Racial profiling or ethnic profiling is the offender profiling, selective enforcement or selective prosecution based on race or ethnicity, rather than individual suspicion or evidence. This practice involves using discriminatory practices and often relies on negative . Racial profiling can include disproportionate stop-and-searches, traffic stops, and the use of surveillance technology for facial identification. Racial profiling can occur de jure (when state policies target specific racial groups) or de facto (when the practice occurs outside official legislation). Critics argue that racial profiling is discriminatory as it disproportionately targets people of color. Supporters claim it can be an effective tool for preventing crime but acknowledge that it should be closely monitored and used in a way that respects civil rights.
The subject of racial profiling has sparked debate between who disagree on its Morality status. Some believe that racial profiling is morally permissible under certain circumstances, whereas others argue it is never morally permissible.
Justifications
Mathias Risse and Richard Zeckhauser provide a Consequentialism analysis of racial profiling, weighing the benefits and costs against each other. They conclude that racial profiling is morally permissible because the harms done to the search subjects are fewer than the potential benefits for society in terms of security. Moreover, the (innocent) subjects themselves also benefit because they will live a safer environment overall.
Risse and Zeckhauser conclude that the objections to racial profiling are not rooted in the practice per se but in background Social justice. Instead of banning racial profiling, they argue, efforts should be made to remedy racial inequality in our societies.
Criticism
Adam Omar Hosein argues that racial profiling may be permissible under certain circumstances, but the present circumstances (in the United States) make it unjust. The costs of racial profiling for black communities in the U.S. are much higher than Risse and Zeckhauer account for. Racial profiling can make targeted individuals assume they have an inferior political status, which can lead to an alienation from the state. This can make racial profiling turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy when an individual is more likely to commit a crime because they are perceived as a criminal.
Hosein also points to an Epistemology problem. Arguments in favor of racial profiling are based on the premise that there is a correlation between belonging to a specific racial group and committing certain crimes. However, should such a correlation exist, it is based on data that is skewed by previous racial profiling. Because more subjects of a certain racial group were targeted, more crime was registered in this group. It is therefore epistemically unjustified to assume that this group commits more crime. Racial profiling intersects with gendered profiling. Some argue profiling of men contributes to sex differences in crime.
By country
Australia
Canada
Canadian Aboriginals are more likely to be charged with crimes, particularly on Indian reserves. The Canadian crime victimization survey does not collect data on the ethnic origin of perpetrators, so comparisons between incidence of victimizations and incidence of charging are impossible. Although aboriginal persons make up 3.6% of Canada's population, they account for 20% of Canada's prison population. This may show how racial profiling increases effectiveness of police, or be a result of racial profiling, as they are watched more intensely than others.
In February 2010, an investigation of the Toronto Star daily newspaper found that black people across Toronto were three times more likely to be stopped and documented by police than white people. To a lesser extent, the same seemed true for people described by police as having "brown" skin (South Asians, Arab Canadians and Latinos). This was the result of an analysis of 1.7 million contact cards filled out by Toronto Police officers in the period 2003–2008.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission states that " have acknowledged that racial profiling does occur and have taken and measures to address the, including upgrading training for officers, identifying officers at risk of engaging in racial profiling, and improving community relations". Ottawa Police addressed this issue and planned on implementing a new policy regarding officer racially profiling persons, "the policy explicitly forbids officers from investigating or detaining anyone based on their race and will force officers to go through training on racial profiling". This policy was implemented after the 2008 incident where an African Canadian woman was by members of the Ottawa police. There is a video showing the strip search where one witnesses the black woman being held to the ground and then having her bra and shirt cut ripped/cut off by a member of the Ottawa Police Force which was released to the viewing of the public in 2010.
China
Germany
The civil rights organisation Büro zur Umsetzung von Gleichbehandlung (Office for the Implementation of Equal Treatment) makes a distinction between criminal profiling, which is legitimate in Germany, and ethnic profiling, which is not.
According to a 2016 report by the Interior ministry in Germany, there had been an increase in hate crimes and violence against migrant groups in Germany. The reports concluded that there were more than 10 attacks per day against migrants in Germany in 2016. This report from Germany garnered the attention of the United Nations, which alleged that people of African descent face widespread discrimination in Germany.
A 2017 statement by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Rights after a visit to Germany states: "While the Basic Law guarantees equality, prohibits racial discrimination, and states that human dignity is inviolable, it is not being enforced." and calls racial profiling by police officials endemic. Recommendations include legal reform, establishing an independent complaint system, training and continuing education for the police, and investigations to promote accountability and remedy.
Ethiopia
Israel
Japan
One former officer from western Japan saw police consistently being ordered by senior officers to target foreigners for questioning, ID checks and searches. This officer claimed that patrol officers were told to target foreigners. People with Korean, black and Southeast Asian roots were among those most frequently targeted. White people were less targeted, often being considered by police to be either "tourists" or having "a Japanese partner." On May 8, 2022, the New York Times reported that racial profiling was "prevalent" in Japan, but not often documented.
Mexico
Sri Lanka
Spain
In 2011, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged the Spanish government to take "effective measures" to ethnic profiling, including the modification of existing laws and regulations which permit its practice. In 2013, the UN Special Rapporteur, Mutuma Ruteere, described the practice of ethnic profiling by Spanish law enforcement officers "a persisting and pervasive problem". In 2014, the Spanish government approved a law which prohibited racial profiling by police forces.
United Kingdom
An increase in knife crime in the capital in recent decades has led to an increase in police stop and search powers. However, there are concerns that these powers lead to discrimination and racial profiling with statistics showing that there were 54 stop and searches for every 1000 black people compared to just 6 for every 1000 white people. Following social dissatisfaction and claims of institutional racism, the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities published The report of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in 2021, finding overall that there was no institutional racism in the UK. The report and its findings were criticised by many including the United Nations working group who argued that the report 'attempts to normalise white supremacy' and could 'fuel racism'.
United States
According to an American College of Physicians study, 92% of Blacks, 78% of Latino Americans, 75% of Native Americans, and 61% of Asian Americans have “reported experiencing racial discrimination in the form of racial slurs, violence, threats, and harassment.”
Racial profiling has roots in slavery and has grown with the rise of urbanization, conflated with gentrification. The US harbors a sense of fear and danger in people of color through the uncontested use of racial profiling in day-to-day interactions - from personal implicit biases, overt and covert racist laws and practices, and discriminatory law enforcement agencies.
Sociologist Robert Staples said that racial profiling in the U.S. is “not merely a collection of individual offenses”, but rather a systemic phenomenon across American society, dating back to the era of slavery.
“At the root of the emergence of the modern Anglo-American police was the problem of changing social relations and conditions arising from industrialization and urbanization,” says sociologist Dr. Tia Dafnos.
This is exemplified in the large wage and generational wealth gaps and workplace and housing discrimination that exist between the White and non-White populations. Racial profiling in policing institutions is not new, either. The modern American police force has taken inspiration and structure from slave patrols and as a result people in minority populations report high rates of unfair treatment by courts, unreasonable arrests and frisking, and hesitancy to call the police in times of need out of fear of discrimination.
The US Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects citizens from unreasonable search and seizure, was extended after a run of controversial court cases in the 1960s in which people of color were facing higher rates of frisking and intimidation. This extension says that police must obey the law while enforcing it. Although the Supreme Court has claimed continued adherence to objectivity in the face of Fourth Amendment cases, American police employ racial profiling with harmful consequences.
Recent incidents of racial profiling, often in mundane situations like traffic stops, have resulted in unnecessary violence and deaths. Data suggest that “African American and American Indian/Alaska Native women and men are killed by the police at higher rates” than their White counterparts, and Latinx men are killed at higher rates than White men. African American men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than White men.
Unlawful and wrongful deaths, in the cases of George Floyd and Sonya Massey, have been attributed to extreme racial profiling and met with social media outburst and growing attention towards the Black Lives Matter and SayHerName movements. The Terry v. Ohio court case of 1968 has also led to countless incidents of racial profiling in the US, as it allows police officers to stop an individual or vehicle without probable cause if they think an individual is committing a crime or about to commit a crime, although they must have a reasonable suspicion based on "specific and articulable facts". The driving while black phenomenon draws from data that supports that people of color disproportionately experience police shootings, traffic stops, searches, and arrests.
See also
- Affirmative action
- Institutional racism
- Contempt of cop
- De-policing
- Driving while black
- Police misconduct
- Police harassment
- Presumption of guilt
- Henry Louis Gates arrest controversy
- Edward C. Lawson
- Social profiling
- Sentencing disparity
Further reading
- Baker, Al. "Judge Declines to Dismiss Case Alleging Racial Profiling by City Police in Street Stops." The New York Times. Nytimes.com, 31 August 2011. Web. 26 April 2012
- Glaser, Jack. 2014. Suspect Race: Causes and Consequences of Racial Profiling (Oxford University Press)
- Hadden, Sally. 2021. “Police and Slave Patrols,” in Jones, Ben, and Eduardo Mendieta, eds. The Ethics of Policing. New York University Press. 205–221.
- Michal Tamir, "Racial Profiling – Who is the Executioner and Does he have a Face?" 15 Texas Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy (2009) 71–9.
- Shantz, Jeff. 2010. Racial Profiling and Borders: International, Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Lake Mary: Vandeplas).
- Weitzer, Ronald; Tuch, Steven. 2006. Race and Policing in America: Conflict and Reform (New York: Cambridge University Press).
- Wotherspoon, Terry, and John Hansen. 2019. Racial Profiling and Reconciliation. Appearance Bias and Crime. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
- Wortley, Scot and Julian Tanner. 2004. "Discrimination or 'good' policing? The racial profiling debate in Canada." Our Diverse Cities. p. 197-201. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
External links
- An Investigation by the Joint Legislative Task Force on Government Oversight into Racial Profiling Practices by the California Highway Patrol as part of a program known as Operation Pipeline
- Bureau of Justice Criminal Offender Statistics and here
- Rational Profiling in America's Airports (Law Review Article)
- CBC backgrounder on racial profiling in Canada.
- "Ethnic Profiling: A Rational and Moral Framework", by Robert A. Levy (Cato Institute, October 2, 2001)
- "Racial Profiling in an Age of Terrorism" , By Peter Siggins (Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, March 12, 2002)
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