NCJ Number
178874
Journal
Boston College Law Review Volume: 40 Issue: 3 Dated: May 1999 Pages: 717-731
Date Published
1999
Length
15 pages
Annotation
Police use of racial profiling, as exemplified by the term "Driving While Black" (DWB) as an indicator of criminality among motorists, is examined with respect to its impact on criminal justice processing in particular and on social policy in general.
Abstract
Case examples exemplify how police officers have equated being black with criminality in their interactions with black college professors and others who were lawfully driving, idling, standing on a public street, and shopping. Well-publicized cases and the United States Supreme Court decision in Whren v. United States led Congressman John Conyers to introduce the Traffic Stops Statistics Act in 1997 and 1999. This legislation would require recordkeeping for each traffic stop; the race and age of the person stopped, whether a search was conducted, the results of the search, whether a citation or ticket was issued, and the legal basis for the stop would be recorded. Police objected to the legislation; in addition, its wording was problematic and its approach too narrow. However, failing to address DWB and related phenomena has grave consequences for society. The association of race with crime and deviance increases the probability that black persons will be targeted for arrest, thereby increasing their probability of being convicted and incarcerated. The result is increased disenfranchisement and social marginality with reduced employment possibilities among other factors, thereby fueling a cycle of recidivism. Racial profiling also affects black persons as a group, changes their response to the criminal justice system, taints the images other racial groups have of black people, and help regenerate the negative cycle. Footnotes