...150 April 1, 2015 Male African Americans & Racial Profiling in American INTRODUCTION Considering our time and age racial profiling one of the most untouched subjects in history, especially in the law-enforcement community. Most people get it confused with criminal profiling which is not the same. Racial profiling is any police-initiated action that relies on the race, ethnicity, or national origin rather than the behavior of an individual or information that leads the police to a particular individual who has been identified as being or having been, engaged in criminal activity. Criminal profiling is any police- initiated action that used the compilation of the background, physical, behavioral, and motivational characteristics for a type of perpetrator that lead the police. Now imagine driving to the store on a cold winter day, dressed in a hoodie to keep warm. You simply pull into the parking lot in hopes of getting something nice for your daughter for the holidays. Driving the posted speed limit, you pull slowly into a parking space in the back of the store. All of a sudden, a car pulls up behind you, blocking you in. You look in your rearview mirror only to find the community crime watch officer staring you down. The officer immediately treats you like a suspect, smothering you with questions concerning what you’re doing, where you’re going; yet never really had any reasoning behind the questions. The major reason to oppose racial profiling is that it simply doesn’t...
Words: 2771 - Pages: 12
...Racial Profiling: Black Male Drivers By Baker McNair For Ethical Issues in Criminal Justice Administration Professor Dr. Phillip R. Neely, Jr. Saint Leo University October 15, 2012 Table of Contents Abstract 3 Introduction 4 Literature Review 5 Methodology 6 Data Analysis 7 Conclusion/Recommendation 8 Appendix A 9 Survey 10 References 11 Abstract Racial Profiling Black Males Drivers Over the past several years, the use of race by law enforcement agencies in their policing has received national attention across the United States of America (USA). There is a strong controversy regarding “racial profiling”, centering on police departments’ practices related to traffic stops- examining whether police have targeted drivers on the basis of their race or ethnicity, especially in regards to black male drivers. This poses a potential problem when the very people who take oaths of office to protect and to serve community are seen abusing. Ethically, police officers in the role of crime fighters should focus on all violators of the law regardless of gender, race, creed, or color. They are entrusted to enforce the law, not violate it. Many of law enforcement officers are ethical and professional. However, there are those officers that abuse their power to target individuals of certain ethic groups with unequal enforcement of the law. Enforcing the law based on the color of a person skin is...
Words: 2475 - Pages: 10
...Racial Profiling In America Racial profiling is a poisoning issue that has crippled our society since the early days of America. There have been many cases in America that all tie into to this problem. On February 26, 2012 a young black male by the name of Trayvon Martin was shot down walking home through a predominantly white neighborhood. George Zimmerman, who was a member of the neighborhood watch in his community, spotted Trayvon passing through the neighborhood. Zimmerman was under the impression that Trayvon was possibly involved in suspicious activity simply because of the color of his skin and the time of night he was passing through the neighborhood. After local officials recovered Trayvon’s body he was found to be unarmed with only...
Words: 1177 - Pages: 5
...St. Andrew In my book racial profiling is not tolerated it’s despicable, unpleasant, and inappropriate I am definitely against it. Racial profiling is wrong and is a form of racism, and it also goes against the basic bounds of the Bill of Rights. Racial profiling has been used for decades by law prosecution interventions, dating back to the early sixties during the civil rights movement. One of the most famous accounts of racial profiling was the arrest and custody of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who was arrested for murder. The way Rubin Carter was detained by APV that two African American males in a white car were suspects of the murder; out of all the African Americans in white cars in the city how could the cops possibly determine which car to pull over, in that caser every white car with two African American males should have been pulled over. Even today racial profiling still goes on it’s not as bad as before but it’s still disrespectful to others. People are being mistaken for a criminal because you “fit the profile”? This is a common scenario all across America. All too often minorities are being sent off to jail because they “fit the profile”. Racial profiling is wrong, and it alters lives, destroys families, and halts dreams. Because of racial profiling, many African American and other minorities sit in jails and prisons across this nation, many of whom “let’s face it”, were guilty until proven innocent. The issue of racial profiling takes many shapes and forms...
Words: 766 - Pages: 4
...traffic stops (Whitney 264). Racial profiling has been a very heated issue in the U.S. for many years. It happens when police target a person for something due to their race, national origin, or ethnicity. Race is the main characteristic that authorities look into when engaging in this type of profiling. There are many young talented black males that are being killed, mistreated, and imprisoned just based on their race. Throughout time, the law enforcement has taken advantage of the racial profiling to discriminate, harass, and arrest many people of different races. Racial profiling is the targeting of individuals...
Words: 2317 - Pages: 10
...DeErica Martin “In 2008, more than 2.3 million Americans (0.7 percent of the US population) were incarcerated, in nearly 1,700 state, federal, and private prisons, and more than 5 million Americans were under other forms of custodial supervision, including probation and parole, for a total of 7.2 million Americans-3.2 percent of the US population-under some form of custodial of supervisory control of the criminal justice system (120).” African American men make up a majority of the US prison population. This is bad being that some African American men are look down upon. It was mentioned that all African Americans men that are incarcerated is about 5 percent compared to the 1 percent white men that are incarcerated. This means that African Americans men are 10 times more like to be incarnated then white men. Thesis: The purpose of this essay is to analyze the causes to African American incarceration such as racial profiling, sentencing disparities, and exonerations; having a life is not what they have....
Words: 667 - Pages: 3
...In this world where chaos and animosity and racism run, we as Average Americans have a really big problem with racial profiling in the Criminal Justice system and is it a hindrance or help. A question that we must ask ourselves, should we allow racial profiling during investigations? Like many of you I would say absolutely not, however the thought of racial profiling has been around for centuries and can be traced back to slavery days. Racial profiling was established by stopping any black person and demanding for papers because they weren’t with their white owners. “The United States imprisons a higher percentage of its black population than the apartheid in South Africa”. [1]. The article with further reading goes to state that one point in the life of the Black male one-in-three will serve time in jail at some point in their lives and that between the Blacks and Latino population they have a much higher contact rate with the Criminal Justice system than the average White male. It seems to be that the reason why this is is because of lack of education, low income areas of living. However, we see that there are quite a few that have made it out of this traditional role. There are several famous people that have overcome the harshness of the stigmatize that we as Americans put on people. Pit Bull a.k.a. Armando Christian Pérez who is of Cuban decent and was raised in the slums of Cuba. He worked hard and went for his dream of becoming a famous rapper. There is...
Words: 899 - Pages: 4
...direction depending on the circumstances. Racial Profiling is a very sensitive topic every individual can relate to. It is known as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether an individual is considered likely to commit a particular type of crime or illegal act. For example, the media has “essentialized” the meaning of terrorism destroying the sweet religion of Islam. The word essentializing means to combine complex terms into a single thought or image making it simpler. Due to racial profiling we regard terrorists as any type of brown male. It is the society we live in and hence we have no choice to deal with it. What exactly does the term racial profiling meaning? One could say that it is the consideration of race in criminal investigations. “For example, the popular term “DWB”, means that black people are more scrutinized and thought of when driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs (Geek). It is also a state of imagery that comes to mind when thinking of a crime; one tends to think of African Americans as the cause of most crimes. It is very unfair for them but that is the society we live in. Even though many “Black People” do live in the ghettos, it is unjust to tie them with most crimes such as gang wars, drive by shootings and thefts. The media contributes to 90 percent of these stereotypes (Geek). Like in the inner city African Americans are criticized for their actions, while the Latin Americans are blamed for most drug Page 2 ...
Words: 1057 - Pages: 5
...Introduction With practices aimed at reducing discrimination such as affirmative action, the argument has been made that racial discrimination is no longer a pressing issue in American society.[1] It has further been argued that the Constitution protects all citizens, and race has no weight in the American criminal justice system.[2] While the United States Constitution guarantees equal treatment of all citizens, regardless of race, racism still exists in the American law enforcement and criminal justice systems. In this era with the end of official institutional racism, there has been a corresponding shift from de jure racism to a de facto racism where members of minority groups, especially African Americans, are subject to unequal protection of the laws and excessive in the American criminal justice system, particularly in drug law enforcement.[3] Drug law enforcement is far more discretionary than for other offenses. It is for the police to decide when and where they will seek to make drug arrests, and what priority they will place on enforcing drug laws.[4] Since the war on drugs began in the 1980s, two general trends have been identified. First, there has been a substantial increasing in the number of drug arrests overall; and second, black males have constituted an increasing proportion of these arrests.[5] Based on this evidence, it would be natural to assume that the number of arrests is proportional to the crime rate – that blacks began using drugs in...
Words: 3035 - Pages: 13
...Racial profiling has become a practice used by law enforcement officials where decisions are made on the basis of skin color, ethnicity, or gender. This practice has had profound effects in communities where majority of the population are minorities, specifically African Americans and Hispanics. Not only are communities affected, but so are police officers. Due to the frequent use of this practice, community members are displeased which resulted in negative perceptions of the police. Today, police officers must take careful consideration of their actions because of the recent controversial matters regarding Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others. Many criminal justice experts may argue that the practice of racial profiling is the misuse of...
Words: 784 - Pages: 4
...Department, in 2003 about 10.4% of all African American men between the ages of 25-29 were incarcerated, as compared to 2.4% of Hispanic men and 1.2% on non-Hispanic White men. What is going on here? Why are black men in this age group so much more likely to be in jail than are people of white or Latino descent? Topics discussed in this paper include the most affected ethnical population in regards to criminal behavior and convictions, the difference between convictions and when/how individuals of different ethnic background are sentenced, and what the consequences may entitle based on individuals of alternate ethnical upbringing. African Americans make up 13% of the general U.S. population, yet make up 40% of all incarcerated men. While whites make up 67% of U.S. population, yet they also only make up 40% of incarcerated men. The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world compared to other nations ("Sentencing Project," 2013). There is clearly an abundance of African American men incarcerated in the justice system as compared to men of other ethnicity (Hartney & Vuong, 2009). “If current trends continue, one in every three African American males born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime…….,compared to one in every seventeen white males” ("Sentencing Project," 2013, p. 1) . As stated by Kirby, males of African American descent continue to be arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned at higher rates when compared to males of white descent (2012). These statistics...
Words: 1383 - Pages: 6
...101-01 Research Paper October1, 2013 Racial Profiling and the Effects it has on Blacks in the Criminal Justice System. Some people wonder what is racial profiling. Racial profiling deals with miss-education, slavery, and incarceration. Since the beginning of slavery African Americans have suffered due to their identity. Racial profiling deals with selecting a person for their complaint of a specific racial group. The main reason in advocating racial profiling in the background of criminal study can enlarge the possibility of arresting criminals. Paul Bou-Habib stated, “If the rate at which members of a specific racial group commits a crime is higher than that of other criminals will be caught if the police concentrate their efforts on investigating members of the racial group in question?” (2011, p.34). It is injustice, when police officers, political officials, and judges have learned how to automatically have a racist attitude towards blacks. For example, my friend was in McDonald’s parking lot and he was in the process of switching seats with his friend because he was exhausted of driving. While leaving the parking lot, the officer had pulled them over because he seen a black guy get out of his car and thought something seemed suspicious. The officer implied that my friend did not use his right turning signal. The term “driving while black has been used to describe the practice of law enforcement officials to stop African-American drivers without probable cause” (Weatherspoon...
Words: 1936 - Pages: 8
...Racial Profiling Furnie J. Oden IV Strayer University- Lithonia Campus Some people wonder what is racial profiling. Racial profiling derives from fear of the unknown, miss-education, slavery, and incarceration. Since the beginning of slavery African Americans have dealt with profiling due to their identity. Racial profiling deals with selecting a person within a stereotypical criteria according to their specific racial group. The main reason in advocating racial profiling in the background of criminal study can enlarge the possibility of arresting criminals. Paul Bou-Habib stated, “If the rate at which members of a specific racial group commits a crime is higher than that of other criminals will be caught if the police concentrate their efforts on investigating members of the racial group in question?” (2011, p.34). It is not right when police officers, political officials, and judges make decisions based on predetermined racist and some would say ignorant beliefs. For example, my friend was in McDonald’s parking lot and he was in the process of switching seats with his friend because he was exhausted of driving. . The term “driving while black has been used to describe the practice of law enforcement officials to stop African-American drivers without probable cause” (Weatherspoon, 2004). This is one of the leading minority men are pulled over in their vehicle. Which usually leads to a unwarranted stop...
Words: 2178 - Pages: 9
...RACE AND THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM 2 “According to the U.S. Justice Department, in 2003 about 10.4% of all African American men between the ages of 25 to 29 were incarcerated, as compared to 2.4% of Hispanic men and 1.2% of non-Hispanic White men” (DeVry, 2015). This topic is critical to the study of cultural diversity because of the racial disparity among the young African American males in the criminal justice system and the lasting effects of incarceration. This research paper will unveil the truth about why African men in this age group are much more likely to be sent to prison than are people of White or Latino descent. . African American men are often charged and prosecuted more aggressively than White or Hispanic men. This paper will also reveal the adverse mental and physical health endured by black males during incarceration and upon release. Recent studies indicate that inadequate education and low socioeconomic status has a direct correlation between black males and crime. As the United States becomes an increasingly diverse nation, many studies confirm racial inequalities exist amongst judges, lawyers and legislation. This creates the very serious concern of racial profiling. While racial profiling is illegal, studies prove that black males are more likely to be stopped and searched. New York State is only one of two states that automatically processes, prosecutes and incarcerates 16 and 17 year-olds as adults. Legislation...
Words: 1299 - Pages: 6
...reason it seemed for the stop was because you were black. If this were you, you are Sergeant First Class Rossano V. Gerald, and were just a victim of what is known as “racial profiling.” Some may not be aware of this, but Sergeant First Class Gerald and his son’s Fourth Amendment Rights were violated. In the United States Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment is “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized,” (Gaines,). Racial profiling occurs whenever a law enforcement officer questions, stops, arrests, searches, or otherwise investigates a person because the officer believes that members of that person’s racial or ethnic group are more likely to commit the sort of crime the officer is investigating. Racial profiling often occurred during the late 1960s when police officers would use traffic stops as means for detention of black activists during the civil rights era. However, it has just recently become a “hot” topic in the last ten years. In this paper I will be talking about various court cases involving possible racial profiling, crime...
Words: 1623 - Pages: 7
