Racial Profiling: The Controversy

• NCJ Number: 207427
• Journal: Illinois Law Enforcement Executive Forum Dated: July 2001 Pages: 41-45
• Author(s): Daniel T. Gilbert Esq.
• Editor(s): Thomas J. Jurkanin Ph.D.
• Date Published: July 2001
• Length: 5 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Special edition on racial profiling; for additional articles see NCJ-207424-426 and NCJ-207428-434.

Annotation

This article briefly discusses the controversy that exists between the public's perception and law enforcement's perception of racial profiling and criminal profiling.

Abstract

Racial profiling is an alleged practice, whereby police target a specific group for enforcement based solely on ethnicity and without consideration of other factors or patterns of behavior. Police across the Nation agree that targeting enforcement based entirely on race in wrong and should not be tolerated. Yet, both the courts and law enforcement agencies have long accepted the legitimate practice of criminal profiling which is a method of identifying certain traits or characteristics, including race, of certain types of criminals. The issue however, becomes blurred to the general public in their perception of racial profiling and criminal profiling, since both rely to varying degrees on how a suspect looks. This article briefly examines the differences between criminal profiling and racial profiling, and possible solutions in the prevention of racial profiling.