Profiling is a Necessary Means for Discovering and Apprehending Criminals

Criminal profiling is an investigative tool used by law enforcement agencies to find the probable characteristics of a criminal offender as it pertains to committing a certain crime. This article provides historical and development of criminal profiling, the definitions, how criminal profiling is helpful to law enforcement agencies, the correlation to criminals and the crimes and methods used. The methods that are used to help narrow down the suspects to a certain crime, help with case similarities, develop leads, and help plan investigative strategies. History is a continuous study on past events that helps us understand concepts based on prior knowledge and experience. We must first understand the history of criminal profiling, to know

Just what is racial profiling? Racial profiling is a law enforcement and security agency practice that encourages officers to stop, search, and investigate people based on race, ethnicity, nationality or religion. While racial profiling is most commonly committed against ethnic minorities, many instances of racial profiling occur in reaction to specific crimes, making any racial or cultural group subject to more intensive scrutiny by the authorities. (ebscohost.com) This is what I think bout racial profiling, it like it occurs when the police targets someone for investigation on the basis of that person's race, national origin, or ethnicity. Examples are the use of race to determine which drivers to stop for minor traffic

Racial Profiling is an act of automatically defining or identifying someone based on their ethnicity. This act was most recognized during the late 1800’s in the U.S. under the Jim Crow law. It was passed in order to segregate whites and the colored in America. It fundamentally made whites superior to all. Though, in 1964 the Civil Rights Act passed stating that anybody of any ethnicity or religion are to be equal and united. However, today this law has never been truly accepted when seeing the statistics of the type of people being stopped by the police. In fact, based on the statistics of the people stopped, there is an ethnic disproportion which shows that the police use racial profiling. Even though innocent people are stopped, the

Profiling is something that every person has or will do at some point in their life; some may even profile without even realizing it. There are various forms of profiling which will be discussed, along with the history behind profiling and how it has been used successfully by Law Enforcement in several areas as a field on investigation (Douglass, Ressler &Burgess, 1986). Profiling has various positives along with negatives, and these are accepted by Satzewich and Shaffir (2009) who suggest that racial profiling is best understood in the context of a police subculture where these police officer intergrade profiling as part of their every day work routine. Profiling is a big factor in the daily work of every Law Enforcement Officer and it cannot be avoided (Becker, 2004). For the most part profiling is seen as part of an officers daily investigative tools, from border searches, to pulling vehicles over for traffic citations the officers will use his or her discretion on those who arouse their suspicion (Rose, 2002). Therefore, this paper will analyze the overall effectiveness of profiling and how it either proves to successfully reduce crime or not (Rose, 2002).

September 11, 2001, was a very tragic day for many people living in the United States. Millions of people were affected by the terrorist attacks. Since then airport security has changed as well as police techniques. When police are at work they use many techniques to decrease their suspect pools. Racial profiling is the most common technique used. The dictionary definition for racial profiling is “the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense.” This is the most controversial technique that our government uses today. Minorities are the most affected, being mistaken for a criminal because a person “fits the profile”, a common scenario in the United States. The issue with racial profiling is

Racial profiling has been an on going controversy that has yet to be resolved. There is a complicated history of this occurring. For years up until now things have not changed. Racial profiling is all around us and is “the practice by law enforcement officials of using race, national origin, or ethnicity as the primary or sole consideration when intervening in a law-enforcement capacity” (Racial Profiling, 2012). Young black and African-American men are being targeted everyday around the world. They are being stopped walking up to their homes and even walking in their neighborhoods. Many are being suspected of things they are not doing. Look at the consequences that are being faced with the shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin.

Racial profiling is a form of racism which involves an individual of a certain race or ethnicity is looked at or portrayed as a person more likely to engage in misconduct than any other race or ethnicity. In the United States, people view other other races as a sign of danger just because of their skin color and ethnicity. The truth is, everyone is capable of being any one of those people; it merely depends on the person’s background. Judging people by their race has both negative and positive attributes. Racial profiling has been known to be ineffective, and it degrades and violates people of their civil rights. Although there are negative aspects of racial profiling, it has benefited society and the United States by decreasing crime rates and terrorism. The question to be answered about this subject is: Should racial profiling be used?

“Profiling was originally intended to help catch drug couriers attempting to enter the country” (Schmalleger, 264). The U.S. Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration created indicators that described individuals that were at high risk of law violation. These indicators were a description of a South American male between the age of eighteen and thirty-two, that had planned to stay in the United Sates for a short period of time. This is how agents at airports figured out who they should search twice and keep a close eye on. Federal agents started the subliminal idea of racial profiling. Racial profiling has been a common problem all over the world with the murders of many innocent and unarmed black people. The most recent event being in Salt Lake City, Utah. “An officer shot and killed Patrick Harmon, a 50-year-old black man, as he was being arrested on the evening of August 13” (Andone, 2017). This is one of many incidents that has caused controversy. The idea of racial and gender profiling is any police initiated action that relies on race, ethnicity, or gender rather than the behavior of the individual. It can also be called biased profiling, which can have anything to do with the sexual orientation, national origin, or religion. It uses a person’s race as the main reason for the arrest. “The probability of being black, unarmed, and shot by police is about 3.49 times the probability of being white, unarmed, and shot by police on average” (Vanity Fair). Hearing about the murders of unarmed men over the nation has changed the publics opinion on police. They begin to distrust authority and show them less respect. Many people saw them as individuals who are supposed to protect and serve the country instead now they fear them. Although, it may be illegal and unconstitutional it is still being down. Another type of profiling is psychological profiling. It began during World War II by William Langer. He was asked by government officials to attempt to anticipate what Adolf Hitler would do next. This type of profiling is when law enforcements use mental illnesses and health past to justify the crime committed. Schmalleger says that psychological profiling is, “the attempt to categorize, understand, and

Racial profiling has become a severe obstacle in the U.S. today though most Americans know very little of this vital issue. Every day, people are being pulled over, harassed, and even killed for being of a certain race. There are new laws that politicians are trying to pass that promote racial discrimination. Racial profiling is immoral and does not increase public safety.

There are many people in the United States that are against police profiling. Profiling is defined as “the use of specific characteristics, as race or age, to make generalizations about a person, as whether he or she may be engaged in illegal activity” according to dictionary.com. Police are defined as “an

Racial Profiling is known to be a serious issue of social importance over here in the United States. The U.S. is made up of many different cultures, ethnicities, races and faces. With our diversity, comes stereotypes, which in most cases, is not always the best. Which is sad, knowing that our racial differences is what truly defines America. It is important to take a close look at it because, this comes with serious consequences and amounts of political/social controversy. I believe that racial profiling is an issue that needs more attention than it already has. It is more talked about on the streets rather than the television. Racial Profiling is the use of race or ethnicity for suspecting someone of committing a crime, which is also

Racial profiling has been a longstanding argument in law enforcement practices for a number of years in American society. Often it divides and alienates communities from law enforcements while hindering police efforts to control crimes and protect civilians. Many civil right groups argue that racial profiling is ineffective and violates human rights. However after September 11th, it appears that the practice has become much more prominent especially in public transportation like airports and train stations throughout the United States. Many Americans were against racial profiling before September 11, but after the attack nearly sixty percent believed that using profiling that focused on Arabs and Muslims in airports was expectable (Harris, 2011, p. 215). There have been occasions when individuals were targets of racial profiling in which they did not provoke the suspicion to be searched and were judged exclusively on their race, religion, ethnicity, or color of their skin. Fauchon (2004) claims that after closely examining the history, Constitution, case law, policies, and current events in the United States, racial profiling in any type of environment is unproductive and immoral to ensure the safety of Americans (p. 157). However, there are some critics who claims that racial profiling has in fact assisted to the safety of national security and citizens. Therefore under certain circumstances can racial profiling

With technology advancements, airport security methods have advanced as well, making prior detection of emerging eminent threats possible. After the events of September 11, 2001 occurred, “passenger profiling is one solution that is being adopted in terminals around the world” (Persico & Todd, 2005, p. 129). Airport security officers ought to ensure that they follow specific protocols in randomly selecting someone to subject to searches the airport. However, the disadvantages of passenger profiling, including concerns about stereotyping, are preventing the process from gaining widespread use, which is one of the reasons airport security is a societal problem. Travelers have expressed their concerns about unequal profiling and discriminatorily

Throughout the years in the United States, it seems as if profiling has always been a part of the culture. Whether it be from Jim Crow laws or even the new ban from Donald Trump, America has always used profiling as a way to protect itself from things that seem dangerous at the time. These acts may seem useful, however, profiling is harmful and can cause major problems. Profiling is never justified in any circumstance due to the violence it causes, due to the false ideas it gives people about an entire group of people, and it causes people to live a life of persecution.

Racial profiling is using one race as a profile to justify that they are engaging in criminal behaviors. Regardless how people view this topic it occurs in our everyday lives. Racial profiling should be corrected in today's society because it is occurring,so frequently that we don’t notice that much.