Law - Criminal Profiling Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Law - Criminal Profiling - Research Paper Example Indeed, it has been increasingly common in light of the perceived threats to the population by Islamic terrorists. Thus, in airplanes, Islamic-looking individuals are subjected to inspections and interviews of an intensity that white people are not normally subjected to. The increasing numbers of crime, and the associations by people that these crimes emanate from race-based communities such as Hispanic communities, are also responsible for the growing trend towards racial profiling. While racial profiling is never really legislated as a policy in its explicit sense, the ever-widening range of methods that a law enforcement officer are allowed to employ allow the use of racial profiling as a legitimate strategy. We now proceed to discussing the costs against the benefits of racial profiling. Those who support racial profiling believe that a utilitarian approach must be taken. The argument is that because it is true that there are crimes which certain racial groups are more predispose d to committing than other racial groups, â€Å"special efforts at crime reduction directed at members of such groups are justified, if not required.† (Risse and Zeckhauser, 2004). ... In contrast, those who are opposed to racial profiling dispute the position that some races have a greater tendency to commit some crimes than others. Indeed, in a study conducted, the officers’ behaviour of racial profiling is not supported by any showing that the criminal acts in the predominantly white community were committed by African Americans (Meehan and Ponder, 2002). Of course, the deeper objection to racial profiling is that it does â€Å"curtail the enjoyment of fundamental human rights by millions of people who belong to racial and ethnic minorities.† (American Civil Liberties Union and Rights Working Group, 2009). The jurisprudence has also tended to support racial profiling. It has been held, for example, that when testing the constitutionality of a vehicle stop, the motivations of a police officer making the stop (e.g., if the motivations were driven by racial bias) are immaterial, the only question is whether or not the officer had cause to effect the s top. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806 (1996). The impact on this on racial profiling is very much evident – it basically gives police officers unfettered rights to make stops, even if it targets specific racial or ethnic minorities. In the end, instead of educating the police forces to be race-blind, it condones discrimination on the basis of racial and ethnic differences. The role of geography in profiling predatory criminals Geography plays a major role in the profiling of criminals. Some parts of the world have been stereotyped as providing concentrated numbers of individuals engaged in similar crimes. For example, Latin America is known as a drug cartel haven. Many Americans assume that illicit drugs in the United