Combating Racial Profiling

Combating Racial Profiling








Combating Racial Profiling
Latisha Bogan
GEN499: General Education Capstone
Instructor Elliott Bowen
November 15, 2015





Introduction
Racial profiling is the use of race for criminal suspicion. This technique has been used to justify what races commit certain crimes. There are typically two sides to the problem of racial profiling. One side is that using race to determine certain crimes is justified and the other side is that pinpointing a specific race for a specific crime is wrong. How can we go about combating racial profiling? Presidential initiatives should be taken, everyone should be educated on the issue, and congressional legislations should be passed. Racial profiling is wrong and should not be accepted in any kind of practice.
Background
Racial profiling refers to a situation whereby the race, ethnic background or nationality of an individual is used as a major factor of determining whether to subject him or her to law enforcement procedures. When racial profiling is enacted into law, it implies that law enforcement officers can interrogate an individual for the simple reason that he or she is Black, Hispanic, White, or Asian. On the other hand, the enactment of racial profiling seemingly exempts members of specific racial identities or ethnic backgrounds from random law enforcement procedures such as being stopped in traffic.
Problems with Racial Profiling
One of the main problems with racial profiling is that it is illegal. It goes against our Constitutional rights. Racial profiling goes against the Fourth Amendment which prohibits unreasonable search and seizures and also the equal protection agreement in the Fourteenth Amendment (Feder, 2012). Another problem with racial profiling is that it is very ineffective. In order for racial profiling to be effective, law enforcement must know what potential suspects look like and they must know the specific ethnicity to identify to the suspect. Criminals cannot be put into...

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