The Benefits Of Racial Profiling

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The act of profiling is defined as the analysis of a person’s psychological and behavioral characteristics to help make generalizations/ assumptions about a person’s intent and or capability. An assumption is defined as something that has been accepted as being true without substantial evidence. These assumptions, then lead to what is known as racial profiling, which refers to a sort of discriminatory way in which an individual is targeted for suspicion in a crime based solely on that individual’s race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Why make assumptions about a person without having substantial evidence? Why violate and/or humiliate an entire group of people based on an assumption? Having actual and factual data that has been analyzed …show more content…

Racial profiling remains to not be beneficial to the community but also detrimental. In today’s society the act of profiling a race is very prevalent and remains to cause issues in the criminal justice system and therefore the nation. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) defines racial profiling as “a practice that targets people for suspicion of a crime based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin.” Racial profiling has also raised concerns over the protection of a person’s civil rights, which make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of a person’s race, color, religion, and national origin. When the violation of these rights occurs upheaval among the community arises. Law enforcement has gone through many controversial ligations involving racial profiling, such as one of the most notorious incidents of the 21st century, being the shooting of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. This case was …show more content…

The use of racial or ethnic features are sometimes used to help identify and match the descriptions of suspects. Using race when composing a criminal profile helps narrow down possible suspects and prevents false implications of any other individual. For example, if an officer is given a description/characteristics of a possible suspect in an area over the radio, then that officer will most likely begin to search possible suspects of a particular race. Even though law enforcement may be looking for a suspect of a certain race, it does not necessarily mean they are being derogatory even though from the outside looking in it may look that