: "In the literature to date, there appear to be at least two clearly distinguishable definitions of the term 'racial profiling': a narrow definition and a broad definition... Under the narrow definition, racial profiling occurs when a police officer stops, questions, arrests, and/or searches someone solely on the basis of the person's race or ethnicity... Under the broader definition, racial profiling occurs whenever police routinely use race as a factor that, along with an accumulation of other factors, causes an officer to react with suspicion and take action" Clearly ()

The conundrum is that many law enforcement agencies believe that profiling is both necessary and effective. The argument is that demographic factors prove that crime is higher in some communities than others. One study showed that during a specific time period, officers at the Los Angeles Airport compiled a report based on alerts driven by the airline passenger alter computer system and those based on officer observation -- finding that there was an almost identical statistical correlation between the two. This is in contradiction with a 2008 study, also in Los Angeles, in which: found persistent and statistically significant racial disparities in policing that raise grave concerns that African-Americans and Latinos in Los Angeles are, as we put it in the report, "over-stopped, over-frisked, over-searched and over-arrested." After controlling for violent crime rates and property crime rates in specific neighborhoods, as well as a host of other variables, we found the following:

"For every 10,000 residents, about 3,400 more black people are stopped than whites, and 360 more Latinos are stopped than whites. Stopped blacks are 127% more likely to be frisked -- and stopped Latinos are 43% more likely to be frisked -- than stopped whites.

Stopped blacks are 76% more likely to be searched, and stopped Latinos are 16% more likely to be searched than stopped whites.

Stopped blacks are 29% more likely to be arrested, and stopped Latinos are 32% more likely to be arrested than stopped whites.

Now consider this: Although stopped blacks were 127% more likely to be frisked than stopped whites, they were 42.3% less likely to be found with a weapon after they were frisked, 25% less likely to be found with drugs and 33% less likely to be found with other contraband. We found similar patterns for Latinos" Ayres ()

The irony about stereotyping, though, is that there is even a phrase that emulates through popular culture. Instead of DUI (Driving Under the Influence), the term DWB (Driving While Black) suggests officer's judgments focus on pulling over younger African-Americans simply because of their racial heritage Grogger ()

Police officials, as well as Homeland Security and Federal law enforcement, believe that they use more than just race to "profile" a suspect. These items include: dress, body language, interactions with others, place and time (late night on street corners or parks), etc. This view concludes that it is not only necessary, but vital, that law enforcement be able to use certain psychographic tools to more easily look for unique situations in which criminal activity may occur. National statistics show that most Americans felt that in "these times," some degree of profiling was necessary to maintain appropriate security. Specifically targeting motor vehicle stops, research shows that the probability of a successful search is about equal across races, showing that overall; officers tend to react fairly Weitzer ()